Raised Bed construction materials ?

[sarahkeast]

I will be making raised beds in the next couple of months [once the house renovations inside are habitable] and wondered if anyone had any bright ideas for what to make them out of ?

I have read about sleepers, gravel boards, decking, roof tiles and various scrounged up materials. I dont think I will be generating anything suitable from the house renovations so will be looking to get materials in.

One thing I had wondered about, but suspect my lack of knowledge [and occasional blondness ] will show through here, about using old car tires; cutting off the side walls and using the flat tread part opened out. Would this work ? do they have some sorted of wire stuff inside that would stop this working ?

Any other bright ideas, low cost is best !

Thanks

Sarah

[ElizabethBinary]

For tyres, don't even cut them, they make AWESOME potato beds since you can switch around the tyres when you want a new harvest.

That being said, I made one out of wood... my fiancee has made some out of corrogated iron (but he's a steelworker, so yeah...).... and we found these super old shipping crates in the firepit to go up in the back of his workshop that would be PERFECT... and all the trucking companies consider them rubbish when they've delivered their load... My fiancee has also (less organically) used these giant old oil cans for deisel trucks, cleaned them out and the cut them in half with a saw the size of my car and voila, flower beds. The lid even has a draining hole!

[liskeardjane]

If you have access to stacking pallets, and you can crow bar them apart and can be bothered to pull out all the nails, you can build raised beds from them and they can last for year. We have one so far and will make another in due course as we have the pallets and need some better weather to take them apart. I use dog food bags to grow things in and mushroom and veg cartons as seed trays - in fact anything to grow things. Builders merchants deliver sand and top soil in tonne bags, some people have the tonne bag craned in and grow direct in that. We don't have much soil so had to buy it and wished we hadn't spent hours emptying the bag when we could have grown directly in it.

[gdb]

I use sleepers. They are robust. Handsome. And last forever. They are also as cheap as cheap can be over here and can often be picked up lying by the roadside for nothing.

They do weigh a ton - so they can be tricky to move. But, once in place, just a stake or two or a bracket or two will fix them forever.

And, of course, you can stand on them. Which really does help to keep your wellies off the soil of the deep beds and so stops it getting compressed.

The drawback, according to some, is the leaching of chemicals from them.

But, personally, I pay no mind to that.

[grahamhobbs]

Before you build the raised beds ask yourself why? Unless they are for a specific reason eg, your topsoil is less than a spade deep or you want them high above the carrot fly, then they can end up more being trouble than they are worth. Unless you have gravel paths between, the grass will be impossible to cut and the whole thing will only encourage slugs. Easier to cut beds in the grass and keep the grass well mown.

Sleepers are now banned in this country because of the chemicals.

[gdb]

Oooo, I have to disagree with that last post - not about the sleepers being illegal. I'm sure Graham is right about that or at least knows a good deal more about it than I do - but about the need for raised beds.

I didn't have them, for many years. Then I had them. And nothing on earth would induce me to go without them now!

Properly done they are much more attractive than ordinary beds. Well done, they are very very very low maintenance. And, best of all, they are ultra ultra productive.

Here's the 1,2,3.

Mark out the plot.
Cover it with plastic. Two layers if you can afford it.
Cover that with gravel. Nice and deep ideally.
Mark out the beds.
Then edge the beds.
Rake away the gravel from inside those marked areas.
Dig. One spade, or preferably two spades, deep. Turn the soil over and break it all up.
Then top up/fill the beds with muck and topsoil. There will be settling but the veggies wont mind.

All you have to do, each year, is to top the soil up with a few barrows of good rotted muck. (Although on a root rotation that should be a barrow or two of topsoil).

Costs a bit? Yes.
Sounds a lot of work? Yes.

But once done you will never, ever, have to dig again.

And you will never be short of veg.

And long after you've left this earthly allotment behind, your grandchildren will be able to grow from those same beds - and still won't have to dig them!

