As a comparison, I recently built 4 4x4 boxes and my soil mix (ended up being closer to 1/4 vermiculite, 1/4 peat, and 1/4 compost) and my soil costs were just about $200. Had I shopped around a bit I probably could have saved about $25 off that. So I wouldn't say your estimate is too far off for the beds you're planning if you're going to use some variation of Mel's mix. It's usually the vermiculite that drives the costs up. Luckily I found a wholesaler nearby with good prices.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: My SFG blog

Luke, thank you for the information and the link to your project. Wonderful and full of good info for me. I hadn't thought of wholesale dealers for my vermiculite, I will check them tomorrow and let you know how it works out. I will keep in touch. How many bags of compost and manure did you add to the mix? I think I will simplify my garden and use four boxes as you did.

Seeing your post I wanted to see how much I spent on my new beds.

LetÂs see I made a 4x4 bed and 2 - 4x8 beds. I used cedar and it cost $232 the 4x8 beds are 12" high however. It would have been a good bit cheaper using some fir or pine and coating with linseed oil but heard some bad things on using that so went with cedar.

The vermiculite will cost around $130 for 4 4 cu bags. I have to have Agway special order it.

I bought 5 yards of compost but will use only 2 (I think maybe a little more) of it for my new beds so the 2 yards will be $80

The woodscrews cost $9.

Peat moss maybe $20. I havenÂt bought that yet.

I bought 2 rolls of 50' chicken wire for $63. The critters would eat everything otherwise.

I havenÂt bought any seeds yet. I plan on getting a few planted inside this week.

I might need more weed fabric, wood lath for the square grids, some wood for the cage overtop the 4x4 bedÂ.man this is getting expensive! The good thing is I paid off my car last month and the money for this is coming out of the paycheck that would normally go to GMAC.

I am hoping this will pay for itself in 2 years.
You and I look to be on the same path money wise. Not counting the wood I am at $300 or so.

I used 2x10's, so I estimated I'd need about 12 cubic feet per box, or 48 cubic feet total. I ended up using about 3 2/3 bags of vermiculite (so maybe 15 cu ft of it), 2.5 bales of compressed peat (3.8 cu ft compressed which supposedly should expand to 7.5 cu ft), so roughly 20 or so cubic feet of peat. Then I added bags of various composts from the local Agway -- some mushroom compost, manure, humus & manure, and "long island compost". I think I used about 40 bags of that (40 lb bags for the most part). I probably should have looked into getting a yard of compost delivered -- it may have saved some money.

I was able to find the vermiculite for $13.15 for 4 cu ft bags from that wholesaler, which is a real good price. Call around. If you find a garden seller who carries it, try asking who their supplier is. You never know!

Here is a link that might be useful: SFG Blog

I saw a post on vermiculite in NJ but it is too far to drive. Any savings would be used up in gas and time. Plus I am not sure I could get 4 bags in my trunk.

Looks like we must invest a bit of money knowing that it will cancel out when we pull our own vegetables from the backyard garden and not pay the expense at the local grocery store and our garden boxes will be here in the years to come. So lets take the pain and look to the future where our gardens will rewards us for years to come. I have cypress in my storage building, not competely dry enough for furniture making so I think it will be used for my boxes. There is a savings. Thanks to all you gardeners for your help. Very appreciated. Lets see if I can find any wholesale vermiculite. I have decided to reduce my number of boxes from 5 to maybe 3. It is just my husband and myself.

I was able to get four bags of vermiculite in my Accord, so it should be no problem for a truck.

We're building 6 beds total - 2x9, 2x10 and 2x2 (4 of those). All are 12" deep. Costs so far:

Lumber - 5 ea2x12x12 ACQ PT $75
Screws - 1lb of 3" stainless $14
Vermiculite - 3 x 4cu ft coarse grade $51
Peat Moss - 3 x 3.8cu ft compressed $30
Compost #1 - 16 bags of Moo-Nure $38 (25lbs, maybe .75 cu ft ea?)
Compost #2 - 4 bags of Mushroom Compost $17 (1 cu ft ea)
Compost #3 - 10 bags of Compost $14 (1 cu ft ea)
Trellis netting - 2 x 5ftx8ft $11

About $250 total so far for 54sq ft of 12" beds. Still to go, trellis frames... maybe another $30-40?

