Garden boxes

I have a thumb! ;) actually I have 2 of them!! "SHOCK?!" Lol well at the moment they are a mix between peach and white colored. My goal is to turn them green!! :) we will see if that happens. In our last home we were able to successfully plant and grow some tomatoes and a whole bunch of herbs.  Now that we have our house it's time to try again.

This is our old house Garden! 

Once we do step 2 of our yard next year (pavers and waterfall) We plan to do this, but for now I need Cheap! 

I researched for weeks trying to decide what to use for our boxes. We have a lot of long term plans for our yard, but for now we need something. Cheap.

I went through many choices, and thanks to Pinterest who took my 2 ideas and gave me 100+.

I started with our size. We have 10ft between our house and property line, so not a lot to work with, but enough to make the space requiring a lot of time and energy.

My first idea was 16ft long 4 ft wide by 24 in deep.  On the "property side" and 2-2x4 boxes next to the house. 

During my search I learned some really important things. Wood is Expensive! (Common it grows ok trees!) 

My first choice was a beautiful 2x12x8,which I soon learned costs $12 each.  So for my garden we were looking at a simple 16 boards putting us at $200 in wood!' OUCH!! Gardening isn't cheap!!!

Next we moved to cinder blocks, which would be fine, but each one weighs about 25 lbs and we would only need about 100 of those. Suddenly 2500 lbs of moving and still at about $170 didn't sound too nice.

#1: DIY build your own (wood & stone), #2: buy them, and a few others! 

  

Here are my ideas and costs

Cinder Blocks => 4.6 ft x 18 ft x 8 in  16" x 8" x 8"  34 of them = approx $63 

Wood; => 3 ft x 18 ft x 10 in 5/8" x 5 1/2" x 6'  16 of them: approx $48  (ours ended up costing alot more then this, HOWEVER still the best option, since I did more then originally planed) 
Prebuilt => 4 ft x 8 ft x 8 in BOX = 51.50 (half size of others)  or  4 ft x 16 ft x 8 in = $103

I decided after a lot of time searching and planning, simple cedar wood was the most cost effective and best suited for our garden for now. We need it to last just a few years so seemed like the best option. And the idea of a 6'x5"x1" (approx) at $2.50 was great.

I decided to start with some and work from there. I took the 6' peice and cut it in half for the sides, so a bit smaller then planned. 

Here is what I bought. It took a few days planning, buying, building, and re buying and building.

I made 3 smaller ones and put them all together.  I used

16- Cedar 7/8 in x 5 ½ in x 6ft fence posts  

3- Cedar 7/8x 3 ½ in x 6ft  

2-  2x2x8 

1 box:dry wall screws

-cut 4 (5 ½ in) of them in half at the 3ft mark.

-cut 1 (3 ½ in)in half

-cut 4 (2x2) into 1 ft pieces

-cut 8 (2x2) into 8 in pieces

I chose to put all 3 parts together.  And stacked the 5 ½ in boards on top to make the two sides 10in and the middle piece 13 in.

I also decided to use a spray sealer that is safe for food.  

I chose to use Home Depot links, they are the closest hard ware store to my house and have the best prices!  I am in NO WAY associated or compensated for my ideas or materials!