Wow...those are really nice! My hubby just built mine out of some leftover treated lumber that we had from when we built a small deck last year. The wood was somewhat warped and they are probably not perfectly square, so they are not as pretty as yours, but hopefully, my tomatoes won't mind... :)

I just built a new 13'x6' bed on the southwestern side of my house using 6"x6" pressure treated lumber. YES, I did use black tarp on the inside of the lumber to prevent copper/arsenic/etc. leeching, if that's even a problem anymore. =)

Here is an album showing the process I used: Raise garden bed

I spent around $200. I used:

- 8 pieces of 6"x6", 8' long pressure treated lumber
- 20 pieces 36", 3/4"-diameter iron stakes (Home Depot)
- 4 bags of multi-purpose gravel
- 4mil thick black tarp (EAV Hardware has it)

Only tools required were:

- 3/4" auger drill bit (16"-18" long)
- Drill
- Sledgehammer
- Level
- Staple gun
- Flat-head shovel

The process is pretty well outlined in that album. I still need to re-route my downspout off to the side, but I haven't found a local store that sells the actual long pieces EAV Hardware has the corners, but not the long pieces. I don't like to shop @ Lowes and HD.

Anyway...I'd never built a raised bed before this. I wanted to make one that would last. I plan to stain it to match the ledgestone/flagstone stacked beds I've already got.

I picked up an Urban Compost Tumbler unit online to replace my compost bin and tucked it out of the way. So, I'm set to grow! =)

satellite -- Hey...let us know how you like the compost tumbler. I have just never been ready to spend the money (all of the ones I have seen look pretty expensive...well, for me, at least), but I have to admit...turning the compost with a pitchfork is getting less and less fun and that's only after one year of composting.

well, i added moonure to my raised bed yesterday, and now it's snowing. 1.5" on the ground right now, and it's not letting up. gotta love it. and my nanking cherries just started blooming two days ago, AARRRGGHHHH! so much for fruit this year....

@mk - i bought the UTC-9 tumbler. it was pricey, at around $250 shipped, but I'll be damned if it wasn't the most stable, beefy, sturdy one i could find and it was made out of recycled materials. assembly was fairly easy, but putting the two barrel halves together took some brute force. i added the top 1/4 of my compost pile (loose stuff) to it, and it filled it about 70% of the barrel. i added some veggie and fruit ends and some clippings, but no fertilizer to kick it in (apparently if done right you can make a full batch of compost in ~21 days!). been in for several days; we will see how it turns out! it's very easy to tumble. good design.

sorry for hijacking the thread!

satellitehead -- I think this is good related info. :) I think I am going to give the good ol' Biostack plastic compost bins ONE more year. And, then, if my back and shoulders agree...then I'm going for a tumbler like what you have. Preferably one that can be rolled around, so that I can roll it right up next to my raised beds! :)

And, getting back to the raised beds...I had planned to start breaking up the soil this past weekend...uh...guess not, huh? LOL

man, i got stuck with runny poo for beds. one of the other guys on the photo blogging site i'm part of got hit with the same thing two days prior when we got all that rain. amazing.

re: compost bins that roll...you could probably modify the UTC to roll...but it would take some mild tinkering skills to make it work. It's rigid enough, but trying to find something that would make a good axle (no flex) would be tough. Northern Tool and/or Harbor Freight are both nearby stores that are great for strumming up ideas! We have some around Atlanta, OTP/ITP. I thought about making mine a roller....but it's tall enough off the ground that i can pull a wheelbarrow up to it, dump and scoop out a load, then roll it to the right spot.

i also made sure i made my beds 16-20" high off the ground so I could easily stand inside the bed (if my back is good) and scoop at 'ground' level, or stand outside the bed (if my back is bad) and scoop closer to thigh-level (less bending). anyone reading this with ideas of doing a raised bed and using a compost bin or wheelbarrow may want to think about these things as well.

granted - my raised bed is seriously overkill, it's a Sherman Tank, whereas a Mini Cooper would have easily done the job. i'm a cheapskate like that - i like to make things that last at least a half a decade so i'm building new ones until half a decade later ;)

you should see the condition of the old bin I had (in the first of the series of pictures i linked)! all of the bottom of those crates was rotted out!

... so i crumbled them up and added it to my compost ;)

That is a good point about the taller raised beds. Ours are...whatever an 8-inch board is nowadays... 7 1/2 or something like that? Literally, they were leftover from building a set of steps. They probably look wonky as all get-out, but I think they'll be OK...for a year at least. I thought maybe we wouldn't make something really nice this first time, in case I didn't like it as much as I think I will. I have never used raised beds before...always just row-cropped (LOL on a small, just-a-few-tomato-plants-and-maybe-a-pepper scale).

But, what you say makes sense...although it will be easier to turn over a wheelbarrow into a lower height bed, I'll probably be doing more shoveling than anything and THAT would be easier if the beds were taller.

Dang it... LOL Oh well, let's see how great THIS year goes...and then maybe next year we can make something better. (And, then, after all...Hubby was out there with the tools and the leftover wood and he did ASK what I wanted and I did say, "Whatever you've got supplies for and looks good to you, honey!" :)

Cece,

The blog was great! I wish my house was that beautiful! Anyway, her instructions looked great! You may also want to look at the link below, How to Build the Ultimate Raised Bed, which is what I used when I built my raised beds. FYI - I ended up putting weed cloth & hardwire underneath my raised beds, in order to keep away the weeds & the pests who might want to eat my plants!

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Build the Ultimate Raised Bed

Thank you all for responding. Mad gardener-that is a wonderful site too, and his beds are even "sturdier" than hers. I am worried about the wood, and saw a raised bed today at Wal Mart made with pre-fab stone. DH nearly fainted at the thought of how much it would cost, BUT, it would never rot !!
Cece---------the un-sure gardener !

Cece,

I used cedar from 84 Lumber for my raised beds. We built them last year, and we spent about $500 on the lumber for two 4' W x '6 L x 12" H and four 4' W x 4' L x 12" H beds. Once we assembled the beds we treated them with a clear sealant on the exteriors only (since we didn't want the chemicals leaching into the beds themselves, we didn't treat the insides). On the bottoms of the beds, we laid down weed cloth on top of 1/4" hard wire, to keep out the moles/voles and weeds.

Hello, I am in Georgia of course, Atlanta to be exact. I am getting ready to build a raised flower bed, 12 inches or higher. I have red clay in my yard. I am concerned about drainage inside the raised bed. I dont want standing water inside the bed. Any suggestions for a drainage system? Should I even worry about it, or will the clay be able to handle water absorption with our limited rainfall in Georgia at this time? I dont know what to do about drainage!

I don't know the answer to your question, so I will respond in the effort to bump the post up. Maybe someone knows. Happy Days !!