The wife and I want to plant some veggies and things like blueberry, etc. I was thinking of making a raised garden bed out of cedar about 8' x 4' x 1'. Pretty easy project, but what i was wondering... is it even worth it/necessary? We live in Mel Bch and have typical sand soil. I want to get started asap, so any advice is welcome. Also, are there any local websites besides 2nd,Ishtar that I can post questions like this (gardeners sites), or is everything thru social media, which I don't use?

raised beds the way to go this soil of ares is very hard to work with

Def raised beds. That will semi-help keeping the critters out. Put up chicken fence as well.

Nothing worse than finally getting some vegies or fruit and finding them stripped overnight by coon, possum, rats, etc.

Cedar is probably not a good option as it rots pretty quickly, esp when in ground contact. (They are growing red cedar much more quickly which makes the rings farther apart and the wood much softer over the past 50 years. They brag about how quickly they can now grow lumber, but the wood is soft and not bug or weather resistant like it used to be. Same with cypress.) (I have a cedar house and it is NOT low maintenance.)

When we made the raised beds at Grace Lutheran, we made a PT wood frame and then used corrugated galvanized roofing panels for the side and end panels. Still in good shape and it's been a couple of years. Cheapest place I found it when I redid my shed roof was ABC Supply in Rockledge (corner of Murrell and Gus Hipp, one light south of Barnes).

Ooops, one light NORTH of Barnes.

Just re-read my post again. To further clarify, one light north of Barnes if you are on Murrell. There is no light at Gus Hipp if you are on US-1.

Blueberries like sand.