I chose to go with recycled cedar planks because #1 They were free and #2 they took up less space. I was making a garden in an small fenced area and I wanted as much as I could to be arable. Here is a Flicker page to my Vegetable Garden. I think I have about 11" total of soil behind the boards.I would fill to the top because it will settle.. In some places I double dug into the lower soil and brought in compost and fertilizer. I have awful caliche there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetable garden

There was a really good article on creating raised beds for vegetables in the recent issue of Neil Sperry's Texas Gardens Magazine. The author said she put down newspaper 20 layers thick across the area, then layered it with straw, leaves and then a bunch of compost. The sides were built with cedar attached to 2x4 at the corners on the inside for support then used L brackets on the outside. She said that she continued to top things off with compost as the plants used it up through the summer and had the best crop of vegetables. A good width is four feet and I think her dimensions for each box was 4 feet by 6 feet. Then the pathways were layered with more newspaper and a bunch of mulch on top to keep the weeds out of the areas where she was walking. The newspaper will attract plenty of earthworms too - a good thing for healthy vegetables. I hope this helps.

I wouldn't make them any wider than you can comfortably reach into the middle from either side, that way you aren't squishing your dirt and compacting it down.
As for narrow ones tipping, maybe you can support them with small lengths of rebar or something similar? I am using old fence pickets (from my old fence, untreated) as sides for my raised beds, although I am sure they won't last more than a year at best. Use what you already have it you can.
I took a book out of the library about square foot planting, and although the recommendations have changed for soil mixture, the ideas behind it are really sound if you ask me. There is a square foot gardening forum on here, and there are lots of tips and suggestion there too!
As for soil, you said "topsoil". I was warned by my local nursery about buying topsoil in my area because you never know what you're getting...you could get a ton of clay that's been scraped up :( I found a place that sold a "garden mix" which was 30% compost, so it was looser and less clay-y(which is a problem here).

Good luck whichever route you take!

Cynthia, DH made my raised beds using cinder blocks held in place with rebar (there are "cut-outs" in the blocks to place it). They are two high, and as armymomma said .... only wide enough for me to reach from eithe side. We also had Dyno-dirt delivered from the city of Denton at a much reduced cost of buying it by the bag. Everything has really done well in it.

Wantonamara;
Your garden is BEAUTIFUL! It looks like you have the right idea to keep 'critters' out too. I used landscape timbers originally, but they degrade in a few years and are getting expensive to replace! (600sq.') Using raised beds is the ONLY way to go no matter what you use to form the beds. (You can even make the beds without anything to form the outer area, but it's more maintenance..) Also, keeping the beds to no more than 4' wide allows for access to the bed from either side (no matter how long it is)
Jerry

thank you all!
Wantonamara it is beautiful and functional. I couldn't imagine building something so elegant. But now I can...smiles

carrie, I will look more closely at the blocks for the rebar holes. Two high sounds pretty good. Thus far I've only gotten to the contemplation stage. Will need to step it up this month!

thank you all again
c

Wantonamara, I loved looking at your garden pics, WOW! I am going to save that in my inspirations/ideas folder. You set the bar pretty high!

Denisew, I tried the newspaper/compost method last year and it worked pretty well (I only had about 3-4 layers of paper and apparently that's not enough to stop wild morning glories). But now I am wondering about toxins in the newsprint-does anyone know if there is any danger associated with chemicals from the newspaper ink being absorbed into the veggies?

We used layers of cardboard boxes instead of newspaper.

Nothing stops wild morning glories. Cardboard and decomposed granite is on my list for the paths.
Protecting against horned rats wearing tiaras sporting an entitlement complex (deer) is Number one priority here. Wild boars are becoming a nuisance and let us not leave the coons off that list..

Thankyou for the compliments. The design was determined by the free materials and site. I am still not done. No doors and I need to raise the fence level(deer height) with some left over conduit that I have. I squished it between 2 trees to the west and East. I would like it bigger now. If I would do it over. I would do the beds a bit over 4 feet, useing a bent PVC pipe and frost cover as the determining factor . Where the Configuration looks good Then That is the size of the bed. I would also like a garden where the beds are simple rows. I maxed out the growing square footage and I came up with a complex bed shape. That made for a complex
frost cloth system. A lot of irregular flopping cloth in the wind. Having gone through the process now from start to finnish, I would veer for the simple over the cramped. I would have picked a different spot for a larger plot. I have acreage, so picking a different spot was possible. I picked this spot because it was close to the water supply, close to a road for dirt deliveries and close to the kitchen. The road, trees and rock garden kept the size to about 22 X 20. OH it is not square because of the constraints. The things that make it visually appealing are also its defects.

I am a furniture designer/builder/restorer so I have a tendency to design things and sometimes over build, never quite finishing if it is for me.

Wantonamara, those are excellent considerations to keep in mind. Thank you.

Cynthia, as for raised beds a friend is giving me a 3' wide by 2' foot high stock tank for one raised bed. It was a pond for her, but the raccoons tore it up.

So I am going to drill holes in it for drainage and it's been recommended that that the sides be covered with bricks or wood as the metal gets hot in the summer. Any suggestions on how that might be easily accomplished? Wonder if using a glue gun to apply cedar fencing to the sides would work. Anyone know of some free used fencing. LOL (Bob will probably have a better idea.)

Back on the subject, I looked at the tanks at Lockhill Feed Store to get an idea of how big 3 x 2 is (it's not very big) but what would seem to be close to ideal for a small garden area were the 6' by 2' size stock tanks. I saw them used back to back at a retirement home with a trellis between them for climbing veggies. If money were no object that's what I'd go with. At the retirement home they were covered with painted rough boards made with a narrow ledge to sit on. But the stock tanks alone were $159 each :-(

Does anybody here have experience with stock tanks as raised beds? What kind of soil mix do y'all recommend a raised bed be filled with?

Also one thing I've noticed with a higher raised bed made with very old railroad ties is the soil seems to drain and dry out extra quickly. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, how might that be overcome? With water absorbing crystals? By laying something on the bottom that would not let the water drain so fast?

Thanks for any and all discussion on these and other options for raised beds.

A girlfriend had an ex-boyfriend leave his truckbed in her yard in the acrimonious split up. She was complaining about it and I said that it looked like a great size for a gardenbed . Her ground is even worse than mine. She jumped on that. We drug it around to the view side of the house of the kitchen porch and now it is full of dirt. She stopped down at a local junkyard that was being cleared out and asked for some more. I think she has a theme going. I think she is piling rocks up against it.

Whoo hoo! Now in addition to water bed veggie gardens we now have old truck beds put to good use. Now that is a great recycling idea :-)

Cynthia, research companion planting online. You'll be able to find out which plants get along well and which ones don't. The newest copy of the Farmers Almanac has a guide in it too I think.

thanks Jan!
I got my cinder blocks. They are neatly stacked and waiting for me to start digging and smoothing out a place for them. Of course, I had to shovel snow and wait for it to melt first....grins

Better get thme laid quickly, Cynthia, or you will be shoveling snow AGAIN !!! (not grinning)!!!

Carrie you are so right!
I missed Spring last weekend, gotta wait for it again.

I did find that birdseed we both like at Sam's again. It is almost back to the product I loved. Still on fruity bits or striped sunflower seeds, but the corn is cracked not whole and there is less junk and more blackoild sunflower seeds.

I might complain, but I saw something that looked similar at Whole Foods and it was more than twice the price.

watching for winter...again.
c

Cynthia, check the manfacturer's name on the bags....it is not Scotts anymore. I complained to Sam's before I bought this last batch.