Raised Garden Beds

If you have noticed the price of organic fruits and veggies getting higher and higher and can't justify the cost difference anymore, try raising your own. My garden last year did OK, my strawberries never grew. My husband and kids planted several tomato plants, squash, beans. This year we are going big, complete with raised garden beds.

I made the mistake with my first bed of purchasing treated lumber- of course nothing in this bed can be considered organic now. I went with untreated pine with the second and third small beds.

For soil I am using a mix of peat, top soil and soil conditioner, all organic. 

Pictured above are the first 3 smaller beds for the side yard. I purchased the lumber at Lowe's, had them cut it to size ( first 20 cuts free then .25 per cut) and put it in the back of my mini van. I bought 2x10x8 boards and had them halved into 4 foot long sections. I tossed my receipt but I estimate I have about 25 dollars in each bed so far including soil, which we still require more of. Let's just call it 30 dollars per bed, although I think that is on the high side.

The boxes were pretty easy to pail together, but I will admit that I did break a sweat :)

I have ordered seeds. plants, and shrubs from Burpee, Gurney and Indiana Berry. Buy heirloom whenever possible so that you can harvest the seeds and not have to rebuy next season.

I placed some fiberglass screen mesh in the bottom of each bed to prevent weeds from popping up and to lessen the chance of moles getting into the beds from underneath.