I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend, here in E. Tennessee! It was a sunny 70 degrees, and the perfect time to get my long awaited raised bed gardens finally built! With the help of my hubby, Bill, we had them put together, filled with soil, and added a simple watering system in about four hours! I would have jumped for joy, but I am so out of shape right now, that I am sore from head to toe! 🙂
This is a picture of my back yard before the beds were put in:
So, here is what we did:
1. After a variety of different opinions from the people at Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor & Tralier, and our local Farmers Co-op, I decided to go with an untreated pine board, which will hopefully last me 5-6 years. My beds are 4 X 6 ft boxes, and we put them together with some very long wood screws. (I am the one who actually put the screws in by the way)! 🙂
2. Next we put the three finished beds in a row, adjusted for any landscaping dips, and lined them with a bio-degradable weed liner that was made for the vegetable gardening.
3. Filled them with organic gardening soil.
4. Added a very simple soaker hose system over each bed, a trellis for some climbing veggies, and my hubby is giving his prize winning thumbs up! 
All of my neighbors were stopping by and seeing what we were up too, and I could tell that they were considering doing the same thing. Of course they wanted to know how much. So, my total cost of of this gardeing project goes is:
Soaker hose : $15.00
Hose guides : $20.00
Wood : $65.00
Wood screws : $12.00
Garden soil : $65.50
Total Cost : $177.50
I bought all of these items at Lowes, and I didn’t add in the trellis and wooden t-pee, because you may not want to have this. I hope that you can see how easy it is to grow your own garden in a residential neighborhood, and it’s also a great way to connect with your neighbors, share ways to save, and build some relationships.
