Making a Raised Bed

DianaMattos

Hello all,

My husband and I are looking to make 3 raised beds in our garden, 2 of them being 8'x4' and a 6'3'. Initially, we wanted to make them out of sleepers, or sleeper boards, but it is looking upwards of £400 :eek: to make them this way.

We had considered bricks as the material costs are a lot cheaper, but once we'd bought enough for the three beds and paid a brickie to build them, it was going to be a similar amount.

Would breezeblocks work?

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we can make the beds out of that is far far cheaper?

Many thanks,

Di

g33kb0y

I used some really cheap 'value' decking.
I realise that this isnt going to last for ever but i thought it would be useful for a trial raised bed. 3 years on its still looking really good. I would expect a few more years out of it. By which time I will have re-organised my plot.

jammy_dodger

DianaMattos wrote: »

Hello all,

My husband and I are looking to make 3 raised beds in our garden, 2 of them being 8'x4' and a 6'3'. Initially, we wanted to make them out of sleepers, or sleeper boards, but it is looking upwards of £400 :eek: to make them this way.

We had considered bricks as the material costs are a lot cheaper, but once we'd bought enough for the three beds and paid a brickie to build them, it was going to be a similar amount.

Would breezeblocks work?

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we can make the beds out of that is far far cheaper?

Many thanks,

Di

i guess it depends how you want to fill em as to how sturdy you need raised beds to be
i have used sleepers in the garden but i have a sloping garden so sleepers act as soil retainers so i can make level terraced kinda of levels
i have successfully used scaffolding planks for raised beds, the ones i have in veg garden have been there for 10years and never been terated
and have not rotted i planted box hedging about them as a feature

i have 3 raised beds in a lawn now again from scaffolding planks i use these for veg growing

scaffolding planks screwed together for double the depth have also been used successsfully in poly tunnel again to stop soil spilling onto paths

can you tel i like scaffolging planks ha ha:D

am sure others will be along with other tips

dont buy ready made raised bed kits though i have seen them in garden centres and they are very soft wood and would not last

breeze blocks as you suggested would work well too m sure depends what fiished look you want

janibrown

I made 3 raised beds last year with wooden decking boards they are about 8ft by 4ft and 2ft high ish and cost me about £40 each I got the pressure treated timber with no paints or residues on it, I got the metal fixings from my local diy store they were less than half the price there as what b&q were selling them for, the most expensive part was getting the soil to fill them it took about 3 and a half tonne could have done with another half a tonne though, I made them by myself too took about 2 days on and off but was not difficult
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=577787&id=1649964870
dont know if you can see photo this is one of them
Good luck :D

optimus_primera

Another vote for scaff boards here, although getting them free from work had something to do with it .......
Got one planter 8ft by 4ft 2 planks high, and another 6ft ish by 3ftish, one plank high.
Just gave them a covering of wood stain to match the fence etc,been there a couple yrs,so far, no problems.

tori.k

The cheapest long term is cheap patio slabs, it wont give you a very deep bed tho

dreaming

I have ordered my new raised beds today from Linkabord. They are recycled plastic in different colours and quite lightweight so easy for me to manage. I love the look of sleeper style beds but as you say they are expensive and too heavy for me. Also the plastic ones can be moved around next year if things don't grow too well. I have bought kits, but you can buy the plastic lengths as well to make your own sizes. I'm not too sure how well they would do as a really large bed, but I only have a smallish garden so they are perfect for my purposes.

singlehouseholder

Hello! I built my raised beds out of breeze blocks, and i did it with my own fair hands! Built them , me and my dad covered the front with timber - to match my fence, then I painted the breeze blocks, project was done in a couple of wekends. Only really encountered two problems, had to get help with cutting breeze blocks, and I didn't wear gloves when working with the concrete so my hands ended up like sandpaper, oops! I ordered a pallet of breeze blocks , had a couple of bags of cement, wasn't super cheap, or very expensive, but the beds have housed many salad /tom /herb combo's over the years, well worth it - especialy now as I have hens and they like to eat whatever they see is green!!

[Deleted User]

we have just made three 4 x 8 feet raised beds with linkabord (direct from their site) They cost roughly £34 each and are 15 cm high. They are brilliantly easy to put together and my dh made a few stakes and hammered them into the ground on the long sides to stop any potential bulge. To start filling we simply dug out a path 10 cm deep and put that soil in. We have ordered 3 more this weekend and will order another 3 when the brassicas are finished so we have space. Delivery is very quick and the beauty is that they will last a long time and can be made taller or easily moved

MrsRogers

Another vote for scaffolding boards or planks.

See Gardeners world video clip on how to make them :T

http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/raised-bed-build/

Dunx69

scaffolding planks, pick up for £1.80 or so on ebay.