Hello, I am starting a good sized vegetable garden this year, it will be about 80x150, and since I am in my late 50's, want to plan it to be easy in the years to come.

I have concluded that raised beds are the way to go. Was pricing out the various options, and didn't like what it all added up to. So I was planning on using the soil, mixed with cement (soil cement) to make the bed walls, just using simple formwork. Even then, the cement was out of sight!

So now I have had a better idea! Will make the interior of the walls out of plain soil (we have a clay/sand mix, wait a few days for it to dry a bit, then go back with 4 inch wider/2 inch higher forms and fill in the sides and top with the stabilized soil cement. This will cut by 2/3 the amount of cement I will have to buy. The walls are planned to be 12 inches tall, and 12 inches wide.

Just thought I would share this on the forum. Maybe someone else has done this?