Raised Beds - What to use? [merged]

r3nu4l

Well, I was on the lookout for railway sleepers so I could make some raised beds when my friend put me onto these Fixed log edgings from Argos

They aren't as deep as a railway sleeper but they are a cheaper and more convenient alternative They come in packs of 2 x 1M long and about 15cm deep. At the moment in Argos UK they come in a 'buy 2 get one free' deal so I bought 6 and got 3 free*.

So, I'm laying them out in the following fashion 2 raised rectangular beds, measuring 2M x 1M.

We'll be digging the soil underneath them and adding topsoil and compost on the top 15 cm I'll let you know how they work out once they've been laid and we've started planting into them.





*make sure you are near your car as they can be awkward to carry if you're buying lots of them.

TequilaMockingBird

How are you securing them?

I had a lawn edging that came on spikes, and it was stolen! :eek:

r3nu4l

sueme wrote: »

How are you securing them?

I had a lawn edging that came on spikes, and it was stolen! :eek:

Stolen? :eek:

Well, I am nailing them together at the corners, so that'll make them a little bit more difficult to lift and also less appealing. On top of that, I have a row of great big conifer trees at the back of the garden and a fence behind those and I live in a very low crime area. To top all of this off, most of the garden tool/equipment theft in the locality occurs in any of the 4 allotment sites nearby The English love their allotments, so do their burglars
Hopefully, it'll be okay.

/loads shotgun

The Sweeper

I need to make raised beds, because I'm on clay and I need to do something that'll help break it down and assist in drainage etc. I'd love to use sleepers, but they're expensive for the number of beds I'm looking at - especially considering I'm looking at raising beds to a height of closer to 45-60cms

I'm seriously considering a number of visits to our local tip over a few months, collecting half-pallets of bricks, wire, poles, tiles - anything I can get my hands on to build both walkways and help raise beds. (Thankfully I've the space to stash the junk.)

Any other suggestions on general materials - no specifics, I'm in Oz so they're not going to be of use to me - would be welcome.

r3nu4l

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

I'm seriously considering a number of visits to our local tip over a few months, collecting half-pallets of bricks, wire, poles, tiles - anything I can get my hands on to build both walkways and help raise beds. (Thankfully I've the space to stash the junk.)

Any other suggestions on general materials - no specifics, I'm in Oz so they're not going to be of use to me - would be welcome.

That's an excellent idea.

Okay, regarding drainage etc, Our soil is quite a heavy clay but over the 27 years that the previous owners had the house and the 40 years before that, there was as serious amount of digging done in the gardens and lots of gravel dug into the soil. It has meant that some of our parsnips had odd shapes, growing around the gravel (:)) but it works a treat. Probably a lot of work though...perhaps digging a lot of sand in might help either?

Regarding the raised beds. Search local classifieds or websites for people giving away old floorboards, joists or timber of any description even ones with woodworm. Paint them over with a suitable outdoor paint and basically stack them between stakes in the ground. If someone is getting rid of an old fence or shed, you can cut it to more managable sizes and use that. It won't look amazingly pretty but who the hell cares as long as you can fill it with topsoil and grow some decent veg?

bmaxi

I've always found the best alternative to sleepers are scaffolding planks. use 9"x3" x whatever length to whatever height, secure at each corner and in the centre with 2"x2" timber stakes driven into the ground. Treat the whole lot with a good preservative and they'll see you out. They will also contain serious weight of soil which may not be the case with lighter or damaged material.

leex

Are preservatives on the planks or sleepers not dangerous in that they can soak into clay and contaminate the plants? I'm sure i have seen this on many forums.

r3nu4l

leex wrote: »

Are preservatives on the planks or sleepers not dangerous in that they can soak into clay and contaminate the plants? I'm sure i have seen this on many forums.

It depends on what you use to be honest, it's always best to use as natural a material as you can imo but have a look at this for some better answers on common treatments.

foamcutter

Minesajackdaniels,
have a look at the site below for raised planters made from polystyrene foam

Raised planters

The Sweeper

Foamcutter, that link is all about water features. Am I looking in the wrong place on it?

r3nu4l

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Foamcutter, that link is all about water features. Am I looking in the wrong place on it?

On this page there is a bit of text that says "Planter boxes" but doesn't link to anything. There's one or two pictures of what may or may not be the planter boxes on the homepage...

/foamcutter, you wouldn't happen to be linked to this company in any way would you...perchance?

foamcutter

Minesajackdaniels.

