July 19, 2019

DIY Raised Garden Beds and Trellis

I have been wanting to switch to raised garden beds for years, but put it off because I thought it would be quite expensive $$. While looking through Pinterest, I saw someone pin an affordable way to make them. They looked easy enough to make, and I really liked the wood they used. I don’t use pressure treated on anything that comes in contact with my skin or food. I measured out my garden area, and since it is fenced in, I am restricted on sizes, but these would work perfectly. Now to find the best prices……

Rocky Hedge Farms, the blog where I found the raised bed plans from, used cedar picket fence boards, brilliant right !! They happened to be on sale at my Home Depot for $1.67 each, they used 2x2x8 furring strip and I already had enough wood screws from previous projects.

24 Cedar Picket Boards @ 1.67= $40.08
6 2x2x8Furring Strips @ 1.77= $10.62

Total Cost of 4 raised beds (not including soil) $50.70

I am attempting to grow loofah plants this year, I know, crazy, but a friend sent me seeds from her plants in Alabama, and I was up for the challenge. Loofah grow like squash and their vine can be up to 30′ long, so I needed something that could hold strong plants and was big !! Of course Pinterest had the perfect solution. The blog Weed ‘Em and Reap, they used cattle farm panels, and my local Tractor Supply store happened to have them in stock. I had no clue what a cattle farm panel was, I was thinking it could be rolled up, fit in the back of the Jeep or truck? Nope, lol, the panels do not roll and I needed to use a trailer to get it home. They probably would have fit in the truck if the cap wasn’t on, but the trailer was a lot easier. Their blog said to use U-nails, but they seemed to pop out on me, so I used mending plates I had to make it secure. Warning, this is a two person job, both the transporting the panel and attaching it to the raised beds.

Now the soil, the most expensive part. I don’t use chemicals of any kind in any of my gardens. Most raised bed potting soils have chemicals, unless you go organic and that would be too expensive for me, so back to Pinterest I went. Refresh Living has a wonderful post about making your own soil, using three simple ingredients.

peat moss (or coconut coir)
compost (or garden soil supplemented with compost)
vermiculite

I found everything at my local Tractor Supply, and can also be found at Lowe’s and Home Depot, and cost $83.68 at Tractor Supply. Total for all 4 raised beds $134.38, making it $33.60 a bed, and the cattle farm panel was an additional $22.97.

I loved this project, and the raised beds are easier to weed and water and I don’t have to bend over as much. I made the beds in early May and planted on Memorial Day weekend. I started all of my seeds on May 1, so they were well established.

There are links to all of the blogs I used, giving detailed instructions on how to build the beds, attach the panels, and making the soil. Did you make your raised beds and soil? I would love to see your pictures 🙂