Something for Nothing! Build Raised Planting Beds for Free!

Barb Rosen
by Barb Rosen
4 Hours
Easy
Who says you can't get something for nothing? I just finished two raised beds made from my neighbor's old shutters and odds and ends of left over wood, then painted them with surplus deck paint! ZERO COST!!
For quite a while, I have admired all sorts of wonderful homemade and commercial raised beds seen on Pinterest and Hometalk. Because I couldn't justify the cost of buying the lumber and didn't want to tackle disassembling pallets, raised beds did not seem to be in my future. But then, our neighbors replaced their shutters and were nice enough to give them to me when I asked. They know by now that a repurposing project is about to get underway.
You could do other configurations, but I used two shutters on each side and one-half a shutter for the ends. That used up all ten of the free shutters. Odds and ends of lumber stored in the garage rafters came down and became corner, end and middle supports. I even had enough wood screws from another project to use for this one!
See more pictures and all the details on Our Fairfield Home and Garden's latest post
http://ourfairfieldhomeandgarden.com/diy-project-raised-beds-for-free/
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Finished raised bed planted with cool season vegetables.
Dollar Store bird clips hold the seed packets in place.
Construction complete and ready for some paint!
My version of lasagna gardening!
Barb Rosen
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Elizabeth Sagarminaga Elizabeth Sagarminaga on Apr 07, 2014
    Very nice work, raised gardens look beautiful and add atouch of beauty to your somewhat mundane garden plane. Making these gardens isa laborious task; it needs a lot of patience and planning to come up with agood result. Thanks for sharing the beautiful work with everyone here.
    • Barb Rosen Barb Rosen on Apr 07, 2014
      @Elizabeth Sagarminaga ~ thanks for stopping by my post and leaving such a nice comment!
  • Carole Carole on Mar 14, 2015
    Just bought an old cedar timber bookcase and took the backing off. Laid it on the mulch on the level in the garden and put small rocks in the bottom for drainage (and to get rid of the small rocks we dug out when digging a garden trench for another garden bed to plant a hedge). Planning to add soil/potting mix and compost and plant up some ornamentals. The book case was not free (cost me $20) but still cheaper than buying timber to make a raised bed this size
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