The sites main product is water features but they also do raised planters. You can see some in the photo gallery.

r3nu4l,
Not linked to the company or connected except that we use the same material, foam.

r3nu4l

Thanks foamcutter Do these planters need to be treated if they are to be used outdoors? Also, I assume you'd need to get bespoke ones made if you wanted 4 pieces, say 2x3M long and 2x2M wide? Or 3 pieces that fitted together in a triangular shape? They could look great in a garden but theye'd need to be water proof and mould resistant too. Are they?

I've actually seen a better picture of one from another website *cough*. Wouldn't the cost of foam treatment and bespoke cutting add up to a fair amount?

foamcutter

Do these planters need to be treated if they are to be used outdoors?

Yes they can be covered in glassfibre or render type system.

I assume you'd need to get bespoke ones made if you wanted 4 pieces, say 2x3M long and 2x2M wide? Or 3 pieces that fitted together in a triangular shape?

Yes basically any shape is possible we try and minimise the number of joints/pieces.

Wouldn't the cost of foam treatment and bespoke cutting add up to a fair amount?

It can depend on the size of the planter and how "handy" the client is.

The Sweeper

More on raised beds - got some pretty excellent-sounding instructions on a no-dig raised bed garden from the Better Homes and Gardens people down here, so I reckon I'm going to try this. Build up the sides of my beds first, then:

Layering the garden

Step 1 Lay down a 15cm layer of newspaper to act as a weed barrier. (Glossy pages take longer to break down.) Water well.

Step 2 Cover the newspaper with mulch (lucerne, straw or sugar cane) and water again. Mulch is important because it releases lots of nutrients after it breaks down and helps with drainage, which will protect your plants from root rot.

Step 3 Sprinkle with organic fertiliser such as well-rotted manure, blood and bone or Dynamic Lifter to ignite the decomposition process.

Step 4 Add more lucerne, followed by more fertiliser, watering thoroughly between the layers.

Step 5 Top off with 10cm of garden soil enriched with compost and water thoroughly.

I was thinking of doing this at the start of our winter, throwing kitchen scraps in there as well, adding a bucket of compost worms and covering the beds with shade cloth for the winter and leaving them to it. Can anyone see any problems/disadvantages with the above? The BH&G people seem to think a bed created in this way is pretty much instantly usable for planting veggies in, but I'd rather let it sit for a bit - not least because the level is going to drop as the worms do their job.

Húrin

Are bricks suitable for making raised beds?

The Sweeper

Bricks are supposed to be okay if used properly. You will probably need to mortar them in if you use the ones with three holes that go straight through - if you can manage to get a bunch of hand-pressed bricks, the ones with a dent in the top and bottom, apparetnly you can just stack them. As with all things, the common sense rule applies - if you're stacking over three or four rows of bricks, better to fix them than just stack them.

Planet X

Doing a few raised beds this winter for next year. Veg. Considered Sleepers. Too costly....leaching chemicals?

Anyway, tell me where to buy and what type of wood to buy to build frames. Ideally, hardwood for longevity. Pricey!

Suggestions?

Cheers.

mossym

build them with some nice brick? roadstone have a nice range. or your local garden center, may be a bigger project than you want, you'll need cement, sand..and a bit of sill to lay them..

The Sweeper

Planet X - sleepers - these aren't necessarily re-used railway sleepers full of kreosote and oil. 'Sleeper' refers to any big, thick length of squared off wood - you can buy treated pine sleepers in a garden centre, and by 'treated pine' they mean the wood's been treated to withstand rain and weather as opposed to treated so it leeches crap into your soil.

I would agree that they're expensive, though. Raised beds generally can be expensive - there's the material to support the raised sides, then there's the soil filling itself, which can be even more expensive than the material unless you're fortunate enough to be doing an excavation somewhere that means you can use your own topsoil.

What depth are you looking at for your beds? Do you want the finish to have clean lines with new material, or are you willing to ad lib?

I'm facing a similar issue myself because I want to put raised beds in our new garden. I asked them to leave the topsoil from the site cut after they started building so I have a nine foot high, twenty foot wide pile of earth to use to fill my beds. Even so, there's a point at which budget vs creativity becomes really difficult.

The new garden image I have in my head for my own garden - the best way I can describe it is like when you buy 'weathered jeans'. Yes, you've bought a new item, but the material has been previously distressed, has some holes in it, the colour has been leeched in some places and generally they look battered, but they're really brand new so structurally they're holding together marvellously. This means I can use as much old and recycled material as possible.

I'm prepared to make repeated trips to the local dump to get materials I can use in our garden - especially palettes of bricks, pieces of wood and lenths of wire mesh. I'm okay if my beds don't match each other because I'm happy with an eclectic mix of designs (to a point). It's like a dinner set - 12 matching plates is pretty, but 12 completely different plates can also be pretty. It's when you have 10 matches and two odd ones out what it starts to look crap.

