raised garden bed

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Would anybody give us some idea how to construct raised beds without spending thousands of $$$$ for concrete blocks? What is the easiest and reasonably affordable material to use ? Thanks for help. New homesteaders Tony and Tanya in Canada.

-- Tony Bartunek (thewordofhope@bmts.com), January 29, 2001

Answers

The easiest way to do this is this. Picture your garden, running north and south. see the rows and the paths where your tiller would go. Dig the paths putting half on the east row and half on the west row. Move over to the next "Path" and do the same/ If this dose not make sense e-mail me Grant

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), January 29, 2001.

Use a well drained hill or terrace and use scrap lumber or scrap carpet for walkways. If you can get a copy of Mel Bartholemews "Square Foot Gardening" book on biointensive small farming, it will give you some very good advice and perspective for variations.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 29, 2001.

old hay and straw bales? Recycled building materials scavenged from sites where they're doing demolitions? Demolition and removal of debris costs big bucks, so a homeowner or contractor might be very happy to let you remove scrap material. Pound the morter off old blocks with a maul (wear safety goggles) and re-use those?

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 29, 2001.

I don't know just how safe they are, but we use old railroad ties...we've used them for years, and we ain't dead yet! And, they were free!

-- Joe (Threearrs@AOL.com), January 29, 2001.

We made our raised beds with used lumber and made "boxes" that are 4' x 16'. The 4' width is just right for me to be able to reach from each side but the 16' length becomes annoying sometimes when you are working in the middle area and want to get to the other side. We just made them this size to save space. In between each "box" we left 2' for walking and put down lots of used newspapers with straw on top (wet the newspapers down while laying them and they won't blow away before you get the straw on). As the newspapers start to breakdown just pull the straw back and add more newspapers. This does a good job of keeping weeds out of that area.

-- Terry-NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), January 29, 2001.


I've used old 2x4's stacked 3 high for sides almost 12" tall, takes about 3 to 5 years to rot out at the bottom. I could then knock out the bottom rail and add a "new" old 2x4 on the top when needed. I used alot of wood that was no good for any thing else this way, even suff that had nails.

-- Thumper (slrldr@aol.com), January 29, 2001.

Usually I do like Grant suggested to build my rasied beds and have great results, but this year I'm planning on building 2 or 3 wood sided ones for perennial crops like strawberries and aspargus, if I get around to it soon enough. The local saw mill sells culled 1 X 6 x 8' planks for $0.95 each. Some scrap 2 X 4 lumber to brace the corners, and I should be good to go.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), January 29, 2001.

I got 4 old equipment tires from a local sawmill. They are about 60" tall in the upright position and about 18" wide. I laid the 4 tires out in a row, flat and cut the top sidewall out of them. I then made a walkway in front of them be excavating about 18' of soil from in front of the tires (deep) and about 3' wide making a sunken walkway. I used the dirt to fill the tires. Sifted it some and added compost and sand.

The result is four round tire beds, 18" deep and a step down of 18" to the walkway that is in front of the tires. I now walk up to the 5' round tire beds with my gardening surface at 3' above ground level. In other words I garden at work bench level. A couple of my tire beds have been here 10 years and are not showing any sign of wear.

The tires are free, the mill helped load them and praised me highly for taking them away (this is recycling for real). They also provided me with a truckload of sawdust which makes a nice mud free area to walk in and helps to control weeds.

Real cheap, and ought to last longer than I will.

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.com), January 29, 2001.


ive been thinking about raised beds and ways to water them and let water out in the rainey season. i think im going with old bath tubs. not the claw footed one that are antique but the ones after them that are closed in on one side. but some 2 inch rock in the bottom and hook up the drain. i like the idea of digging the trench beside them, looking for better ideas. Bob in se. ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@hit.net), January 29, 2001.

could enyone tell me how the earth boxes are constructed? i think that would work good with the bath tubs. Bob in se.ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@hit.net), January 29, 2001.


I've been building few 4 by 8 foot by two foot deep raised beds every year. They are constructed of concrete, with 3/8" reinforcement. They should last a jillion years, and are non toxic. I use a slip form of flakeboard. It takes only a little while to form them up. Mine are only three sided, as the fourth side is the next terrace (my garden area is a bit steep). Cost is less than twenty five bucks each.

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), January 29, 2001.


We took our flat garden, plowed it as deep as we could with a tractor. Then tilled it with a rototiller. Then laid out the beds and walkways with string. Beds four feet wide, 20 feet long, with 2ft wide walkways between the beds and at the ends of the beds. We then shoveled the loose dirt in the walkways on to the beds. Then mulched the beds with wheat straw and started putting leaves we raked up in the walkways. Every third year we run the tiller up and down the walkways and put the accumulated compost on the beds. We don't have anything to hold the beds together but with the mulch we have no problem with the beds collaspsing. We add about 1200 garbage bags of leaves a year and use 25 bales of wheat straw. The vegetable garden has been in raised beds for 12 years now and we would not consider another type of gardening. We have 40 of the 4 X 20 beds in the vegetable garden. We also have a herb/flower garden close to the vegetable garden this also is raised beds, 101 of them , laid out in a geometric design. Just put sawdust, leaves, whatever you get in the walkways let it compost while you walk on it and then shovel the compost directily on the beds. Why compost it in piles and then haul it to the beds. If you have questions please email us. We have had the mastergardeners out and had demos on how to do it and have given classes. Why spend the money on concrete, railroad ties, rocks what ever. We tried all that over the years and found all it di was give slugs a place to hide and breed. Regular lumber doesn't last long, treated lumber is questionable as for how poison it is,(and since we are completely organic it is out), and the creosote is a known cancer causer, we tried this method and it has worked great. David

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), January 29, 2001.