The cost? It's cheaper than therapy. :)

It's really not about saving money for several years. Just think that this is a one time expense.

Now that the housing market here is getting better (or at least the banks that now own the houses are trying to fix things up) there's a lot of scrap lumber out there. Go to a half finished neighborhood and ask the men if you can collect the scrap framing lumber from the dumpsters. They'll look at you like you're a nut job, but if you hit enough locations, you'll collect yourself a good amount of useable wood. Pressure treated most likely, but wood none the less.

dont know if alot of people know this but here in midwest menards has a scrap board bin u can get 1x6 thru 2 x 12s in treated or untreated for next to nothing, i have one bed made from 2x10s that i stumbled onto that cost me like 3 $ for a 4x4 box. i check the bin like once or twice a week here saturday i got 4 1x6x4s out of bin that had like 20 of them for 2.10 including tax. they r a minumum 4 feet long,also check your local lumber yards they always have warped or damaged picked over lumber they will discount greatly,b a scroundger,have fun!!!

I have about $350 invested in our garden this year. That includes the materials to construct 4 4x4 boxes, the soil, fencing, light rack & lights. Wood for each box was $13 (2 untreated 2x10's that should last about 5 years before needing to be replaced). All the screws were leftover from other projects. I had one roll of chicken wire in the shed so only needed another small $10 roll. The 2x2's for the light rack were cheap as was the one T12 light fixture from Walmart. I picked up 3 more flourescent lights off freecycle, so no cost there.

I made the mistake of not looking into a bulk compost delivery. I could have saved some money there instead of buying so many 40 lb bags.

If I come close to breaking even this year, I'll be happy. After the initial setup, recurring costs for the existing garden are low. A little compost, a little fertilizer, etc. Maybe $50 for next year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Luke's SF Victory Garden

Mine cost me $1000 or so last year to build and fill. I've got a design/build page on my blog. Well worth it in my opinion. You can do it much cheaper.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure

If you have a Freecycle group in your area, check them for goodies. I got most of my shoplights, a bunch of tomato cages and some other stuff for free off that list. Craigslist also has a free section. I found a guy near me who has a ton of free aged manure. I could have saved some money there, but I'll know better for next time. Also, our town has a bulk trash day where I find all sorts of stuff. I'm keeping my eyes out for some old storm windows to make cold frames out of.

I'm a cheapskate by nature and currently unemployed so the more free stuff I can find, the better!

Here is a link that might be useful: Luke's SF Victory Garden

@luke3026: I wish I had a truck somedays but only need one a few times a year. I might be able to squeeze the bags in but rather get it local so if I can't I won't mind doing two trips.

@sinfonian: Well I haven't spent a grand, yet but I might get to that level this year. :)

Well, I spent a little gas today and came up with a plan. I will pick up 4 bags of vermiculite ($15.00)each, peat moss, 3+ cu ft bags ($3.50)each, and I believe a cubic yard of compost, a scoop dumped into the back of my pick-up truck. This price was from a local nursery and they beat Lowe's price. I called around and got my best price for the area. My husband can't understand why I have to have certain things when regular garden soil worked for he daddy. I tried to explain but you know how it is. He says he will help me make four boxes before saturday. With my four boxes filled I expect to put cow manure in. Thanks again for all the help.
I have spent the past four plus years creating furniture for family and friends. My success was partly due to the help I received from NC Woodworker's web site. Now I say thanks to the square foot garden site and its members.

Well, I spent a little gas today and came up with a plan. I will pick up 4 bags of vermiculite ($15.00)each, peat moss, 3+ cu ft bags ($3.50)each, and I believe a cubic yard of compost, a scoop dumped into the back of my pick-up truck. This price was from a local nursery and they beat Lowe's price. I called around and got my best price for the area. My husband can't understand why I have to have certain things when regular garden soil worked for he daddy. I tried to explain but you know how it is. He says he will help me make four boxes before saturday. With my four boxes filled I expect to put cow manure in. Thanks again for all the help.
I have spent the past four plus years creating furniture for family and friends. My success was partly due to the help I received from NC Woodworker's web site. Now I say thanks to the square foot garden site and its members.

