Garden Wisdoms

Having written a lot about building raised beds, I love seeing what different gardeners have created to grow their own food. You don’t always need a big budget! With a little creativity, ordinary objects and materials can be turned into a garden. As we start to plan out our gardens for the growing season, I thought I would share some inexpensive raised garden bed ideas.

With the popularity of growing in raised beds in the last several years, there are loads of options online and in stores, and different price points. You can opt for kits or hardware that make assembly a cinch, measure out and purchase lumber to build something, or you can use natural materials, like rocks and logs, or even upcycled items. I tried to keep these suggestions under the $100 mark. And in some cases, these DIY garden beds could cost you nothing. Except the soil and plants to fill your new raised bed, of course.

Tips for finding inexpensive raised garden bed ideas

Timber, especially rot-resistant woods, like cedar, can run on the pricier side, as can kits and other ready-to-build options. But there are affordable ways to create a garden. Do keep in mind that once you build your raised bed, you also have to fill it with good soil—another expense!

Inexpensive raised garden bed ideas using natural materials

Sometimes your raised bed materials are already part of your landscape. If you’ve ever had a mature tree taken down, you know that is a LOT of wood to get rid of. Place your new logs into a rectangle and all you have to do is add soil! The great thing is that wood will start to break down over time, acting as sort of a living compost. Rocks and large stones can also be used to outline a raised bed.

Building raised beds from bricks, blocks, and pavers

When I decided to carve out an area of my front lawn for raised beds, I discovered that my local landscaping supply store had an area where you can look for old pavers and stones that had come from former projects. They were a fraction of the price! I used square patio stones to outline the garden where my galvanized raised beds sit, but these materials could easily be used to create a raised bed itself!

Inexpensive raised garden bed ideas using upcycled items

Besides the aforementioned bookcase, any number of items can be repurposed to create a raised bed garden. Wooden pallets can be