The revenge of the stripey socks - a DFW adventure

Karmacat

gallygirl, I'm doing mine with some bricks from a neighbour's skip.... Olive is doing one with some disused pallets (oh, thats a compost bin, but same diff). I've heard of temporary raised beds being made with old drawers from chests of drawers! Preferably something thats wooden and won't leach toxins into the soil .... Fay will know more

hampsterpoo

gallygirl wrote: »

. Any tips on what I can build it with cheaply with minimum of skill?

If your not looking for something to stay forever ,what about scaffold boards if you dont need em to high, they will just to hold the dirt in place until you get something more next season, just a thought

Piquant_2

Karmacat wrote: »

gallygirl, I'm doing mine with some bricks from a neighbour's skip.... Olive is doing one with some disused pallets (oh, thats a compost bin, but same diff). I've heard of temporary raised beds being made with old drawers from chests of drawers! Preferably something thats wooden and won't leach toxins into the soil .... Fay will know more

I have a raised bed made from railway sleepers, they were free to collector. Nearly gave the collectors a hernia each!

hampsterpoo

Piquant wrote: »

I ........... Nearly gave the collectors a hernia each!

blimey thats a skill :rotfl: :rotfl:

Pippilongstocking

Well Gally girl (quick one before meeting)

Raised beds - well if you can fit 1-2ft compost/soil (1-1/2 foot ideal for most things) in something - then its a raised bed:

Ikea bags - absolutely brilliant as are those tougher bags that look the same but are green (for car boots)
Barrels

Compost bags/grow bags etc
Car tyres (excellent and cheap and really useful for veggies and especially potatoes)
Sleepers (posh but lovely)
Any timber built up to 1-2 ft bashed together with brute force and ignorance - will work. Just watch yourself.
Old pallets are great to dismantle and reassemble.......
Wood at the local skip
Willow whattle is good too to make your own
Or ask on freecylce..........
Big tubs - window boxes, wine boxes
Any crates that are semi watertight
Carver boxes, fish boxes etc
Tupperware boxes
Storage boxes
Drawers
Sacks
Old wellies
etc etc etc

Ideally anythign that holds soil and is porous (but not too much) wont have many toxins in (although you can line it with compost bags if worried).
Roots need it to be dark ideally so light material isnt great but not the end of the world.

Clematis and lavender attacking you - Oh my word. HOpe you and them are OK they both won't mind a hard hair cut.

Galley girl what you thinking about grwoing and what kinda space do you have??

Thirfty gardener Alys Fowler - great on reclaimation of materials and

boredofbeingathome

Piquant wrote: »

I have a raised bed made from railway sleepers, they were free to collector. Nearly gave the collectors a hernia each!

My brother decided to do that too once and boy did he regret it ..ouch:o
I am off to the tip tomorrow, they always get lots of pots thrown out by folk and plastic tubs, may be worth a look if you want to have a go at some veg in pots.

Lemon_Tree

our first raised beds were done with log roll, we've not built some with bricks, but the log roll was fine for a few years and we're going to now recycle it elsewhere in the garden.

lucielle

Just bought 6 little cabbage plants for 15p each. Going to nurture my babies.
L

gallygirl

Thanks for advice on raised beds. Doh. I have 2 pine shelving units - 1 in garage for storage (although not needed) and 1 in son's room (also not needed). Both painted but sure I can stain. Can't wait to start on it, but away this weekend & following Sunday. Need to move some plants from where it will be (North facing - tough - they'll just have to cope ). But to do that I need to move some plants, once I made room to move them to etc.

Lucielle - I too bought some babies today - 4 yellow toms, 4 red peppers & some red tom seeds (don't ask me what variety but toms are both little cuties ).

Fay - re hard hair cut..... em, yes, that's they had...... in the same way that Anne Boleyn had a bit of trim

Pippilongstocking

Galley girl a quick slap of yatch varnish would sort them out makes them water tight x

Or linseed oil on the outside and line inside with plastic from compost bags

We watched the Other Boylin Girl last night so:eek: to your poor plants

Well done to the babies though.............

I amtrying to work out quanties for my big shop

Its very very very scary