Raised Bed vs Sod replacement costs

16 years ago

Hi,

I guess this might have been posted on a number of different forums, but I feel "at home" here so I'll go ahead and post here .

Just had my douglas fir (2x6' s and 2x12's) raised beds for my main veggie garden put together today and will have 10 cu yds of county compost (100% green waste broken down very finely) put in place tomorrow for fill. I know I'll have to replace the doug fir in a few years, but at least I can now afford to get going on the garden (and will replace the wood over time). I've got 2 - 2 foot tall beds (one 5x8 and the other 3x8), and - at 6" high - 3 - 16 x 3 beds, and 2 - 16 x 5 beds (double rows of tomatoes).

The beds are going over a double layer of wet cardboard over lawn.

The beds are in an area of lawn about 1500 SF. We're paying a bunch each month for lawn mowing (I'm disabled enough not to be able to mow the lawn myself easily) and have wanted to reduce the lawn area on our lot. The landscape company gave us an estimate of about $1/sf to remove the sod, kill anything growing there, put down landscape cloth and cover with mulch. My raised beds, including delivery of materials, construction, and delivery and placement of compost came to less than $750. So, much to my (pleasant) surprise, it's about half as much to put in raised beds than it is to take out lawn and replace it with mulch (at least in our area and using the cardboard method to kill the grass).

I'm now thinking about expanding into the more public areas of our yard - putting in low maintence but attractive "edible landscaping." We're on a corner lot with about an 80' long 10' wide grass strip to the side of the house along a dead-end street. I plan to put in raised beds with artichoke plants, landscape cloth and a drip system. VERY low maintenance. In the small square of lawn between our driveway and the neighbors, I may do a wildflower or sunflower bed. Any other ideas for low-maintenace but attractive raised bed options for public view? I think whatever I put in would probably be more appealing than wood chips or gravel.

This is a house we recently moved into and the sprinkler system has 9 zones and widely spaced sprinkler heads. I'm planning to remove all the sprinkler heads in the veggie areas, install risers and pipe thread to hose thread connectors for soak hose. I'll just let the grass die off between the beds - or maybe put down landscape cloth with a wood chip covering ($5/cu yd from the county landfill).

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention this. I, frankly, was impressed by the fact that I could have great raised beds for veggies for about 50% of what I might have to spend to take out "useless" lawn area I'd just have to have mowed and watered for no good reason.

FWIW!

Anne

Comments (8)

sinfonian
16 years ago
Beware of weeds in your dying grass. Weeds don't need much water and will thrive with the runoff of compost nutrients.

Great to hear you are going the route of useful landscaping rather than simply killing the grass. It's incredible that it's even cheaper!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden in progress...
aclum
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Sinfonian,

What amazed me is not just that it's cheaper, but that it's 50% cheaper!! I had no idea.

Raised beds everywhere now for me (within reason of course )! I'll still have a "socially acceptable" amount of lawn in public view and in the backyard within our chain link area for us and the dogs, but getting real costs of things recently has been a real eye-opener. We're paying $250/mo just for lawn mowing. Cutting this in half should pay off the costs of the raised beds over not too much time.

I'm not too worried about weeds in the lawn here. For some reason, that doesn't seem to be a problem at all (thankfully!).

Anne
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Belgianpup
16 years ago
Isn't it wonderful when something all comes together, and it's cheaper??? (visualize a little smiley who is rubbing his hands gleefully)

If possible, I would advise putting the cardboard down carefully (dry), then setting the frames ON TOP of them. This eliminates that little gap at the edges where that slumbering Weed From Hell can find it's way into the bed and has a taproot that goes to China.

Landscape cloth with wood chips on top should be fine, with a caveat: the chips will eventually break down, forming a kind of soil that weeds will grow in. And some of it will wash away, and some will blow away. Just keep an eye on it and top it off with a fresh layer when you need to. Nothing lasts forever. Make sure the landscape cloth is the heavy stuff, the other kind is worthless.

In that bed between the driveways, if it is close enough to the street to obstruct vision when backing into the street, keep the plantings below car-window level.

It sounds wonderful! Like the old song says, We Shall Overcome!

Sue
bejay9_10
16 years ago
For that low-maintenance, attractive public view - consider herbs. I have rosemary, thyme, oregano, mints (although invasive)- which are perennial here - growing like ground cover - mostly in places such as under trees, to take up space and keep down weeds. They won't take a lot of water either.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay
magnolias4ever
16 years ago
Wow -- 50% less. Amazing! Plus look how much you will benefit in the long run with fresh vegetables for your meals. I also agree with Bejay, consider herbs for your "public view". You may even make a few new friends if you let some of the chefs in your neighborhood come over to harvest some of the goodies :-)

Judy

Here is a link that might be useful: Ft2Garden.com
gardenlen
16 years ago
all i can say anne is you are on the right track just let the mind be inventive and you will succeed. in the end it's realy too easy hey?

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page
aclum
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the suggestions on herbs - sounds good to me!

The compost was delivered and put in my beds today. It is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS stuff!! No way I could get something like this mixing up things out of bags. It's rich, dark, and has a great texture thoughout.

"My guys" went to the landfill and paid for 10 cu yds and were told they got that amount. But when everything was in place, it was obvious they were short changed so I called the landfill. They doubled checked on things and said, "Oh you only got 7 cu yds, come back and we'll give you the rest." So the guys went back and they gave them an additional 7 cu yds (instead of just 3)! So I've got my beds totally filled and mounded up with more compost (which will probably settle out to level after a few months), plus a nice additional pile to use in additional beds or my salad tables. The guys said that the bulldozer driver had to drive up this mountain of muck at the base of the pile and was sliding all around. They thought they got extra just because the bulldozer driver didn't want to have to go back up the mountain if the order was still short .

Anyway, I'm so pleased with the outcome and I have to give credit where credit is due - to all the people responding to my various posts here on the forum!

Thanks everyone!!
Anne
ediej1209 AL Zn 7
16 years ago
Wow - that is so great! How about some rhubarb to go in one of the herb beds? With it's red stems it makes a nice contrast to the green herbs, with the added bonus that you only need to plant it once and it comes back.

Have fun!

Raised Bed vs Sod replacement costs

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sinfonian

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Raised Bed vs Sod replacement costs

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sinfonian

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