Building your own raised beds can be fun. You can build into them the things you find important.
A couple things I really like about the raised beds my husband and I built.
1. The benches for sitting along side to work in the gardens.
2. The beds are only 3 foot wide so I can reach to the middle of the bed by sitting on either side.
4. We left 3 feet between the beds so we can get a wheelbarrow down the center of them.
5. We built ours out of cedar so they should last for many years.

I would love to see photo's of your raised beds and hear what you like most or what you would do differently if you could do it all over again.

Panda wrote:
Love Panda!! If I had it all to do again I would do raised beds right away! I have them now but I went years trying to amend the clay soil I had and it was a nightmare:)

I have raised beds that look somewhat like yours but I plan on making a chicken tractor that fits over all my raised beds. I will have high sides on it to make sure to keep the soil in my boxes!

You have chickens right?

Matt

Yes Matt, we got chickens in September. We are planning on using a movable fence to go around the beds or the parts of the yard that we want to use the chickens. We are also planing on making a few Rabbit tractors too.

Panda wrote:
Rabbit manure is awesome:) The poop is like little time capsules of fertilizers! They break down slowly as well. Also, there manure is a cold manure...

Matt

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I put a lot of work into 4 12x4' and 3 4'x4' raised beds. at the time I was unaware that Paducah would give me all the cardboard boxes I needed to put down to guard against tree root invasion! So...I put down the frames and threw down some compost to cover the clay soil and loaded them up with different soils. The best soil I found was good old potting soil! The tomatoes loved the clay soil (which in KY is acid) And the first year I had bumper crops. For the next year I dug out the tree feeder roots and planted again. Crops were fairly good but they seemed starved! The next garden was a dismal failure, no matter what I did those trees had discovered a source of food and they feasted like pigs! I could not afford the hard liners to line my beds and, knowing the determination of those tree feeder roots would have been a waste of time and money and I needed more sun. So I had to look for alternatives. I did some deep thinking, a lot of research and discovered just what I wanted. With my advancing age I needed a "no work garden". Hugelkultur is just what will work for this little old lady. All the work is done up front. When the 25'x160' lot became available next to me I begged the credit union for money (not really, just trying to inject some humor here!) and the lot was mine. It already had a deep depression in it ( which became a mosquito farm every year!) so all I needed was tree stumps, limbs and twigs. I had two trees cut down to get more sun and rid the area of tree roots. Had a "discussion" with the fire Dept about my piles of wood. When I informed them of my goal they stopped demanding I get rid of the "fire hazard" I understand their concern but I also kept the wood wet and proceeded to build my garden. Next I piled on lots of straw and kept it wet between rains. Allowed that to decompose and this fall I have spread about 4" of leaves all over. Am now bringing soil from my back yard to top it all off. I have filled the two ends with soil from my raised beds from the back yard. In one spot there must have been about fifty volunteer tomato plants sprouted and grew like crazy. ( see pic above)I was hoping they would have time to produce but the first freeze got them in spite of my efforts to save them. They were just loaded with tomatoes. The thing is, after I get the soil on top all I'll have to do is mix in some shredded leaves every fall and plant seeds in the spring! I'll probably mix in some " Garden of Eden" method for mulch. All the work is done up front and those tree stumps will feed my garden for 10-20 years if what I've read about Hugelkultur Gardening is true. It's the nearest thing to Mother Nature's method as we can get. Less water needed, less work, less fertilizer. Just right for a little old lady who is garden obsessed! Ha!

I'm using the frames from the backyard beds to build waist high beds to grow lettuce and greens in for me and I hens! Putting that "not enough sun" area to good use.

I will not miss having to dig up those tree roots every year.

Volunteer Tomatoes, sweet potatoes and a new resident

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I have an assortment of raised beds. I have built them out of retaining wall blocks that were given to us, paving edgers, cinder blocks(all those give me a sitting place). One year my brother made a wooden one for my birthday gift(he even lined the bottom with the wire mesh to keep gophers out. I use tires also. And I acquired several commercialy built raised beds last year that will be going together this week(tomorrow). We put wire down, then cover it with cardboard(my hubby works in a warehouse so I have an endless free supply) then put the raised bed on top of that & fill with a soil mixture(adding some of my own from the ground).
We have a few old utility poles that we plan on building an off the ground raised bed too.
With the cinder block bed I have my asparagus growing in it & I use the holes to grow lettuce in during the winter time, sometimes I plant radishes in there too.

I can't wait to see those raised beds:) Make sure use a good wire because gophers are known for eating through chickenwire. I think hardware cloth would probably be best.

I myself did not add cardboard and I think I made a huge mistake. Tree roots are starting to invade and it looks like I won't be having to cut them out:(

Matt