My New Bed

First let me say THANK YOU! to a bunch of Great people on this Forum. Relocating from Zone 4 to Zone 9 has been a learning experience to say the least, I had run out of space in my beds which is normal for me, While reading some of the posts on the forum, someone was talking about getting some new 4X4 beds made of cedar at WM for cheep, Cheep is good in my book so off I go to WM, on the way I go by HD Have to stop in Just to look around I found a big stack of Cedar fence boards 6' X 6" X  1/2, so I pick up 4 of them and 4 - 2x3 made of pine. when I got home I cut two of the cedar boards to 4" cut 8-6" pieces of the 2 X 3s  to reinforce the corners used the 2x3s as a top rail ended up with a 4 X 6 bed for less than $20.00 I kind of  made up my own mix, Thanks to the Forum I found where to buy Vermiculite so I used Vermiculite - Lady Bug raised bed mix - Pete moss they used core in the mix a good helping of bone meal, lime, Diatomaceous earth and Texas greensand. Toped it off with a grid made up with PVC pipe that I had on hand 3/4 for the long runs 1/2 on for the short all held in place with nails driven into the top rail. I tried using slats from an old vinyl window shade on my older beds but having to use so much mulch down here because of the heat I ended up burying the slats. PS I never did make it to WM

Newbeone, I'm glad you are having a good time gardening. There is nothing more satisfying than finding a good deal! The only thing better is free!

How did the mulch work and what did you end up using?

I have all my friends and neighbors (I've been blessed with good neighbors) saving their leaves for me, I run over them several times with the mower and use that for mulch.

Yay!  Can't wait to hear your adventures as all your northern neighbors are putting our gardens to sleep for a while!