by Adam Dawson
We’ve been wanting to start gardening for a host of reasons, from health, to saving money on food, to satisfy the twangs of Barnheart, etc. But as we discussed in a previous comment thread, the soil in our patch of Texas is rocky and bad for growing. The solution is raised bed gardening.
There are lots of ways to build a raised bed, but conventional wisdom holds that you should avoid pressure treated lumber because the chemicals can get in your food. Untreated pine is economical but tends to rot in a season or two. So the gold standard material is rot resistant cedar. Unfortunately, the lumber for a single bed of cedar can be $70 or so.
After the discussion on my last entry, I got to thinking about how I could do it cheaper. I remembered a pile of cedar logs in the back of the property that I figured I could stack. I excitedly traipsed out through the brush on Saturday morning at 8 am to start hauling logs. Unfortunately I discovered many of them weren’t straight, the bark was covered in some sort of moss or mold, and they were unsuitable even for a garden bed.
But the bug had bit me and I was on mission. I talked to Emily about just using cheap pine lumber until we had more money to spend on nice cedar. She asked why I would spend even a small amount of money on something I knew would fall apart soon. She said I could probably find some scrap lumber on craigslist for free.
Emily headed out Saturday afternoon to hang with some girlfriends, so I searched craigslist and found a post with some good lumber a few miles away. When I arrived, everything was gone. Then I remembered that Home Depot sells leftover cut pieces for 70% off! I headed in to see if they might have anything untreated. And boy did I hit the jackpot! In the scrap bin they had a collection of cedar fence pickets in 6 and 8 foot lengths, perfect for the project.
So I loaded up on cull lumber and bought everything I needed for a high quality cedar raised bed for a total of $15. Score.
I had 2 hours of daylight left to assemble the box, so I dug out some tools and got to work. I soon found out my 7 year old circular saw and drill batteries had lost most of their power over the years. I barely got everything assembled with the 3 batteries I had and even resorted to sawing some pieces by hand. Put new batteries on the debt free wish list.
And voila! By Saturday night we had our first garden bed. And it turned out beautifully. I went to a bag your own dirt nursery here today and got dirt for 50% off the pre-bagged price. We decided to only fill half of it for now and expect to get a goaty contribution for the other half soon.
We planted pumpkins today with the hopes they’ll be ready by Halloween. Not likely. Peppers and tomatoes soon. And that’s the story of the $15 raised bed!
Ingenuity wins! Good job!
Looks great! And what a great value 🙂
Great job on the raised beds! I wish i had a yard that i can do that on.
I’d love to know the breakdown of the cost of maintaining a garden vs the cost of the same vegetables bought from grocery store from your experience.
Great job and some really fabulous ingenuity and creativity in securing that red cedar. I’m sure you know this but make sure you keep those seedlings well watered so they can germinate. The Texas sun is brutal! Happy gardening.
Great question. This is our first “experience,” so we won’t know for a while. I can’t imagine we’ll ever match or beat the cost of grocery store veggies because of our small scale.
But it’s also hard to quantify the value of this in dollars and cents.
1. Healthful, organic food
2. Pursuing a hobby
3. Quality family time
4. Possibly improving the value of our property
5. Living out our values
So while the veggies will cost more for a few years, probably, I’d venture a guess that doing all these things separately would cost substantially more.
I really like your reason #5: Living out our values.
Sometimes, things just can’t be measured in dollars and cents. Great job.
Sweet!!! 😀
Isn’t it a little late to plant seedlings? Good luck, I’m totally overrun in all sorts of tomato varietals right now. It’s so great!
in our part of the country you can start a garden any time of year! but you may be right on the pumpkins, the schedule puts us right about the first week of november for harvest. we may not make it by halloween but hopefully will by thanksgiving.
any tips on deer control?
I’m a city girl! The only wildlife that could attack our raised bed is our toddler.
Blood meal put down weekly seems to deter. But the only surefire way is deer netting, but it’s super expensive.
For deer this sounds stupid, but I have used it before and it works (at least some of the time, no deer method works for all deer). Take your hairbrush and pull the hairball off of it, break it up and drape it around the garden, repeat every few weeks once there is enough hair again. I also buzz my husbands hair and toss that around the edges of the garden as well.
ha! sounds weird, but it makes sense! the one time I went deer hunting as a teenager, they certainly avoided me! maybe it was my hair!
Good for you!! There’s a great resource online where they stream their entire video free called Back to Eden. It has a lot of good tips for water retention and soil health through wood chip mulch topping your soil. Might want to check it out especially since “free” makes the price right : ) Will be starting all over again with our garden after our cross country move from So Cal to Florida. All new soil and conditions to get used to!! Miss the fresh garden veggies and hit my grocery bill has taken by not having them right at hand.
Good luck with your new venture!!
I just thought of a business option for the future – your cottage would make an adorable farm stand!! 🙂
Jen, if you are ever in the area please let us know – we will have you over! I had the SAME thought last night – I thought about our carport making a great farm stand. WEIRD!
Oh, that’s spooky!
Now this is a GREAT idea! We buy local when we can from properties on the side of the road that have set up stands. Local honey!! This is HUGE in GA with all of the allergy problems.
Might want to check out the book – straw bale gardening
definitely will. finding a library copy of square foot gardening is on my to-do list this week as well. and emily got me a chicken raising book at a yard sale – so i have a lot of reading to do!
We live in NC with full afternoon sun on our backyard and had trouble keeping plants in straw bales from drying out too quickly. One of my friends in San Antonio started a hugelkultur raised bed, and she’s having good luck with that method. That may be a good option if you have some logs & brush to clear or if you can get logs for free.
Great job! Also remember to check out Freecycle.org in your area for discarded lumber etc. Also contact your local Master Gardeners group in Austin. tcmastergardeners.org for free seminars on gardening. Keep us posted on your progress.
oohhh, thanks for the reminder! i always remember to check craigslist but always forget about freecycle. this will be a good place to look for the next one.
This is on my to do list. I’ve had plans pinned for months. This DIY blogger also used fence posts to save money. Here are the plans for those of us who are not as handy as you.
http://ana-white.com/2010/05/hack-natural-rustic-cedar-raised-beds.html
WTG!
Funny- we have a DIY reclaimed headboard that I built using plans on this site!
That’s awesome! Good for you for making it work! I’ve seen those boxes of lumber ends for sale and filed that at the back of my mind for just such a purpose. I’m excited to hear more about the progress on your garden!
Unrelated to the post-But, can I say how much I love love love that you respond in the comments. I’ve read this blog through the first 3 authors and have always been disappointed with how little they interact with the readers. You guys are already a nice change!
AWWW! That’s awesome to hear. Thanks for telling us!