Barbalee said:I believe I need raised beds since I have nasty clay soil, but I have no idea how I, by myself, could construct one. Could cinder blocks straight on the ground with paper bags covering the current sod work??
Definitely. Many people use corrugated cardboard to cover sod - they say "it brings the worms". Me, I don't know.
I'd rather swing a mattock to chop the sod, and mix in crushed stone and bark to jump-start aeration into the root-zone-below-the-"raised"-bed. That way I have a raised bed whose root zone is encouraged to gradually enter and break up the clay below the raised part of the bed.
Cinder blocks will be very stable, but they are somewhat expensive and heavy. I find "paver stones" set on end to be lighter and cheaper (but my tallest wall is 18", since I can't stack paver stones on end:
Often the same spot looks very different in different photos. I like that about the paving stones: they are easier to move around than living room furniture. Every time I get a whim, I adjust where one bed ends and the next begins, or where the "sidewalk" is, or how high the walls are.
And I seldom "tidy" the walls, so each stone leans at a different angle. Those can be tidied up to lean at the same angle, but I seldom bother.
