Raised beds

[nnl]

What is the cheapest and easiest way of building raised beds?

[smudge]

Do you mean In the garden or the bedroom?

[rod]

long legs!

[cheyenne]

try bunk beds!!

[zgma]

I'm guessing you mean garden beds.

One good easy way is to get cinder blocks and build them 2-3 blocks high, no wider than 4 ft across, and anywhere from 4-8 feet long.  This has an added benefit of giving you the holes in the cinderblocks in which you can plant herbs or strawberries.  However, they tend to be rather ugly.

Another relatively easy way is to get 2x6 planks of untreated redwood, cedar, or other rot-resistant wood, and 4x4s for the corners.  You could make the 4x4's longer than the height of the bed, sharpen the edges, and use them for stakes, or you could just make them the same height as the bed and depend on the weight of the soil to keep the bed in place.   You'll want to make sure the wood is untreated, or you'll have chemicals leaching into your veggie garden.

I would make the wooden beds about a foot to 18 inches tall - so, 2-3 boards high, and 3-4 feet wide, 4-6 feet long.  Any longer than that, and the boards will bow out from the weight of the soil.

To make the wooden beds, the 4x4s go in the inside corners - so nail the boards accordingly.

A good trick is to line the bottom (when you've got it in place) with a layer or two of corrugated cardboard, and get it soaking wet before adding the soil.  This will keep weeds from growing into your bed long enough for the weed seeds to die (except for something nasty like crabgrass), and will eventually turn into compost.