Raised Bed

[mikemansker]

I am the king of "that won't work" projects, so when I decided to build my first raised bed, I wanted to do it as cheaply as possible just in case I had to scrap the whole thing. The left photo is my first bed. I have 4 now. The original one is going into its 4th growing season. The beds are 3' x 6' because they are made from cedar fence pickets that are 5.5" x 6'. There is a 2x6 brace in the middle of each bed, and, as you can see from the photo on the right, there isn't any bowing taking place even though I expected the whole thing would bow. Full, they hold 11" of soil. I use a soil that has a lot of compost in it, so it's light and fill them to the top each spring.

The pickets are about $2.80 each times 6
The corner brackets are from Amazon and are 19.99 per set.
I had a 2x6.

The pavers are decorative and keep me from having to weed eat next to the bed, but they probably help support the bottom of the bed.. I can run over them with my rider. They probably cost more than the beds.