One reason I used a 24" raised bed of concrete is we have very poor soil (potter's clay reinforced with boulders). The raised beds have imported topsoil.

Another reason is that my back has been fairly screwed up since being a treeplanter for the forest circus fifteen or twenty years ago, and I can sit on the edge of the concrete raised bed to weed and harvest; it saves my back.

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), January 30, 2001.


We did ours exactly as David at Bluewaterfarms posted above. Our rows go slightly downhill for drainage, 14 rows about 4 foot wide and 50 foot long. It's great, none of the rows fall apart. I just sink T-Posts in the rows in the spring and use rolls of wire to make long fences down the middle of them. (easily moved for rotating)

We get huge round bales of hay for 5 dollars and I cover all the walkways with large sheets of hay. So soft to walk on and the weeding in the walkways is a minimum. I also push mow our entire large yard just for the grass clippings, and put them thick on the beds all spring, summer and fall.

We use rabbit, goat and horse manure. The rabbit manure can go right on the active beds, the goat and horse manure goes on the beds empty to be used the next spring. We don't have a compost pile, the garden beds is our sheet composting areas.

The mulch is so thick, that we have thousands of seedlings come up each spring, tomatoes, cantalope, watermelon, flowers, onions and squash. I just move the little plants where I want them that year.

Only problem is my plants grow so huge and thick they want to spread all over all the walkways. It is a vegetable jungle!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 30, 2001.


I use rock. Usually I can find some place within a short drive where there is loads of rock. I end up making a half dozen trips. The materials are free and the quality is first rate.

Railroad ties are out because the goop on them is toxic (that's why they last so long). Same goes for treated lumber.

If you are going to use wood, use any hardwood except black walnut. Whiskey barrels are okay too. The other woods contain natural herbicides (which is why you rarely find anything growing under a conifer).

I wouldn't use cement either. I'm not sure why, but as my dad says "growies hate cement".

If you use bales, you'll have to reach a looooooong ways in to weed or harvest.

Tilling - I'm a no till gardener. Tilling releases humus from the soil into the air. If you mulch properly, the worms will work your mulches into the soil and the worm trails will provide all of the air and water lines your soil will need. It's like having soil that is always tilled.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), January 30, 2001.



As I will be starting a new garden this year I think I'm just going to make beds w/o sides of wood or blocks. I used both at the other place. Worked out nice and kept things tidy which was important in the layout I had. I plan to expand here some. I do think if I were to use a box now I would look for some small Black Locust trees and use them. John

-- John in S. IN (jsmengel@hotmail.com), January 30, 2001.

That's true about it being a long reach over bales, but I do like to sit on 'em while working. And when they eventually rot down, you do have some really nice compost.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 31, 2001.

Oops. Bob, Earth Boxes are made out of plastic. They have a grate in the bottom that is perforated, and it is constructed so that there is a water reservoir in the bottom about 2" in depth. The grate rides above this, and is filled with a growing mixture that is basically soil-less. There is a tube that runs down from the top into the reservoir at one corner that you fill through. After you have filled it up with dampened planting mixture, it has a stripe of desired fertilizer added (I believe it's approx. 2 cups per box, if you're using organic fertilizers, they advise mixing it throughout planting mix) either down the center or to one side, depending on what you're planting. Then black plastic is stretched snugly over the top, and X's are cut through and plants put into those to grow. They have spill-over hole in one side that is about 2" or so off the ground that excess drains out. There is also a channel in another corner that wicks the moisture up into the soil mix to keep it evenly damp.

You might be able to retrofit a bathtub this way, if you want to put in the work. There has also been talk about floating beds on the thread entitled 'Earth Boxes' if you want to check that out. It's a cheaper way of going that has some intriguing possibilities.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 31, 2001.


Grant's idea is sound. Take the thousands of dollars for materials and buy a troy bilt tiller, with hiller attachment, instead. Then buy the garden way book by Dick Raymond: "the Joy of Gardening". Better yet, buy the book first, then try some of his ideas (they work, by the way) with only a shovel. If you're dead set on building materials for some sort of frame, more power to you. But, "packaging" and "presentation" aren't NEAR as important to me as wheelbarrows full of string beans, and ten foot tall corn, by the bushel. That book will show you how to do both.

a.d. in the Garden State

-- Action Dude (theactiondude@yahoo.com), February 05, 2001.


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