Raised Bed Options

Hi folks,

We recently had our garden landscaped and are very happy with the job.

We put in fencing at the bottom of the garden and had to put in two concrete panels at the bottom (see pic) as the garden behind us is at a higher level and there is an earth bank with trees in it. I was afraid of any slippages in the bank damaging the PVC panels.

I'd like to build a raised bed along the base of the fence covering the lower concrete panel and grow some veg and or herbs and maybe put in some colour.

The raised beds in the foreground are Kilsaran wall blocks but was hoping to build bed here myself with something cheaper and a bit simpler.

Has anyone any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks in advance.

rje66

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Hi folks,

We recently had our garden landscaped and are very happy with the job.

We put in fencing at the bottom of the garden and had to put in two concrete panels at the bottom (see pic) as the garden behind us is at a higher level and there is an earth bank with trees in it. I was afraid of any slippages in the bank damaging the PVC panels.

I'd like to build a raised bed along the base of the fence covering the lower concrete panel and grow some veg and or herbs and maybe put in some colour.

The raised beds in the foreground are Kilsaran wall blocks but was hoping to build bed here myself with something cheaper and a bit simpler.

Has anyone any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Cheapest and simplest ways would be concrete blocks. Either 4" solid or cavity. Either will work. A capping on top of your choice. Plaster blocks. Bear in mind it will need a lot of soil to fill it if you build it 2 blocks high, which will cover the concrete panels under fence. OR
just paint the concrete panels grey!!

Harry Palmr

In terms of the overall size and shape I'd stay clear of the wall on the right and the shed for purposes of both access and weight. So have a workable gap of a couple of feet either side and you can clean the blockword and paint it to meld into the overall look. A job to do first.

Making a bed that long from timber means you'll really have to break it up into sections like three beds put along side each other - a two or three long planks with no strengthening other than the verticals they'd be screwed to would be a weak and prone to flexing unless you had a vertical buttress every metre or so (it's best to have those on the outside not the inside for strength purposes). I'm guessing at this but you'd get about four to five tonnes of earth in there by the look of it.

On the other hand given access to maintain the beds would be harder with one long bed which will be quite deep it might actually make for sense to go with three complete separate "island" beds with a metre gap between them.

The height and width is up to you really, at least a meter back to front and half a metre high, if the back of the beds are planted up with shrubs that are flowering evergreens then you'll vanish the concrete pretty much and then grow the veg and herbs in front. Or to buy yourself more space you could just put in "rustic timbers" as backing above the beds and forget about shrubbery.

ted1

A couple of decking boards would probably be the easiest and quickest

Break up it with a bench or two

rje66

rje66 wrote: »

Cheapest and simplest ways would be concrete blocks. Either 4" solid or cavity. Either will work. A capping on top of your choice. Plaster blocks. Bear in mind it will need a lot of soil to fill it if you build it 2 blocks high, which will cover the concrete panels under fence. OR
just paint the concrete panels grey!!

Thanks. Don't want to go with block and plaster as they are very hard to maintain (they look great at the start but they need constant painting to keep the look) and I don't have the skills to do that myself.

Painting an option...

ted1

ted1 wrote: »

A couple of decking boards would probably be the easiest and quickest

Break up it with a bench or two

Where would you put the decking boards?

Harry Palmr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

In terms of the overall size and shape I'd stay clear of the wall on the right and the shed for purposes of both access and weight. So have a workable gap of a couple of feet either side and you can clean the blockword and paint it to meld into the overall look. A job to do first.

Making a bed that long from timber means you'll really have to break it up into sections like three beds put along side each other - a two or three long planks with no strengthening other than the verticals they'd be screwed to would be a weak and prone to flexing unless you had a vertical buttress every metre or so (it's best to have those on the outside not the inside for strength purposes). I'm guessing at this but you'd get about four to five tonnes of earth in there by the look of it.

On the other hand given access to maintain the beds would be harder with one long bed which will be quite deep it might actually make for sense to go with three complete separate "island" beds with a metre gap between them.

