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Author Topic: cheap raised beds  (Read 8029 times)

Foobar

  • Joined Mar 2012
  • South Wales
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #15 on: January 25, 2017, 05:24:38 pm »
How about those grey building block..thermalite type.

Great idea.  How about using the hollow blocks though?  That way you could plant things in the squares around the edges too  :thumbsup: .


Having just erected some log racks utilising said hollow blocks I can confirm that they weigh a flippin ton!  Save your back and use the smaller ones! :)

Foobar

  • Joined Mar 2012
  • South Wales
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #16 on: January 25, 2017, 05:26:32 pm »
Anyone used straw bales?

Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #17 on: January 25, 2017, 05:50:44 pm »
Anyone used straw bales?

Far too wide for what I want.

DartmoorLiz

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Devon
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #18 on: January 25, 2017, 06:51:11 pm »
How about an IBC tank? Take the tank out of the cage, put it on the floor or a pallet, cut it off at the height required, holes in the bottom, use like that or support the top edges with four planks of wood.  Its transformed gardening here. 
Never ever give up.

Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #19 on: January 25, 2017, 08:10:44 pm »
I wondered about cut down I b c tanks, we have quite a few spare. I wondered if the soil would enjoy the sun shining through the plastic on it too much? Would be SO easy!

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #20 on: January 26, 2017, 05:31:36 pm »
If you're going down that route, what about old builder's bags?  You should be able to get them for free from a local builder, but if not, they're fairly cheap new.

We've used them in our polytunnel for years. Just fold them back on themselves until they're about half-height, then fill with soil.  I just never made the connection before, because I don't think of them as 'raised beds' in the conventional sense.
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #21 on: January 28, 2017, 02:25:28 am »
How about those grey building block..thermalite type.

Great idea.  How about using the hollow blocks though?  That way you could plant things in the squares around the edges too  :thumbsup:.





The concrete hollow blocks tend to dry out the bed edges & the soil in the holes in the blocks .

 FIL found it a big problem (  in Canada ) for it wasn't long before ants took up residence in these dryer parts .
 
My mate in East Anglia made a two foor high  a retaining wall that lent back onto the higher ground .  Hhe put a double sheet of waterproof membrane  on the slope side of the soil before he built the walling & also walloped a four foot angle iron stake down every second hole of the blocks to prevent soil heave caused by wet weather from pushing the blocks out of line .

 The front outer edge of his block work he roller painted in  an external white sand textured paint  ... it looked good with pink , white, vivid blue trailing lobelia & nasturtiums dripping down all along the 30 foot length or so of the walling
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #22 on: January 28, 2017, 02:48:18 am »
Can I hijack this thread a bit please? (Delete if not)
I have 4 pallets of bricks, think they're meant for paving, that fell off the back of a lorry. Reading this got me thinking, that I could use these to build my raised beds  :idea:

I'd like them about 0.5m high, to give protection from toddlers, hopefully save my back and be a bit of a feature in the garden.

Would I need poured foundations for such low walls?


Would the wall need to be wider than on brick?

If you put in a nine inch thick by 12 " wide concrete foundation  you can build your beds in interlocked squares say 3 foot by 3 foot each , Use a 3 to 1 mortar , keying the cross wall in at every other layer of the paviours will see you with quite a few square raised wall bins
 Work out the total amount of walling + 10 mm or mortar between blocks involved & how many courses of block plus 10 mm of mortar to get you to a useful height then times it by the number of bricks needed to do one complete wall course ..

 If you stick to a low wall , smaller  3 foot square beds & key them in as squares to give you a lot of strength ,  I see no reason why you cant use the paviours mortared in on their sides as they are 55 mm or so thick ,  that would give you a lot more wall for your money but you will have to let the mortar  cure for a fortnight to three weeks   just to be sure it has lost it's greenness & is strong enough to take the filling matter  .

 You could also render the insides & outsides of the blocks to give you an extra inch or more of wall thickness if you wanted , could afford it & were able to do it .

 Or you could make the wall thickness to be the length of the blocks but that would take up a lot of blocks very quickly .

 Another thing you could do is make the keyed in cross walls a course lower than the finished /desired height of the soil .

 There are also things you could do  like slipping 10 mm rebar in a length of hose pipe save for the ends that will be set in the mortar between the walls , again done  at every other course of the wall height & every three feet of wall length
 
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

dancing james

  • Joined Feb 2017
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #23 on: February 26, 2017, 10:31:41 am »
Our house came with a manège which has rubber chips. We don't own or intend to have horses so are considering using this nice flat space to put some raised beds for growing food vegetables.

