That's great, I swear I've got you beat in the planning, research, design and labor building it. Oh and I calculated my garden to cost close to 1,200. Silly me. But it's a fun hobby!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure... check it out!

Man,and I thought mine was expensive.My wife looked at me funny,when I told her I was gonna spend $500 on a new type of garden.I have to admit,the research and planning was the best part so far-it occupied my time through those cold winter months when all you wanna do is stay inside and keep warm.Oh,and I checked out your stuff....I'm probably gonna build a potato bin this fall-like the one that you have constructed.Thanks for putting the info on the net.My garden design is gonna serve several purposes.....The secret is in the posts for the trellises.They will allow me to have something to screw my 1x8's to for the "box",give me good strength to attach wire mesh for the 4 trellises, and also allow me to use the left over wire mesh for wrapping around the outside to keep deer and rabbits out.There was a deer standing beside my mailbox this evening.It's almost an everyday occurence.The orchard is in the same area,and i'm gonna have my hands full with them.

Wow... I don't feel like such a dope for spending $400 on my materials and Mel's Mix now!

huh!!! LOL and my hubs gets upset cuz i wanna spnd like 8 something on a 16 x 6 board, or maybe x4. i want mine to be the 16 x 4.

It comes down to what Gumby call COG - the Cost of Gardening. How much are your tomatoes worth?

Here is what mine looks like...we didn't spend but $50 on the lumber and the rest is found items..a piece of fence for my trellis,,we also got lucky and found a load of ten year old manure for $50..so we are gardening on the cheap..I mulch everything with hay that is given to me by a farmer friend. It is I use it in the pathways too. So, I guess what I have is a raised bed, Sg ft..Ruth Stout sort of garden, but it is working...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evesart/

Well,lol-the $500 that I'm spending on the garden is nothing compared to the $2500 I spent on the materials for building the deck that she wanted around the house.I built it first,then my measly $500 sfg didn't look so expensive :)

Something is wrong with this picture..At my house, my DH got the expensive Bar-b-q pit in exchange for me having my garden..I must be doing this wrong. LOL

nice garden photos, eve! I can't wait to get mine finished.As far as the $500 vs. $2500, I always tell my DW that I make sacrifices-so she can have the things that she wants. :) But really....the garden is much more valuable to me than any amount of money.It's like a personal serenity device.I also have pears,apples,plums,muscadine grapes, and bluberries that I check daily.My only problem is that I have nobody that will help me.The deck is about 450 sq. ft.,and took me about 2 months worth of weekends and evenings after work to complete.I'm really pressed for time on the garden.I'd like to plant before mid May,but all of these tornadoes and rainy days are hampering things.

I'm budgeting $2,500 for a new deck myself. Of course that's with free labor. No way you could build my deck for that much if someone else did it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!

Well,it was a nice day for working outside,so I spent the day finishing the trellises and installing the weed resistant fabric.Tomorrow I will fill it with mel's mix,and hopefully post a photo of the thing.People were driving by really slow,while I was out there working on it.:) Heeheeehee....They probably think I got a meth lab in back or something.Anyway,hopefully tomorrow it will be finished.I plant on transplanting next weekend.WooHoo!

Just a question why you would put down weed block in the bottom of your beds...Why not newspaper it took care of my bermuda grass, and I still have a bermuda yard.
[IMG]http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u155/twobars/006.jpg[/IMG]

In the past several years,i've had plain raised beds in this same location - and the type of weed that is present invaded them with a vengeance.I literally could not maintain them.Newspapers will decay after a few years,the professional grade landscaping fabric will last much longer.I've never heard of a professional landscaping company using newspapers to line a flower bed for a business like an office building or something.I would believe that if a company existed that used it,they would not be in business for very long.This is my honest opinion,and I would rather get the most life out of the raised bed before having to re-do the whole thing.Newspapers may be adequate for some people and locations,but not for mine.

Wow serenity, what is that growin on the trellises?It's huge!

on the newspaper note, ive heard of people using it to kill off the present grass/weeds by putting topsoil on top of it, then planting new grass seed/ etc on said topsoil, the newspaper will degrade in a matter of months, leaving nothing but the grass or whatever. im going to try it on my side yard for grass this fall.