Raised Beds

threemuttleys

Hiya all

Benn lurking on this part of the forum, and trying to learn all I need to start growing my own veg...OH and I (well mainly him as im preggo!) are going to start sorting our garden out over the next few weeks.

We would like to have raised beds where possible, been looking on t'internet for ideas, and some of the kits are shockingly expensive (RW sleepers £20 each!) so I am wondering if anyone out there has MSE raised beds? or if anyone knows the best way to achieve raised beds (without it looking totally pants!)

thanks in advance!

Wookey

Scrap timber going free on freecycle or freegle, old floorboards being ripped out of a house, make the beds as big or small as the scrap timber you can source will allow you.

kevsan

I bought 6x lengths of timber from B&Q, similar to their sawn treated timber 2400x100x19 although they were cheaper last year and cut 2 in half for the ends, and used a baton in each corner to put them together... all in about £15... but cheaper if you can get the wood free.

The issue / cost is then filling it with topsoil / compost, you'll need a lot!

lisa26_2

My OH just made me two raised beds using some onld decking boards and they look fab!

valk_scot

I've got 26 raised beds on the allotment and all the edging boards came out of skips. I use pressure treated timber from B&Q for the pegs though. Yes they do look a little more "rustic" than the fancy kit ones bit really, when the plants are growing it all blends together nicely.

You don't actually need to fill raised beds to the top btw. If you double dig the area and add some rotted manure or compost you'll find the level rises quite naturally due to the soil being less compacted. If you then never step on the beds and add a layer of mulch/garden compost each year the beds will soon be overflowing all by themselves.

BTW, you don't really need to edge beds straight away. Mark them out with string and get digging and planting asap before you miss the planting season. I did this on the allotment...it took me four years to scavange the timber for all these beds but I had them all producing well before that. I just edged them up as I went along.

pookienoodle

phone local scaffolding companies and ask what they do with their old/split boards.
they usually give them away or sell them really cheaply.

jimbo_the_jetset

pookienoodle wrote: »

phone local scaffolding companies and ask what they do with their old/split boards.
they usually give them away or sell them really cheaply.

Second that. Took a few phone calls to arrange but last bank holiday weekend I came home to half a dozen 13ft long scaffold boards. Cost £0, delivered (although I was planning to give him a few quid for them).

Really thick sturdy timber. That plus a few stakes from an old pallet, a few screws and a hard days work in the garden and you are sorted.

SallyForth_2

I have one I made of of "value" decking boards from Focus, which was pretty cheap.

LJM

they are very easy to make out of recycled wood or off cuts i was lucky enough 2 years ago to have been given 3 railway sleepers as person was clearing out an over grown garden, very shocked i was able to get them for free

twiglet98

I made my first raised bed with lengths of 9 inch deep log roll wired together, works well and if I could afford it I'd get some more. For the two new beds, there was some old scaffold board in the garage when I moved in and I've just used various bits of wood, none matches, some bits are too short and the gaps are filled in with bricks. Not pretty, but definitely MSE!

1jim

I am just waiting for some wood to be delivered from ebay, was trying to get some scaffold board but everyone seems to have had same idea, also tried freecycle but no luck, have managed to get one pallate so will make something small with this (maybe compost heap), the wood from ebay seemed good value and worked out cheaper than b&q/wickes etc although wasnt "cheap"