Would there be any issues with building raised beds on top of the current surface?


doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
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Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #24 on: February 28, 2017, 10:07:42 am »
Our house came with a manège which has rubber chips. We don't own or intend to have horses so are considering using this nice flat space to put some raised beds for growing food vegetables.

Would there be any issues with building raised beds on top of the current surface?
Providing the drainage underneath is Ok, no.  I imagine it would be if it was a properly built menage
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #25 on: February 28, 2017, 10:09:37 pm »
Anyone used straw bales?

 They are brill wrapped in plastic butterfly netting tied or zip tied and stood on the narrow side .. soak them in liquid manure , cover in weighted plastic sheet , keep them wet with the liquid manure till they start to rot then stop the liquid manure    Snip planting holes through the butterfly netting & set in small potted plants . 
 Through out  the growing season do try & keep them damp & give a mild liquid tomato type feed about once every 5 days

Strawberries , curbits , lettuce  &  potatoes do very well in these bale beds . At the end of the season you'll also have some darn good high quality home made compost to add to your garden  that will help break down the clays .


Breaking clay into some thing useful .  This place we now live in is covered in blue coal mine spoil clay .. It's very acidic & according to most locals " Wont grow anything  :roflanim: "  .

 For the first three  years annually in summer & winter before it got to wet or too dry r I added  dry powder builders gypsum plaster sprinkled on the clay @  1Kg to 1 sq mtr  then rotor-till  it in .  ( I managed to get six , either split or out of date bags  from the local builders merchants for a fiver ) .

This  helps " crumb the clay"  to make it workable , adding your home made straw & liquid manure based compost at the same time will give you some outstanding beds in a couple of years .

 You will however need to be watchful of crop rotation & putting root crops in the beds being improved like this   , for  fresh manure based compost tends to make the roots fork .
 I also added 4 inches of washed sharp sand per sq mtr all over my lawns & ground level bed areas  & again rototilled it in .

 This time round I hired a large petrol tiller & put the tines a good 15 inches down  in the soil,  by the fifth pass over the whole area . ( I used  4  tonne of sharp in all ) .
« Last Edit: February 28, 2017, 10:38:39 pm by cloddopper »
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

big soft moose

  • Joined Oct 2016
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #26 on: March 01, 2017, 10:37:20 pm »
I got a load of wood free out of a skip, and a load more of old fence rails free from my day job, plus a load more for a fiver from our local recycling centre... put them together and what have you got bippity boppity beds

Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #27 on: March 04, 2017, 08:35:40 am »
Anyone used straw bales?

 They are brill wrapped in plastic butterfly netting tied or zip tied and stood on the narrow side .. soak them in liquid manure , cover in weighted plastic sheet , keep them wet with the liquid manure till they start to rot then stop the liquid manure    Snip planting holes through the butterfly netting & set in small potted plants . 
 Through out  the growing season do try & keep them damp & give a mild liquid tomato type feed about once every 5 days

Strawberries , curbits , lettuce  &  potatoes do very well in these bale beds . At the end of the season you'll also have some darn good high quality home made compost to add to your garden  that will help break down the clays .


Interesting! I'm sorry for my earlier hasty dismissal of straw bales, I thought they were to be used for the side walls of beds and I didn't realise there is a way of using them as beds like this!  :dunce:

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #28 on: March 04, 2017, 04:57:16 pm »
I think the world record for a crop of potatoes grown from one potato was  grown in composting straw in a similar manner to what I described .
 
It was set up & grown on a concrete pad .. over a tonne of spuds if my memory serves me correct. 

Another  good thing is that the final compost you end up with after harvesting is almost totally free of weeds so is good for polytunnels & water retention .
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

kernow64

  • Joined Dec 2016
  • Brecknockshire
Re: cheap raised beds
« Reply #29 on: March 10, 2017, 07:18:34 pm »
I got lucky last year when setting up my allotment, a lady down the road was having an extension built and had huge piles of old decking out the front of her house - which was a shame because it came from her back garden which backed onto my plot!

Ferried several loads and used the planks for raised beds and the 4"x 2" for bases for cold frames and a small greenhouse.

Also got pallets and other wood from local nursery which had a huge pile out the back.

Your local Freecycle group may be a useful source of materials.

Good luck.

 

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