They don't need to be this big, I got carried away on the first one! I should have made 2 or 3, 4'X8" beds, with 3' paths between them. I found it hard to pick the tomatoes in the middle without trampling down the soft soil.
Here is where recycling comes in, use what ever you have to build raised beds. In the photo, I used concrete blocks left over from our basement for the first two.
I told the mason that if I had to pay for the openings for windows and a door, that I wanted the blocks back. He brought them back. He did a terrible job on the basement, and took 6 months to finish, so I figured I should get something out of it!
On the small raised bed in the top left corner, I used 1"X6"X6' cedar fence boards and 4, 90 degree angle brackets. They cost alot less than cedar lumber.
In this 6' square bed we grew a ton of cucumbers.
In the second 6' square bed we planted strawberries.
Again, building raised beds is something you only have to do once. The next year all you have to do is turn the soil, maybe add more compost, and plant.