The height and width is up to you really, at least a meter back to front and half a metre high, if the back of the beds are planted up with shrubs that are flowering evergreens then you'll vanish the concrete pretty much and then grow the veg and herbs in front. Or to buy yourself more space you could just put in "rustic timbers" as backing above the beds and forget about shrubbery.

Lovely ideas there, thanks. I was hoping to put something a lot shallower - nowhere near a metre as I don't want to lose that much garden space. Do you think that's an option?

ted1

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Where would you put the decking boards?

You put them in their side and stack them.
Like this :

https://www.kezzabeth.co.uk/2015/05/building-raised-bed-with-deck-boards.html

Or get 2 or 3 of these and put them by the back wall.

https://www.timbertrove.com/raised-bed-3846-p.asp

Harry Palmr

dancinpants,

It's hard to be sure how much space you have from a photo, but as ever you have to strike a balance between lawn (boo!) and beds (yay!) narrower beds and you'll just grow less that's all. or you'll just need to sow crops that take up less space per unit.

Darando

Could make raised bed with railway sleepers (screw together for strength)..many designs online and you don't need the whole length to be a raised bed. Just measure a few things out and see how it fits your space and lawn you want left.



https://imgur.com/f1yiW7a
https://imgur.com/hNAxlTq

ted1

Darando wrote: »

Could make raised bed with railway sleepers (screw together for strength)..many designs online and you don't need the whole length to be a raised bed. Just measure a few things out and see how it fits your space and lawn you want left.



https://imgur.com/f1yiW7a
https://imgur.com/hNAxlTq

Sleepers can be expensive and coated with cancergenics so no use for growing vegetables.

Harry Palmr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

dancinpants,

It's hard to be sure how much space you have from a photo, but as ever you have to strike a balance between lawn (boo!) and beds (yay!) narrower beds and you'll just grow less that's all. or you'll just need to sow crops that take up less space per unit.

Thanks. I have two small kids so I'm going to try and keep as much lawn as I can for now. It's a very good sized urban garden but we have a large patio already and don't want to squeeze the lawn as will need space for football etc.

Darando

ted1 wrote: »

Sleepers can be expensive and coated with cancergenics so no use for growing vegetables.

missed the bit about growing veg and herbs..

Does that go for the new lightweight "sleepers"? (not the old reclaimed cresote coated sleepers which I understand can be toxic)

standardg60

Darando wrote: »

missed the bit about growing veg and herbs..

Does that go for the new lightweight "sleepers"? (not the old reclaimed cresote coated sleepers which I understand can be toxic)

No it doesn't, and they would be the best solution. You would need to stake them to hold the soil and do line them with plastic membrane as they're not as resilient as normal sleepers.

looksee

Which way is that wall/fence facing? It would need to be south or southwest facing to get good light, there is a lot of shade from the fence, the shed and the side wall.

I'd recommend the cavity blocks + plaster them approach, myself. Or you could adhesive some of the same slabs you have on your patio to the blocks, to make it all tie-in together.

If it's just to get rid of the visual of concrete, though, and you're not actually pushed on the garden part (but just using it as an option to cover them) then you could always just stick some artificial grass to the panels, or plant a few Laurel hedge plants.

looksee

looksee wrote: »

Which way is that wall/fence facing? It would need to be south or southwest facing to get good light, there is a lot of shade from the fence, the shed and the side wall.

House is south west so the fence is facing the north but gets loads of light until about 2pm - the new grass that was set is very lush there...

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd recommend the cavity blocks + plaster them approach, myself. Or you could adhesive some of the same slabs you have on your patio to the blocks, to make it all tie-in together.

If it's just to get rid of the visual of concrete, though, and you're not actually pushed on the garden part (but just using it as an option to cover them) then you could always just stick some artificial grass to the panels, or plant a few Laurel hedge plants.

Won't go with blocks and plaster but, yes, it's mostly about covering the lower concrete panel so may go with some hedging, though don't want to take up too much room.