Monday, January 17, 2011

8 Cheap and Easy Raised Beds for under $100

I really don't like spending a lot of money on things that seem so easy to make. I am a retard when it comes to building stuff, so when I engage in a project, the scales need to tip my way for success. And I came up with a pretty nifty outfit that cost me under $100 to make eight 3' x 6' raised beds. If you do a search online you will quickly see that most raised beds will cost you $50 to $100 for ONE raised bed. Who has that kind of money? So with a little time and ambition I figured this all out and will like to share it with anyone thinking of giving it go this year.
Materials to make 8 raised beds 3'x 6' each:
(48) six foot privacy fence planks
(32) one foot 2"x2"x 12"
Box of Wood screws
Drill
Skill Saw
For the first two years I only used half this order and it worked great, but looking back at it, doubling up on the height of the planks makes a lot of sense from the beginning. The privacy foot planks cost me $1.59 at Lowe's for one piece. I purchased deck material at .99 cent a piece and cut them down to 32 one foot pieces.

3 x planks are needed to make one raised box and 4 x one foot 2"x 2" pieces to support the raised beds structural integrity. Take one of the 3 planks and saw it in half to a three foot section. Take the 2 six foot pieces and attach them to the two three foot sections forming a rectangular box to make one raised bed. Take two raised beds and place them on top of each other or build the second raised bed on top of the first one.

Raised beds are a great way to grow veggies in small places and especially if your soil is not of the best quality. The Raised beds give you the ability to manage your dirt appropriately and build it This particular design can also be used to compost organic matter and direct grow right in the box.

2 comments:

Sue said...

That's a great price for all those beds.
Hubby made mine 4x8 foot, which at the time seemed like a good idea, but it's not. I have a terrible problem with chipmunks eating my garden, and freebie windows/screen doors can commonly be found to cover a THREE foot width bed....not so with a four foot width. Sigh. Live and learn. But I will say that raised beds are just the greatest things!!

ATW said...

Sue- Good Idea with the window screens, because you can still get sun through and water and keep the squirrels out. Im having big issues with squirrels eating my green leafed veggies. I bought a airsoft pellet gun, but im never home when they start to feed. Ugh!!