Nonmonotonic

Materials and cost are dependent on the size and permanency of the bed. If its one big one you are going to have to do some civil engineering! You could try several small ones to keep cost ( and crane numbers ) down.

Something like this perhaps (see link to construction). You probably wont need the Gopher wire!

NickTellis

I've a good bit of leftover decking - I presume these would be up to the job as well if I give them a coat or 2 of wood stain?

Minder

NickTellis wrote: »

I've a good bit of leftover decking - I presume these would be up to the job as well if I give them a coat or 2 of wood stain?

I used decking boards for a large raised bed - 3.4m on the long sides, L shaped and four boards high (520mm). It has weathered well and the sides show no sign of strain or bowing.

TBH I think the 6" x 2" timbers in the american example are beautiful, but that sure is overkill for a bed that is 300mm deep. Time will tell.

The Sweeper

Hmm have just watched video excerpt and read factsheet from someone who's using sugar cane bales in conjunction with a bed that's more 'defined' than 'raised'... They've had fantastic results over the course of 12 months...

God I change my mind on how to do these at least three times every day.

tommo22

Just an idea for you, it is what I have done:
Basically, build a small fence. Put down a few short stakes and put horizontal cross-timbers on them, one across the top, one across the bottom. Treated timber is best.
Then, screw on lengths of timber vertically, with a decorative top (rounded or pointed etc). Space the timbers around 1 inch apart, all along the length of you flower bed. Be sure to put weed control fabric behind your little "fence" to keep the soil in place. Then backfill with soil/compost etc.

arse..biscuits

I built one last week.

Six 6x2
One 4x3
One box of screws

All from chadwicks for €70.

Its about 12 foot long by 6 foot wide and 1 foot deep.
Took about 2 hours to build.

Planet X

What type of wood arse biscuits?

arse..biscuits

Don't know to be honest. It wasn't too hard, easy enough to screw together. If your anywhere near Dublin city centre I'll show you it if you like, its in a small allotment.

The Sweeper

The 'fence' idea is cute. We have a short, steep slope at the front of our garden that I want to work on a little. I'd like to step it (too little to use 'terrace' as a word, too dramatic) and plant it, and I think I might use the fence idea because I could plant trailing things through the fence... hmmmm....

OldGoat

I'm thinking of putting in a couple of raised beds for vegitables this spring and so I am trying to find a source for old scafolding boards to use. Does anyone have any construction tips? Does planting in a raised bed actually produce an earlier crop?

arse..biscuits

Heres the raised bed I built
I put that plastic sheet underneath to stop weeds coming up through.
Only some salad in it at the moment as it was only built recently.

OldGoat

arse..biscuits wrote: »

Heres the raised bed I built
I put that plastic sheet underneath to stop weeds coming up through.
Only some salad in it at the moment as it was only built recently. <Snip>

Was the timber pre-treated when you bought it?
Love the scarecrows behind it.

arse..biscuits

No, we had a half a bucket of it lying around so used that.

Those scare crows do nothing :mad:

r3nu4l

Did you pole holes in the plastic sheet to allow water to drain through? I didn't put anything under my raised beds, thankfully everything is growing well in them and we've removed all (I think) of the caterpillars from the cabbages... :mad:

arse..biscuits

r3nu4l wrote: »

Did you pole holes in the plastic sheet to allow water to drain through? I didn't put anything under my raised beds, thankfully everything is growing well in them and we've removed all (I think) of the caterpillars from the cabbages... :mad:

I didn't put any holes in it, I figured the water can drain away at the sides. It's my first time doing this and I'm no expert so it's trial and error. I've since heard that laying down news papers is good as they will mulch after some time.

GetGrowing

There's a good discussion about the pros and cons of raised beds here:

http://transitionculture.org/2008/02/20/on-a-level-the-early-days-of-my-on-the-contour-raised-bed-garden/

Ballylad

Hi,
I am putting up raised beds in poliytunnel, grass was killed off, should I put down plastic over the area and put raised beds on top or dig area where raised beds are going before putting in the raised beds. Beds will be filled to 34cm with topsoil/compost mixture. Any suggestions much appreciated

Harry Palmr

Just dig over the area the bed will cover, some crops will need to grow down as well as up even if the beds are over a foot high. Not sure why you'd think to cover the area in plastic - the beds would be denied a source of nutrients from below while risk being flooded from above!

(epic thread bump by the way!)