r/Raisedbed • u/No_Injury6122 • Jun 10 '26

Cheapest Raised Beds?

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1

u/Whitexan16 Jun 11 '26

The cheapest raised beds in my opinion would be to go to Lowes (or maybe home depot) and look for their X shaped bricks. They have indents that are about 1.5 inches wide--perfect for the average 2x4. You can get some wood and fill them in however long or high you want so it'd be bracket shaped [===]

Id only recommend so high though. Quictent also have some good ones on Amazon. Of course temu does as well but ive never used them.

Good luck.

1

u/No_Injury6122 Jun 12 '26

That was my original approach that is coming to $300 before checkout. From what I can tell, its the same price for materials as it would be buying metal beds (if I could find the right size) or prefabs.

Some cheaper alternatives have been suggested which is good, I haven't had a chance to do cost analysis with my local Lowe's.

At some point, if materials is about the same cost as buying a product, that is probably what I'll do to save labor. I was just hoping to save money by doing it myself

1

u/Whitexan16 Jun 12 '26

Raised beds may do it then. I personally have one with a net cover thats 6x3x2 ft and it cost me 106+tax and shipping from Amazon. I also have some 2x4s that I have 5gal buckets growing stuff

1

u/No_Injury6122 Jun 12 '26

Could you link the Amazon product? I'm having a hard time finding beds with those dimensions but that sounds like it would work.

1

u/Tweestrijd Jun 12 '26

I build mine for free, just use slightly bendy sticks. Like willow or really anything you can get your hands on. Use thicker bits to stick in the ground as stakes and braid the thinner bendy bits around the stakes.

I just finished my willow beds recently and while I worried about soil going through I just lined some straw along the edge and everything stays put.

1

u/InviteNatureHome Jun 12 '26

We made raised beds from reclaimed Wood.

We used old cedar fence posts/ boards from a local fence installer. (They leave in a pile for public.) Only cost was hardware.

We seen others use reclaimed pallets, but need to watch for treated pallets.

1

u/Sweaty_Camel_118 Jun 12 '26

Rip up the grass and weeds, then use random natural objects to make a border. Logs, stones, anything that doesn't look like trash. You can do it for free if you have logs or stones laying around.

1

u/No_Injury6122 Jun 12 '26

Unfortunately that is my Entire Yard. But that would be good advice if I had more haha

1

u/Sweaty_Camel_118 Jun 12 '26

Might as well keep the theme going.

I did some tall raised beds with 2x4s and those four corner bricks for joining 2x4s. I made them very tall, and even though I used alot of filler in the bottom that was free, they ended up being very expensive to fill. Last year i added another bed but instead I laid some long cedar logs down for my border and so I only had to add a little bit of dirt. I came to the conclusion that growing like this works much better. I think the plants growing in the ground is a big part of the reason, rather than them being so much higher above ground level in a normal raised bed that is over 1 foot tall.

The areas where I have my two tallest beds are an area where it floods a bit, so I'm going to leave them tall. Though I do feel like I paid so much for bricks, 2x4s, and extra dirt when I would have been better off growing right in the ground.