[homegrown]

Recent articles are stating the the leachate from tires into you ground can be toxic, so I wouldn't reccomend using them for growing in. but there are lots of other materials that could be used

[The Honk]

I have raised beds (made from timber) because the soil below is mainly clay and very slow draining. I placed the soil on top of hardcore and gravel in the beds so they would drain better. Most of the timber and drainage material was recycled from the house renovation, cant wait for spring!

[frozenthunderbolt]

We use fishbins with holes drilled in the bottom - cheep and cheery uv stable plastic (which i abhor) but they ARE convenient and movable. we also make beds (and recently a potting table) from old pallet wood we collect from outside mitre 10 and other rural/hardware places.

[wulf]

At a previous flat, I built a 3' high one using gravel boards and some decking battens. We wanted a moderately high one to help alleviate some of the shade problems caused by high fences and a north facing situation. I was surprised (and pleased) to find that I didn't have problems with the sides bowing out because of the weight of the soil but, in my case, that was helped because most of the lower part of the bed was filled with rubble from an old path I dug out and so had a very stable foundation.

My plan for the place I'm in at the moment is half-raised beds. I'm thinking of using empty bottles to create a low wall along the back of each bed I make and then sloping the earth, which should reduce how much plants at the back shade plants at the front... I'll have to report back on that later in the year.

Wulf

[Cheezy]

Raised beds are great. Our plots flood, and my raised beds are the only ones that don't suffer. They also heat up quichker, and a grater variety of plants can be grown as many things will tolerate cold, but not water logged soil and cold.
I double dug underneather and put in leaf mould , then build beds on top. These are now non dig beds, I just dress the top with either muck or compost depending which crop rotation its on. So they could not be easier. As to the paths, yeah you get a lot of weeds, but it's no different from people leaving grass paths between non raised beds. I personally have put down weed suppressant membrane and the free road chipping we get from the council (they are black and absorb more heat)

Having a deeper soil depth also allows you to plant much more closely, I think it's easier to weed and if time is an issue takes alot less time to do.

Scaffolding boards make good sides, and a local firm will probably have some that are not fit for working on, but will be OK for your beds.

[sarahkeast]

Ok, so having builders in isnt so bad after all, they love ripping and dragging stuff for a huge bonfire ! got a load cleared today ! cant wait to start planning and scheming....

AND, they will sell me the scaffold boards from around the house for £6 each [3m long] so now I have wood for the raised beds [when I get to that point]

I know the boards will need treating with something to preserve them and have heard of OSMO products, any recommendations ? OSMO or anything else ? I was goign to 'face' each board with plastic too to try and help preserve them.

Thanks

Sarah

[Annpan]

chances are...IMO.... the plastic would just keep in moisture, and prevent it from escaping. I also don't think you should treat timbers with anything... scaffold boards are going to last a good long time without being treated.

[MKG]

Took me ages to find which plastic you were talking about Annpan. But I agree with you - I wouldn't put a plastic sheet down as it would defeat the object of having DEEEEEEEEEP stuff beneath the raised bed. On the other hand, I have a tiny raised bed made from black recycled plastic "boards" - and it outperforms every other raised bed I have (probably the black rather than the plastic which is doing its stuff). A couple of those beds have scaffolding board sides. This is their third year, and they are showing no signs of rot or wear. Of course, they may have been treated before I got them - but I don't think I'd want to treat them any further.

I have yet another which is made from brick - no mortar, just brick. It does OK given that it's partially shaded - it's ideal for courgettes.

Basically, though, I think it's the "raised" which is much more important the nature of the materials.

Mike

[pelmetman]

Being on heavy clay for the first time I have built raised beds out of 6"x1" timber with some uprights made from roofing battans for beans etc. We have found this the quickest way to improve the veg garden which is also prone to flooding slightly, so I also dug a soakaway under the cloche.
I have attached a picture of it under construction, we also have a variety of containers such as tin baths and even a upside down dalek type compost bin which I have filled with a mix of sharpe sand and soil for the carrots

DSCN0193 web pic.jpg (41.09 KiB) Viewed 5396 times