I don't have any experience with those particular products. My thinking though is the more natural the item the better. Plus, plastics can leach chemicals into the soil (especially when it gets hot and then rains!) that you may not really want to be in your food.

Oh, and the wood is less expensive, bigger, and more natural?! It would be a no-brainer for me in favor of the wood, but maybe you know something about the plastic product that I don't...:-)

I would go with wood too, Do you have to use a kit, because I am pretty sure the lumber is a lot less when it does not have the word 'Kit' attached. They will cut it to order also. I would see what the kit includes, and go put it together myself. But I am about as frugal as they come.
I know I am really bad with dimensions and stuff, but how do you get a 4 x 12 from 2 4 x 4s? I keep getting a 4 x 8.

Redwood/Cedar and very good for outdoor beds. Check Craigslist for people ripping up decks giving away the wood, or selling the wood cheap. Raised beds are easy to build....

Don't use wood that has been treated for chemicals. Like an old deck or something like that. Most wood sold at a home depot for building has been treated with something or many different chemicals.

I purchased a raised bed kit from sams club. It is made of composite material that saves 30 pounds of plastic and wood flour from the landfill. Unlike wood versions, this Raised Bed Garden won't rot or disintegrate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Raised bed garden kit

Not Most wood, TREATED wood, kiln dried is just that. I do not trust plastic, however recylced it is not to leach goodness knows what into the soil. One of my neighbors built his deck out of that wonderful recylced stuff, 5 years later it is looking pretty bad. You can get kiln dried cedar, 1 x 8 x 8 for about $20.00, so it is really not that much cheaper to build, since the kits are 4 x 4.
Anyway, wood seems much more friendly to me. just my.002.

I question whether wood rot is a concern in Vegas. I used to live in Palm Springs, CA, and wood rot was not among the challenges in gardening. Is your native soil sandy? If so, I would go with the deepest bed you can for as much soil as you can, which will hopefully hold more water during your intense summers. Good luck.

Hi. New to gardening and am building a raised bed. I am using 4 x 4 cedar timbers and will go 3 high. This will make my bed just a bit more than 10 inches deep. I have seen a lot of landscape fabric haters out there!!! My question is would it be a good idea to line the bottom and sides of my bed with landscape fabric before adding my dirt?

Hi Harvey Horses,
I had the same question at first, but here is how two 4 x 4s equal a 4 x 12.....You can lay it out with matchsticks to see the visual if you want. A 4 x 4 uses four sides, a 4 x 8 uses 6 sides. A 4 x 12 uses 8 sides. Two 4x4 kits contain 8 sides.

in other words: both of the 4 x 4s have four sides, but you don't use the fourth side when you stick them together. You are just using three sides of each (U shape to U shape). That leaves you two extra sides and you stick those in the middle and the 4 x 4s now equal 4 x 12.

I am not that handy, so trying to build these myself is not impossible, but I will spend a lot of time trying to save a little. I might even have 10% off coupons to save even more if I buy the premade stuff.

Melikeeatplants...good idea. I will check craigslist. I want to use things that don't have bugs or diseases in them, so I would have to figure out a way to clean used boxes. But, still, I'll look. Maybe someone has a new one for sale?

I am definitely leaning toward the wood. If they don't last forever, that's ok. I can replace them later. I'm not that thrilled with the plastic versions. I too am afraid of stuff leaching into my soil. Thanks everyone who mentioned that.

fyi....if anyone is looking into the "frame it all" kits I discovered that if you wanted a large garden, DO NOT buy the large kits they sell. You will save a lot if you buy enough smaller kits to make them as large as you want. For example, 4 of the 4x4x6" kits will make an 8x8x12" garden, but the 8x8 garden can cost up to $450...and 4 of the smaller kits can be purchased for as little as $160.

JenniferHyatt,

Of the two choices, I would go with the Cedar. I have had outdoor plastic products (among others a round garden bed) let me down quickly but with wood you will know what you are getting (unless it is just a less desirable type of wood with a stain that they are calling Cedar.)

I have had good luck using 6"x8"x16" concrete blocks with 3 on a side in a pinwheel configuration (place 3 blocks in a row, turn the next block 90 degrees - that block is the first block of the next side, repeat). The cost is about $12 for a bed that is 4'6" square to the outside of the blocks (12 blocks total). You can plant in the holes.

If you wanted to place pavers on the top of the blocks for a low seating surface, it might be easier to use the 8"x8"x16" blocks with the 8x16 pavers (sold in the garden area of the Home Depot) - be sure to offset the pattern so that the end of the paver does not match up with the underlying block. The resulting bed built like this would be 4'8" square to the outside of the blocks and have a material cost of about 30 dollars = 12 8x8x16 blocks with 12 8x16 pavers.

The main benefit of the concrete blocks other than cost, insect resistance, and durability is that they can be fairly easily reconfigured over time as needed.

Hope this helps! Best of luck!

Had to add that the last bed description that I gave with the 8x8x16 blocks and the pavers would have a depth of 10 inches total.

Thank you, now is seems like a 'duh' kind of question.
Must add I have gone to raised beds almost entirely and am VERY happy with them. We get the occasional heavy downpour, last night 1 1/2 inches, and the drainage makes a huge difference.
Good luck! (updates are good too, I am nosey)

Just for though, here in Minn. we have a lumber yard where one can get rough cut "exotic" truly weather proof/resistant wood such as Teak and others.
I once carries an eight quarter by twelve inch by eight foot board, sixty miles home on top of my car.

The price for rough cut lumber is far cheaper than one expects and some of the foreign woods will last a life-time.
It might be worth checking in your area.

I was going to sugest a local lumberyard too, or a sawmill. We used to get oak fence boards for way less than a box store.