If it's not too late maybe you can save some money by not using peat moss. Since it adds no nutrient value to the soil many either add more compost or just leave the peat out of the mix. The peat only serves to hold moisture, if you have enuff organic matter perhaps you can save there.

HD also has a cull wood bin. I give a description how I did mine in the link below.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/sqfoot/msg031525116605.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Borders for Bed Gardening

I actually found the peat to be the cheapest part of the mix and was super-happy to use it to bulk out the soil. I can get 3.8 cu ft bales (which expand to 7.5 cu ft) for $10 at Lowes. So that part is about $1.30/cu ft whereas my total mix was about $3.50/cu ft.

Here is a link that might be useful: Luke's SF Victory Garden

I stumbled across this forum while doing a google search for more info on SF-gardening. I am in the process of building my first boxes and discovered that I could cut some of the cost by...

(a) using rough cut hemlock from a local sawmill. Hemlock has many of the natural properties of cedar (it grows in a swamp after all!) and the rough cut 8 foot lengths of 1x6 boards were only $1.40 a piece. Each 4x8 box cost only $3.20!!!

(b) My local dump/landfill has a separate composting area where people bring their leaves, grass clippings, etc. Residents can go in pick up as much free compost from this area as they would like. I have a small suv, not a pick up truck, so I've bringing in empty trash cans and they fill them up for me. It takes about 4 cans to equal 27 cubic feet (I think), which means a couple of trips, but free is worth it...

I hope this helps someone as much as it has helped me...

I'm a bit late to this thread, but seeing the range of costs is very interesting. I'm debating building my own or buying, probably from raisedgardenbeds.com. I like that they use external screws so that the boxes can be deconstructed and moved. (Although I can't say I know anyone who has these, so I am just going by their web site.) An 8x4 box, 11 inches deep, made with red cedar is about $300 including shipping. Pricier than some places, but not as pricey as others, and these look about the sturdiest I've seen.

$300 is obviously nearly 100 times higher than what jclinme paid for his/her components, but a) I have little experience building anything; b) my job has long hours and I am not sure I have time to do build my own right now; c) these might look much better than anything I could do; and d) I think I'd still be spending close to $100 for decent wood, fixtures and good posts. (My hubby wants this to look decent, it is just one or two boxes near a patio.)

The reminder of all the expense for the stuff that fills the boxes does make me realize that this is all going to add up fast...

You can build a garden in about any price range you want to. Mine is built from scrounged materials (free on Craigslist or Freecycle) and I built them myself, so they are less than perfect, which is fine in my case. They're in our side yard and screened from the street so perfection wasn't needed.

JJ,
You might check around locally, it may be cheaper to have a handyman build the boxes for you. I haven't researched this, so I could be wrong, but it's probably worth at least checking into.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

JJ, it really doesn't take much in the way of carpentry skills to build these boxes. I never really built anything in my life before making mine. Each one took about 15 minutes to build. All you need (or can borrow) is a power drill and a saw. In fact, you can probably have Home Depot or your lumber source to cut the boards for you so may not even need the saw.

I'm a cheapskate at heart, so hearing about someone paying $300 for a raised bed makes me cringe ;^)

Here is a link that might be useful: Luke's SF Victory Garden

I think Luke has a good idea- if someone cuts them for you, that's half the battle.

I built mine in the garage where it was flat, took them apart and re-assembled them in their final spot because that area is slightly sloped. If you have help to carry them, you don't even have to take them apart again. It was much easier when I built 4 x 4's than when I built 4 x 10's as I could move the boxes alone without having to disassemble them.

If you're feeling adventurous and decide to build them, if you get stuck on something, just ask here. Folks love to tell how to build stuff.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

Lowraine,

I am in NC as well. Would you tell me where you found your Vermiculite for $15. Thanks !!

Thanks Luke and Greenbean -- you have given me the confidence that I can do this myself. I own a basic corded power drill, and I think I can convince the Lowes/Home Depot/lumber place to make the additional cuts for me, even if I have to pay a bit for them. After thinking about the cost of the dirt, I really don't want to add another large expense to my budget!

I do not think I would even think about this if real people said that this was just not hard.... I will report back!

Also -- I just found plans from Sunset for building one of these -- very thorough, lots of little niceties in the design, and free on their web site. I'll post under a new thread, as I can believe that many might want to see it.