Home Depot now sells concrete blocks for raised bed corners. Add some 2X8 wood and it will be way cheaper...They also have video on the site to how to complete the bed. Planter Wall Block

Your choice and your budget. I had Home Depot cut the wood (for free) to specific lengths then I used wood/deck screws and used a bore drill to make holes and put it together. Simple and easy.

I don't use any frames. I just edge a trench around a bed. Sometimes putting down wet newspapers covered with grass clippings to keep down the weeds at the edges. The mower wheels can run over this easily. I put my money into soil improvement. We have all sorts of weedy grass so with a raised bed I would have to use a weed whacker and hope the weedy grass with long runner roots doesn't get under the boards.

why do you want raised beds? Why not make a garden spot in the ground the same size as a raised bed? will save time and money. I do have 2 raised beds in areas that are low and tend to flood with real heavy rainfall. both are 4 X 8 1 made from concrete blocks the other 5/4 deck boards. Except for the low areas or realy poor soil I would never make another one

good point about poor soil. A professional tomato grower who did a workshop I attended said he finally got sick of all the rocks on his farm and now grows using raised beds. Also, people who garden further north here in NH have less growing days and use things light stone sided raised beds to warm soil sooner in the spring. But I just like using the lasagna method of making a raised bed without sides.

I grow in 'raised' beds, but they don't have walls/sides. Mine are just raised from working the soil and adding amendments. I get plenty of drainage, and never have to step inside. I do think there are good reasons why someone might wish to build walls around a raised bed (as mentioned above... poor - or in an urban environment - no soil, low lying/swampy areas, handicap/mobility/physicality issues, etc...) but I can't see spending the money if those reasons don't exist.

Thanks for the comments and ideas. I forgot to mention that I live in Chicago. I'm in the city and even though I haven't had the soil in my yard tested, I've heard it's not great and would be better off doing raised beds.

Ryan, I don't think it matters where you live, Every year, soil needs to have things added as the plants use up the nutrients in the soil. I think the basic question is just whether or not you are going to buy sides for your raised beds.

I used a couple of cedar kits and also made some raised beds from lumber. Both were much less expensive than amending the entire back yard which had very poor 'fill dirt'. The cedar kits did not raise the beds as far as I wanted, I'm a senior and the higher ones I made a few years ago are easier to work with.

Ryan, it is pretty easy to build raised beds out of lumber.

I have no woodworking skills, but I watched a Lowes youtube video on raised bed, then I went to Lowes and had them cut the lumber for me, and bought some galvanizing screws and built the raised bed myself. I was so good at it, I built 4 more (4'x6'x 18"). My husband didn't even help me except carrying them out to the yard with me. I think if you make your own, they can last a lot longer than those you buy that are made with 1" lumber instead of 2".

The community gardens I work with use concrete blocks.

We are not handy, so we bought these for home from Amazon. They arrive flat and they're kind of like tinker toys in putting them together. I think we used 12 bags of soil per bed, so, yes, it adds up.

Amazon 3 x 6' bed

I have all raised beds due to gophers. When we start a new bed, we dig/spade down as deep as possible to break up the clay soil, ad manure (aged horse/llama/goat or rabbit) Water in, water in again and again.Top with the bed with the wood bed lined with hardware cloth for the gophers, add bought soil from the soil place, water in water in water in til full.

We add home made compost, usually every other year and top all of the beds with a truckload of garden soil every few years.

Nancy

habjolokia- nice looking beds. We noticed early on that unless you have something substantial on the corners (say a 4x4 set into the soil), the sides will separate!

Something to think about! Nancy