Did you know that you don’t have to spend a small fortune just to build a raised garden bed for your veggies?
Kait Welch, an urban homesteader, has her mind set on a self-sufficient lifestyle that emphasizes zero-waste living.
And she has a tip for everyone who wants to learn how to save money when making garden beds!
Here’s her advice!
The Process
Kait Welch starts the video by reminding us how expensive raised beds can get if you fill them all the way up with soil.
And the thing is, you don’t even need that much soil to begin with!
She starts by laying a biodegradable weed barrier in her 17-inch Vego bed. Welch uses cardboard, which is a great option as it’s inexpensive and you can even get it for free sometimes.
Then I fill it almost all the way up with sticks, continues the homesteader. She leaves about three inches at the top, but it depends on the raised bed you use.
Welch adds a layer of shredded leaves afterwards so not all of the soil sinks under, and she tops it all off with her growing medium.
She uses a mixture of potting soil, compost, and topsoil, which ensures great drainage and is essential for raised beds.
Always water that soil in before you start to plant to see if it will settle, is the last tip Welch finishes her video with.
The Benefit
One of the benefits of building a raised bed yourself and filling it with the method Kait showed is saving money.
These things can get quite expensive, especially if you have to buy bags and bags of premade soil. But if you use cardboard, branches, sticks, and shredded leaves from your backyard to fill the bed up, you’ll save an incredible amount of money.
Also, all these materials are organic and will decompose over time, enriching the soil with more nutrients.
There are loads more tips that can help you fill your garden bed cheaply, and Kait shows one of them – preparing your own soil.
Instead of buying 30 bags of potting soil, you can get by with 10 or even less. Mix them with homemade compost and add topsoil, which is $2-$5 dollars per bag.
Finally, this method of filling your garden beds gives you a chance to recycle all the waste that would otherwise go to landfill.
The Reaction
Kait’s dog jumping on the bed at the end of the video didn’t ruin it. Meeko just proved that everything Welch did was spotless.
I was thinking it would sink it. Doggy proved me wrong, said one platform user.
Some users ask Kait for advice: where they can buy the same bed or find branches to fill it up, while others offer their own.
This is a great idea. Thank you, mentions one platform user.