this Stone raised bed is a nice addition to my garden and I was able to construct it in very little time by just stacking these flagstones join me today as I show you how to make a stone raised [Music] bed hi I'm Gardener Scott and I think this bed looks great I really like the way that it sits against this pollinator Garden I'll be putting some bushes in more flowers it's really going to become a nice focal point for this area of the garden one of the nice things about a stone raised bed like this is not only is it relatively easy to make you don't need any construction skills just the ability to pick up a few stones but it's relatively permanent as well all of my wooden raised beds that I have in my vegetable garden will eventually break down and those boards will need to be replaced that's not the case with a stone raised bed these stones are going to be here for as long as I allow them to remain which can my current plan is for as long as I have this Garden another advantage to a stone raised bed like this be it flag stones that are stacked or any other type of stones that are stacked is that it's complet completely variable you can make it any shape any size any height you're not limited by Straight boards that need to be constructed at a right angle you can get curves and flowing lines with a bed like this let me show you all the steps that I took to actually get to this point when first planning a free flow bed design I begin by laying out a hose in the general shape that I think the bed should be in this area I'm considering two beds so that I create a walking space between them as kind of an entrance to this open pollinator garden and so on both sides of the opening I've laid out hose to get a general idea of what it could look like for more Precision I cut a template a big sheet of cardboard cut into the basic shape and I can still refine this and cut it into a more permanent template the nice thing about this is I can step back and get a pretty good idea of the bed size in relation to everything behind it and once I finalized this template all I have to do is just flip it over and use the same template for the bed on the other side so both beds will be the same using that cardboard template as a guide I laid out a thick layer of sand this will be the foundation that the stones rest on and to make things a little bit easier I went ahead and put a number of stones in position this will make building the low walls much easier and not all of the stones are the right size so I have a geology Hammer some chisels hand Sledge and I'll use these to shape the stones as I put them in position you can purchase flagstone in a number of different ways I'm doing this project in conjunction with another patio project so I bought these big slabs and then I'm breaking the slabs into smaller pieces to fit the construction of these raised beds I can take these broken pieces and using the Chisel make them into any shape I want you may be able to buy flagstone already cut into smaller pieces like this the actual construction of the bed walls is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle you have to take different shapes and different sizes and figure out how you're going to put them together you can decide if you want to go through and find the stone that fits perfectly or if you want to use some tools to go ahead and shape the stones either way they should be fitted together relatively closely especially on that first layer the base layer is the most important it should be level in all directions and the stones are going to be wider at this base to give better support the walls as they get taller will be thinner so starting with a good strong Foundation allows you to build pretty high without any mortar as long as it's all flat and level before adding the second layer you can get a little more stability by adding some sand to fill in the gaps between the stones that you just laid down and also fill in any low spots that might be on the flagstone this section is now ready for stone when you have a section like this with a lot of smaller Stones you can put a single Big Stone over some of the small ones and this is definitely going to add stability as it ties in all of these joints as you lay the stones make sure that each layer covers up the joint below it you want to have staggered joints between each layer you don't want to have vertical lines between each of the levels you don't need to wait until the walls are completely built to start filling the bed in fact I think it's a good idea to actually fill as you build I start with a layer of some wood pine needles and then just throw some of my native soil on top of that as you add the soil it's going to support all of these internal edges so as you build the bed higher you're building on an even more stable Foundation because you have this soil in the base as I add soil to the bed I go ahead and water the soil real well to help it settle into the joints I'm not as concerned about how close together the stones are how tight the joints are on the lower levels but as I get to the top I want to have some tighter joints that will help with the stability making sure all these stones are locked together and I also think it looks better I constructed this bed with just the stones stacked on top of each other the weight of the stones and the soil that's inside the bed will help hold everything together if you're making a much taller bed or you want a bed that is definitely sturdy and won't have any chance of Shifting consider using mortar between the joints and to lock all of the stones together I can still come up a few levels without any concern whatsoever I like this height right now but I may go ahead and add a few over time if I realize that I do need more height the plants I'm growing in here are not going to need that extra amount of soil but I may determine over time that that height will give a better look and that's another advantage to this type of bed is the variability I can always add more stones and always make it higher I'm already looking to the other side I've already started laying the sand for the foundation of the second bed and have set up some of the flagstone so it'll be easy to put into place so I'll have two raised beds one on each side as I said in the beginning this will be the primary entrance point to this area of my garden that'll have more trees and more bushes and more shrubs and more flowers and it all begins with this anchor the beds that are going to be here with a wonderful look to my garden if you want to see some of the other beds that I've built take a look at some of these videos I'm Gardener Scott enjoy gardening [Music]