In this 60 square foot garden you can plant out 60 roma tomato plants. Drill & drill bits (this will be difficult to build with only a screwdriver!)īut about $200 isn’t bad to start a whole garden from scratch! Especially if you already have some of the materials laying around!Īnd think about it – fresh herbs and vegetables at the store are expensive! I probably saved myself money just in herbs alone by building this garden!Īnd if it sounds more on the expensive side to you, this about it this way.To build the frame and supporting beams for the trellis You can totally cut this out if you don’t grow any trellising vegetables – but that’s no fun! This is used for the trellis which is 30 feet long by 5 feet high. I always get the cheap bags of organic cow manure at Home Depot. You can substitute this for coco coir instead. Great first layer below the soil to kill the grass and weeds. I didn’t use the whole box, but these are always good to have around! I used the exterior self-drilling screws. The rest got cut into 2 foot lengths for the sides and middle supports. 20 of them didn’t need cutting at all since they make up the front and back of the boxes. These get cut into 11 inch lengths to be the corners and support posts (2 of the fence pickets stacked equals 11 inches) I actually used scrap 4x4s, but I priced it out anyway to give you an idea. And then topped with an inch or two of compost! Vegetable Garden Start Up Costs Quantity Or you can use my formula which is basically half organic compost, half peat moss. If you want to buy pre-made mix, be prepared to spend a lot more on soil. This was (again) mainly for cost, but since I started mixing my own soil I’ve also noticed my plants doing much better! I also decided to make my own raised bed soil mix instead of buying the pre-mixed bags. If you wanted to skip the pressure treated part, just know that cedar is your next best choice and it gets very expensive to build a raised bed garden using cedar. Now, I know that some gardeners may take issue with the “pressure treated” part, but in all the research I’ve done and my own experience the amount of chemicals that get into the soil is microscopic so I’ve never been too concerned about using these fence pickets! We decided to use pressure treated pine fence pickets, mostly because they are inexpensive. However, if you don’t grow as many trellising vegetables as I do, you can definitely reduce the trellis space, which will significantly reduce your costs! Each “box” is 6 feet, with a trellis that runs the entire length of the back 30 feet. Total, it is made up of 5 “boxes” which are connected with supporting beams in between. Plus, I’ll be using square foot gardening and succession planting to maximize the space! This will be enough to grow a significant number of herbs, lots of vegetables, and tons of salad greens. This garden is 30 feet long by 2 feet wide, and 11 inches deep. And if you’re looking for a step by step guide on starting your own vegetable garden, check out my gardening workbook! If you’re just getting started, however, you can always make your garden smaller and cut costs until you decide to expand later on. And it allowed us to grow all our own herbs and vegetables! My last garden costs upwards of $700, but was much larger as well. So these costs will vary depending on the size and features you add! But I did add in another section (right below) which gives you an estimate on how much you can expect to pay for your garden upkeep.Īlso, keep in mind that you can totally build a bigger garden, a smaller garden, a garden with more/less trellis space, etc. Now, these costs don’t include the cost of seeds, water, or regular maintenance. But since we bought most of our materials, I’ll assume you will to! So of course, you can build this exact same garden for much cheaper using only scrap materials. If you purchase a product through one of our affiliate links we make a small commission from the sale at no extra cost to our readers. Raised beg gardens vs in-ground gardeningĭisclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.Cost to maintain a vegetable garden – $50-$225.Vegetable garden start up costs – $203.02.We decided to build this garden to maximize the backyard space since we’re living with family while our dream homestead is being built! Vegetable Garden Costs: Before I got into gardening (many, many years ago) one of the first questions I asked was how much does a vegetable garden cost? And of course – being super frugal – the next question I asked myself was how to do it cheaper! So in this post I’ve broken down the costs for my most recent garden! Keep in mind that this garden is only 60 square feet total, which is a perfect raised bed garden for beginners.
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