My wife sent this link to me and I am pleased to pass along for your information. Enjoy and Happy Gardening to us all!
Gary
http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeandgarden/2011/02/build-your-own-raised-flowervegetable-bed/
Making Raised Beds
You can build a raised bed out of nearly ANYTHING. Logs, rocks, concrete blocks, whatever is available. I built a 3 x 8 foot raised bed this spring (not my first raised bed) using $27 worth of Douglas fir at Home depot. Experiment! Most importantly, HAVE FUN!
I used chunks of 4x4 for the corners of mine. I put an extra verticle in the middle to stablize the boards, some of mine are 10 ft long.
I made a couple of them with 3 6 inch boards, which make it a measured 16 inches or so deep, which isn't working out so well, one of them stays too dry. When I first made my raised beds I had to fill them economically, I think if I take the dirt out and fill it with a better quality soil it will work just fine.
Yup, that's pretty much exactly what mine are. Hubby built them early this year.
I saw a You-Tube (spelling?) video about using "rip-rap" ... chunks of torn-up concrete!
I like concrete paving stones, that look like 12x12" or 8x16", very thin bricks. I just lean them in place: assembly takes much less time than hauling them home.
There is now a whole DG forum for raised beds, unfortunately named "High Yield Gardening".
Corey
Rick, you're talking about the guy "growingyourgreens.com" right? He has a LOT of videos on youtube. His whole front yard is nothing but raised beds!
>> growingyourgreens.com
That sounds familiar. There was also someone (very enthusiastic, maybe the same guy) who made a point of coverin g his yard with all the old junk he could get his hands on ... excuse me, I mean "re-purposing alternate materials".
He had some srap sheet metal, or maybe it was fiberglass, that got me to scrounging through the "metals" dumpstaer at work.
But I fear that I've already gone as far as I dare, making my yard look strange. It's in a very dense manufactured home park. So far the neighbors are being tolerant. I'm thinking of potting as many extra flowers as I can, and giving them away, to build up brownie points with park management.
I'm getting close to covering the whole yard with RBs ... where there is any sun, and no shurbs. I've been hackintg out low-growing junipers a little each year, turning that "wasted space" into RBs. But I won't pull out Rhododendrons or Azeleas! Man, they are beautiful at this time of year, in the maritime PNW. I have one huge old Rhodie that blooms bright pink-and-white bi-color, then each bloom gradually fades to almost-all-white. White, red and purple Azealeas.
The slow part of making RBs is finding (buying) enough compost to turn hard clay-and-rocks into something nearly soil-like. That's a multi-year project!
Corey