Build or buy a raised bed: which costs less?

What the comparison counts

The bed you build is one of our plans. What it lists to buy is the plan’s own cut list, and its soil is measured inside its walls, less any posts that stand inside them. The kit is a size from our catalogue: its soil comes from its inside measurements where the maker gives them, and otherwise from the maker’s stated capacity in proportion to the depth, the way the soil calculator counts it. Where a maker’s figure is more than the bed’s listed length, width and depth can hold, the kit is counted from that listed size instead.

Both are filled to the same depth with the same soil. A bed can hold no more than its walls are tall, so a depth deeper than one side counts that side full. Each ingredient is rounded up to whole bags on each side, so two beds a cubic foot apart can differ by a bag of each. A bulk delivery is charged at the supplier’s minimum load when that is more than the bed takes. The bed alone and the whole project are added up separately, and a price you leave blank is never counted as free.

Beds sold as 4 × 8 ft don’t all hold the same soil

By their makers’ figures (or their listed size, where a maker’s figure is more than that size holds), the 26 kit sizes we list as 4 × 8 ft and at least 10 inches deep hold 23.3 to 27.2 cubic feet of soil filled 10 inches deep. Our 4 × 8 cedar plan holds 23.8, measured inside its walls. Compare the soil, not the size on the box: the last line of the comparison divides each whole project by its square feet of soil, so a cheaper bed that holds less is not taken for a bargain.

Cheaper ways to build

The fence-picket bed takes the least wood of any of our plans: 6 cedar fence pickets, one 8-ft 2 × 2 and 40 screws for a bed 5 ft 10 in by 3 ft. Pickets are ⅝ inch thick against 1½ inches for a 2 × 6, so it will not last as long as a bed of thicker boards. The concrete block bed needs no saw and no screws: 40 blocks stacked two high. The corner-bracket bed has no posts and two saw cuts. Which of them costs least depends on what your store charges, so put each into the comparison with your own prices. All our plans, with their drawings, are in the raised garden bed plans.

For the soil, the bagged vs bulk soil calculator compares bags with a bulk load for all your beds at once, and the guide to filling a raised bed cheaply covers what can go under the soil in a deep bed.

What it leaves out

Tools you already own, your time, and anything both beds need alike, such as a liner or hardware cloth under the soil. Sales tax counts only where you add it, in a price or under “Anything else”.

To choose a kit first, browse the raised beds we list by size, height and material; a bed’s page opens it in this comparison.