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My first garden when I moved back to NO I got my fill dirt at a place way deep in the westbank (borrowed a friends truck)Being a horrible wannabe gardener myself, I've got to reply with something a little more productive. I've tried starting raised beds before with a little success. After looking into purchasing kits and seeing the ridiculous prices I, like you, decided to try my hand at DIY instead. I wanted pressure treated, but after doing a little research saw that the chemicals may leech into the soil. I thought about the cinder blocks, but the best place for a vegetable garden in my yard is pretty exposed, so I wanted something a little more aesthetically pleasing. So, I opted for cedar. Only, I went really cheap and did cedar fence boards. They did well for a season, but even with reinforcing, they just didn't hold the weight of the soil and just didn't age well so I dismantled the whole thing. Right now I've gone much smaller and repurposed a bunch of cedar from the kids old swing set to make a planter. So far, so good, but I don't really expect that to last more than a couple of seasons either. What I want eventually is to build raised beds from landscaping blocks, but that's money and I want to make sure what I put in & where is going to be a long term investment. One thing I will say about raised beds... they are expensive to fill. Whatever you gain not dealing with weeds, soil quality etc, it's going to cost you in fill. Get your compost started asap and research some methods in saving you on fill dirt. Otherwise, you're going to be gardening just for the fun and not getting any financial value out of it at all.
i then lined my Honda Element in tarp and went to the local horse stables and filled the element up with the good stuff (obviously did not tell the wife what I was doing)
we‘ll only be in this place another year or so And I’m not trying to go all out - this will be a project for me and the kids if/when we get the stay at home orders