The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: mebnandtrn on January 19, 2017, 07:25:30 am
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does anyone know of a really cheap way to make raised beds please?
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If you're happy with small ones, get a few large used tractor tyres from a tyre shop and put them on their side. You can cut away some rubber to enlarge the hole.
William
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does anyone know of a really cheap way to make raised beds please?
Pallets, they're free mostly
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Do you have to have raised beds? before the current craze with the things, veg were grown in the ground. I can see the point on heavy clay and waterlogged soil, but for most situations, ground level is fine. Or, you can make beds as Bob Flowerdew did. He measured out the area for his beds and paths, then dug the good soil from the paths onto the beds, added a load of compost or manure each year and the beds became deeper from year to year. He also used the channels between beds as an irrigation system. It's certainly cheaper than buying in sleepers or other timbers, which bring their own problems such as weeds and slugs.
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raised beds for us are pretty essential, heavy heavy clay that just gets solid if we walk on it at all. The plan is shallow raised beds just to keep us off the soil and the soil in better condition waterwise.
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How about Bob's method then? However you do it, you need to break up the clay layer for better drainage.
We built two raised beds because in my dotage I struggle to bend over to work the soil. We used old railway sleepers which are solid and allow you to sit on the top edge. One bed is one sleeper high, the other is two. Both are just as difficult to work as getting down to ground level :roflanim: . In fact more so :garden: We did have the sleepers already so didn't have to buy them.
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The plan is shallow raised beds
How shallow? If you're only talking 6" high for instance, you could do that with four planks and some lengths of fence post hammered in at each corner and half way along each side. That wouldn't be free, but it wouldn't be desperately expensive either.
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You see damaged scaffolding boards suggested in lots of places - cheap to buy (loads on ebay or pop round the local yard) and a good size.
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How about those grey building block..thermalite type. You can just lay one layer loose onto the clay and they'll hold the soil back. Cheap enough to buy and for this sort of job no cutting etc.
I used some more expensive rustic building blocks in my previous house as edging for the flower beds... made it easy to strim around the lawn. they were there at least 10years just loose-laid and worked fine
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Four damaged telegraph poles three feet apart . Two poles high the top ones with the base to the point of the bottom ones .
That should bring you up to a 2 foot high wooden wall . stake the poles well . Block off the ends .
Fill the trough to the top with cow muck & straw bedding , chicken muck & straw bedding . the add on as a heavy layer that will compress the manures a well mixed mix of sand , peat & a little bit of mother earth .
The first year you won't be able to grow carrots or parsnips in it maybe even the second year as well , but after that if you practice rotation in the bed & leave an un manured section you will be able to grow them in the un manured section .
Top up the bed with more of the same topping mix , by year three the growth medium lever should be level with the top of the poles .
To keep the replenishment of decaying matter & nutrients in the beds going start making a decent compost system using the Berkley 18 day hot composting method so you can feed the beds with a gentle fertilizing compost. Adding a small trowel full of this well finished compost to the same place spot as soon as you take the plant out
It's not recommended to do this form of replenishment where you take root crops out as it may be a bit too high on nitrogen for the rest next to the hole .. ... instead feed the area once it is totally cleared .
Prices of used poles are about £ 15 to £ 20 each around here so it's not too expensive .
Another way is to do some thing that I have guided my mates into doing ..it works well .
Using old same size scrap tyres , stack of five high used scrap car tyres . Tied together via 3/4 holes cut in the tyre & tied securely with three or four thickness of 6 mm blue poly prop rope then fill with a similar contents as for the pole bed .
The only thing we found a problem is that they needed two scaffold plank on to of the tyres so they can wok the beds .
Had they made the beds just three feet across like I suggested they could have worked the beds from the ground ( but that would have restricted the size of the propagation table /bed ) for it's best to have at least a three foot wide walkway round the bed for ease of access etc .
We have one of these tyre wall bed set up in the polytunnel at teh Amman Valley men's shed group .
it is about 20 feet long by 8 feet wide by 30 inch side& end walls . It's a bit too wide to easily week & crop as we are all old bugger with spinal problems . The tyres themselves are also filled with the growth medium & have grown lettuces in the tyres as well as dwarf French Marigolds .
The beds was given an imaginary split into five beds the width of the bed
all roots at one end , then salad stuff , then brassica , next was legumes & finally alliums .
We also grew a lot of pickling onions & shallots in the actual tyres as well .
I set up an automatic time clocked watering system .. The guys said that last year was the most bountiful harvest they have ever known come out the bed.
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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:.
(http://www.countyonline.co.uk/images/P/240hollow.jpg)
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Or for the ultimate in cheap .. dig out some of the clay, make block shapes and wrap in old plastic bags to stop them drying out and crumbling.. build a low wall.
Or make your own cob .. clay, chopped straw and cow dung.. tread it all together
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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?
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I think you'ld be pushing your luck going 6 bricks high just loose-laid with the weight of soil behind. Once you start using mortar then you also have to mortar under the lowest row so yes, you'ld need a simple foundation for them to base on.. then it depends on how deep to solid ground unless you want to get classy with pockets of deep foundation and a ring.
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Thanks!
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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: .
(http://www.countyonline.co.uk/images/P/240hollow.jpg)
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! :)
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Anyone used straw bales?
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Anyone used straw bales?
Far too wide for what I want.
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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.
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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!
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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 (http://www.tarpaflex.co.uk/acatalog/One-Tonne-Bag-130gsm---86cm-x-86cm-x-86cm-FIBC1.html).
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.
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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:.
(http://www.countyonline.co.uk/images/P/240hollow.jpg)
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
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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
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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?
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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
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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 ) .
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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
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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:
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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 .
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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.