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Raised beds

savemoney
savemoney Posts: 18,125 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
I seen a raised bed on offer at B&Q for £20 about 1 metre sq

I dont have a huge garden but have a old concrete driveway at the rear (north facing) which goes to a old garage which is now blocked off by a integral garage at side of house

Its a bit of a waste of land and only used for a few pots and washing line across it

Now the drive is slightly slopped and if I put a raised bed on concrete, I wonder if it would stain the drive if soil/water run off due to slope

I wondered if I could line it but obviously need some drainage

Love to make use of this driveway more last year grown some veg like lettuce in large tray type containers
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Comments

  • WestonDave
    WestonDave Posts: 5,154 Forumite
    Rampant Recycler
    Unlikely to stain it beyond what a good jet washing or a scrub down with Jeyes fluid would clean off.

    That said you could build your own raised bed 6ft by 3ft (so about double that space) by 1ft tall for about the same price if you bought 6 gravel boards and some posts to make the corner up. I only say that because if you are putting a raised bed onto concrete you may need it to be taller as the roots can't go down into the concrete, whereas on soil they have the added space in the original soil.
    Adventure before Dementia!
  • lesley1966
    lesley1966 Posts: 113 Forumite
    savemoney wrote: »
    I seen a raised bed on offer at B&Q for £20 about 1 metre sq

    That's what I'm looking for! Did you see it online or in store? Could you post a link please?

    Cheers

    Lesley
  • savemoney
    savemoney Posts: 18,125 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    I got it in store but my local one hasnt sold any for a month or maybe 6 weeks now, there was two sorts on offer it was at time when they had 20% off at weekend

    One was suitable for putting in ground and much deeper the other you just slotetd together and it could be used on concrete
  • lesley1966
    lesley1966 Posts: 113 Forumite
    Ok, thanks.

    Looks like I'll have to go with Freecycle or decking tiles!
  • savemoney
    savemoney Posts: 18,125 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    It would be easy using decking so cut to size and use wood in corners to hold it in place
  • Optimisticpair
    Optimisticpair Posts: 632 Forumite
    If you contact a local builder/s who does roof work they may have old scaffolding planks free or cheap.
    No longer half of Optimisticpair


  • mutley74
    mutley74 Posts: 4,033 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I was just wondering how "easy" and how these things work. Can a simple wooden frame be placed on a grassed area? or does the grass need to be removed first?
    Also do raised beds needs to be "connected" with the general soil? as i have read on some gardening pages people lining their beds with polythene sheets.
  • lesley1966
    lesley1966 Posts: 113 Forumite
    mutley74 wrote: »
    I was just wondering how "easy" and how these things work. Can a simple wooden frame be placed on a grassed area? or does the grass need to be removed first?
    Also do raised beds needs to be "connected" with the general soil? as i have read on some gardening pages people lining their beds with polythene sheets.

    Hi

    When I was thinking about making a raised bed, I did a bit of googling. It seems like you can put them anywhere - over soil or grass, on concrete, wherever you want! If you put it on top of grass, the grass underneath will obviously die. You can put a liner underneath it to stop weeds growing through.

    I'm planning to put mine over an area of soil, which I will dig over first to make sure its flat and even. I'm going to line my wooden frame with a big plastic gravel sack with a few garden fork holes put in the bottom. My bed is going to be about a meter high, so I'm going to put lots of big rocks or polystyrene filler in the bottom so that the sides of the bag and frame are not strained by a huge weight of soil.

    Hope that helps.

    Lesley
  • savemoney
    savemoney Posts: 18,125 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    I keep mine on a old concrete drive. The raised bed isnt lined I did put gravel in bottom and 1/2" deep and one part stuck silicon in as driveway is slightly sloped and gravel was coming through underneath
  • Orange_King
    Orange_King Posts: 720 Forumite
    mutley74 wrote: »
    I was just wondering how "easy" and how these things work. Can a simple wooden frame be placed on a grassed area? or does the grass need to be removed first?
    Also do raised beds needs to be "connected" with the general soil? as i have read on some gardening pages people lining their beds with polythene sheets.

    Just dug one on our lawn - dug a couple of spades depth down and then filled the bottom with the stones and the lumps of lawn.
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