Anyone have a raised bed garden? If so, what did

[crispnclean]

I bought a kit a few years ago. I think this is the brand I have: www.amazon.com/Greenland-Gardener-Raised-Garden-105318/dp/B0036WWBLK

It took a lot of soil to fill up the raised beds, so it can be a bit pricey to start, but overall, I've been pleased with them. I'm not a master gardener, so I don't really have a lot to add about pros and cons. I just planted some tomatoes, swiss chard, lettuce and green onions, and it worked for me. I liked the idea of a raised bed because I didn't have to till the ground and it would keep the plants contained.

[magdala]

My old house had a stone wall around a dying tree. I don't know why the former owners did this. I had to get the tree removed due to safety. It would have crushed the house. So then I had a stone wall around nothing. I converted this to a raised bed for asparagus. I only got one crop of asparagus before I fell in love with DH, married him and relocated to his house.

[adhdfashion]

I built simple beds that look crispncleans. There are some tutorials on youtube on how to build and set them up. I wouldn't say there is a down side to raised beds. I love them.

[stephm0188]

We built two that look like crispnclean's. It cost around $20 for the lumber, and took less than an hour to assemble. The soil was the most costly part, but I did organic and a compost mix.

Ours are against the garden shed. I may do two more beds with a walkway inbetween, and then fence the whole thing in with a picket fence to keep the deer out. The fence would provide shade for the lettuce and spinach.

I did tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spinach, and strawberries last year. The tomatoes and peppers were okay, but it was way too hot and drought-y for the lettuce and spinach. Hoping for more strawberries this year.

[mrs.jacinthe]

We did cedar 2x6s at the OH house for the outside of the beds. Pocket holed them together, filled them with compost. It was a pretty darn easy project.

[pugz]

we built two 4x4 beds with cedar, it has aged well over the last few years. We no longer have a grid in our gardens, we just eyeball the "squares" when we plant. We have a bunny problem so we have chicken wire around each bed, it's 2 foot high so we can still reach to the middle.

[heygrey]

Attachment Deleted

we built this garden with friends... and won a few competitions :-)

cedar 2x8s for the boxes.
layers of pea gravel, sand, and compost mixed with soil. 
wish we would have put a layer of chicken wire at the bottom of each bed because the damn marmots tunneled under our beds in certain spots and ate our plants, roots first! 
added bonus - there is an irrigation system rigged up here... NO WATERING! 

i will say, it's an expensive project. we just kind of dreamed this up over the winter during book club (us and two other couples) but the friend who really envisioned and executed is a professional contractor. the cedar was leftover from another project and he basically bought everything else at contractor price so it was $1000 vs. $5000. contractor friend and wife own this property and they footed the bill for all the materials, we just donated labour and then split the cost of plants/seeds 3 ways each year. 

[InBetweenDays]

I too built them with cedar 2x6s. I used cedar 4x4 on the inside of each corner, and just screwed the 2x6 into the 4x4s. I also attached 6" pieces of 1.5" pvc along each side using hose clamps. If needed I can then use a long piece of 1" pvc to create and arch over the bed if I want to cover it by just slipping the 1" pvc into the 1.5" pvc.

[pugz]

the first year was most expensive as we had to buy like 5 varieties of compost (which was really hard to do, so many places carry the same kinds!), vermiculite, and peat moss to make the soil (Mel's Mix if you read the SFG book). Then all the supplies for building the bed and the fencing.

however now, 4 years later, it's easy to maintain. We just add in some compost (free from the city) and then start planting.

[statlerwaldorf]

One of the community gardens put in raised beds last spring. I think the reason they put in raised garden beds had to do with the quality of the soil.

[auntie]

One of our local Eagle Scouts did a set of raised beds for the local elementary school's organic garden. His are cedar; he even built a bed that can be worked from a seat or wheelchair which is nice.

[pamela]

We built ours out of a cedar kit. I would have much preferred to have done in ground due to cost, but we started tilling the only decent area in the yard to find the previous owners had filled the area with shells to make a parking pad for their boat. Lovely waste of good soil. And waste of a tiller that we had from our last house with a large in ground garden.

The raised beds are easier to maintain though and look nicer in the (short) off season, I have to give it that.

[lb2006]

my H built ours out of cedar - we have two beds, 4'x8' and they are fabulous. We put our own compost in the garden & enjoyed the veggies!

[treedimensional]

I used interlocking cement blocks in the front of the beds (that face into the yard), and the back of the raised bed is my wooden panel fence with a rubber membrane between the soil and the wood, to prevent rot.