Which is cheaper, from catalogs or building myself? What sort of lumber? Need sturdy and long lasting, but economical too. Lumber available locally, however there is extra charge for cutting to size. Labor is free (building myself). Would be for melons and squash; maybe tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. What should length, width, and depth of beds be? Holes in bottom for irrigation or not?
I've had a new idea for raised beds based on something I saw recently on the web. We have easy and free access to many wooden palettes. I am going to cut those in half, leaving two double framed pieces 48 inches wide and twenty inches high. I will use four pieces like this to form a four foot square. I will staple landscaping cloth on the inner wood to hold in the dirt,and then sink about ten inches into the ground, leaving ten inches above ground for the raised bed. After I fill the inside four foot square area with garden soil, I will fill the space between with earth and plant small herbs and flowers in those. I hope to plant things in the edges to repel the many critters who do damage to my gardens. I hope my description makes sense. I will post another link after this that shows where I got the kick off for the idea.
Here are some links with pics of what I was trying to describe. http://lifeonthebalcony.com/how-to-turn ... -a-garden/ http://www.google.com/search?q=raised+b ... 24&bih=670
I don't know about the dimensions, etc... but the most economical way is to do it yourself. Plus you know it will be built the way you want and not some prefab kit. Kathy... your idea sounds very interesting. There was someone here last year that did a lot raised beds... perhaps it was Whistler? I remember the post was full of info. So try a search here, too. Maybe the answers have already been given. Good luck. Welcome. And keep us updated!
Near the top of the page on the line just under the GardenStew Forums there is a search block. Put in raised beds and it will give you a list of about 10 pages of past posts on GardenStew concerning them. I think there are several that answer each of your questions. You can also ask questions on those old posts if there is something there that you need cleared up. Cheryl, you were correct. It was Whistler who posted loads of photos of her raised beds being built. http://www.gardenstew.com/about22028.html
At the bottom of this thread is a list of 4 postings on related topics. Look at the one that says "sixteen raised veggie beds". If I were going to do raised beds,,Would do it similar to these.
raised beds If you have a sawmill that cuts hardwood in your area, as we do here then a fairly good way to make raised bed with sides in the range of 6 to 10 inches high is to get rough-cut lumber or even slabs and use the better parts. you can make them 3-4 ft wide to make it easy to weed and harvest, and they can be as long as needed. Replace in a few years, but no worries about chemicals in the dirt. A few years ago I made a bunch of stand-up beds, guess you'd call them planters. Each was 18 inches wide, 4 ft long and had 10 inches of dirt made with garden dirt, soil conditioner and potting mix. I grew a variety of things in them but half of it was hot peppers. I think I had 15 of them, it's been a while and I sold them with the place the next year, only used them once but too heavy to move. The reason for the dimensions was ALL the materials were from an old house trailer left on the place when I got there. Wood frames, like a table frame belly-button high. Made from the wall studs. Aluminum pan inserted into that, made from the siding. Poke a few holes for drainage and plant :-D
Raised beds are simple enough to make, just think why your using them. is it to raise them up so the soil warms quicker and gives good drainage (reason for mine) or is it for better access so you don't have to bend over so much. this kind of determines the height. some tips for dimensions, make sure you have enough space between the beds for you to kneel down comfortably and to use the mower if its grass. as for width of bed, kneel next to the bed and reach in, the middle should be as far as you can reach. Typically 2 ft. making the bed 4 ft wide if you can walk around it. Make them as long as possible.
