How can I build raised beds on the cheap?

mamamoi

We got a huge allotment 2 years ago which had been unused for 10 years and was totally overgrown with chin high weeds and brambles. We started just doing small patches but seem to always be battling with the weeds (which I know is part of the course!). We have very thick heavy clay like soil and although it is getting a bit looser is it still a challenge to dig and grow much quality veg. As we are on a down hill slope we have decided to try some raised beds this year. What is the best & cheapest way to go about it. Any advice and help with be very much appreciated.

We got the plot just as I became pregnant, so haven't spent as much time there as I originally hoped, but want that to change now my dd is 18 months. However as we still suffer from brambles and nettles all over the place I want to have a safe haven for her. I was thinking of fencing off a small area and having a sand pit and nice little area for her to play in. I have looked into artificial grass but it is quite pricey. Does anyone have any suggestions for this? My DH isn't renowed for his DIY skills so it needs to be fairly simple. Also, any advice on building a cheap small fence will help too!!!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

kethry

hmmm. Don't know anything about DIY (as i'm a novice at that too) but i do know about building raised beds, having done it myself this year! A lot depends on just how "raised" you want em, and how long you want them to last for. If you're thinking 5 years max, then you can go with just about any wood, as long as its not chipboard or something like that. If you want em to last longer then you really do need wood treated for outside. In addition, if you're thinking in terms of say, 5-10 inches off the ground, then you can get away with thinner wood (and more of a botched job, in DIY terms) than if you are thinking in terms of waist height on raised ground.

I got my wood from freecycle: the biggest problem i had was collecting it, as i don't have a car! in the end up the guy i got the wood from offered to drop it off, very kindly, i can't see a taxi agreeing to do it. I also asked right after those storms and high winds in January, LOL, i was inundated with offers! Its still worth putting a WANTED out though, and i would do the same for your fence. This blog entry gives you an idea of how i went about building mine. so far its still holding!

Failing that, i think your best option for the fence would be to look at Wilkinsons, they have some very nice trellis panels there. they would be very easy to make into a fence - your biggest problem would be getting the posts to support the fence panels deep enough in the ground and upright, i think you can hire tools to get that done from tool hire places.

Can the allotment society help/advise? i've read some of them have special deals with specific shops on toolhire and stuff like that.

HTH - and good luck!

keth
xx

mamamoi

kethry wrote: »

hmmm. Don't know anything about DIY (as i'm a novice at that too) but i do know about building raised beds, having done it myself this year! A lot depends on just how "raised" you want em, and how long you want them to last for. If you're thinking 5 years max, then you can go with just about any wood, as long as its not chipboard or something like that. If you want em to last longer then you really do need wood treated for outside. In addition, if you're thinking in terms of say, 5-10 inches off the ground, then you can get away with thinner wood (and more of a botched job, in DIY terms) than if you are thinking in terms of waist height on raised ground.

I got my wood from freecycle: the biggest problem i had was collecting it, as i don't have a car! in the end up the guy i got the wood from offered to drop it off, very kindly, i can't see a taxi agreeing to do it. I also asked right after those storms and high winds in January, LOL, i was inundated with offers! Its still worth putting a WANTED out though, and i would do the same for your fence. This blog entry gives you an idea of how i went about building mine. so far its still holding!

Failing that, i think your best option for the fence would be to look at Wilkinsons, they have some very nice trellis panels there. they would be very easy to make into a fence - your biggest problem would be getting the posts to support the fence panels deep enough in the ground and upright, i think you can hire tools to get that done from tool hire places.

Can the allotment society help/advise? i've read some of them have special deals with specific shops on toolhire and stuff like that.

HTH - and good luck!

keth
xx

Thanks Kethry, some good advice. I will check my local freecycle for the wood, and anything else that may be going spare! We have a wilkinsons close by so will have a look in there for the trellis. We have a pretty small allotment society so no deals with any shops unfortunately... I tried that last year when looking for a brush cutter, ended up buying one off ebay... cheaper than a weekend rental!!

As for the raised beds, I'm not sure how high.... haven't done much research yet. Should we put a weed proof fabric down and then soil? What kind of soil is best for raised beds?

kethry

mamamoi wrote: »

Thanks Kethry, some good advice. I will check my local freecycle for the wood, and anything else that may be going spare! We have a wilkinsons close by so will have a look in there for the trellis. We have a pretty small allotment society so no deals with any shops unfortunately... I tried that last year when looking for a brush cutter, ended up buying one off ebay... cheaper than a weekend rental!!

As for the raised beds, I'm not sure how high.... haven't done much research yet. Should we put a weed proof fabric down and then soil? What kind of soil is best for raised beds?

The trellis panels i was thinking of aren't a traditional trellis (you know, the kind that open up) - they're more like church window style. You'll know em when you see em. They're probably a bit more expensive, i didn't note the price, sorry! Still, worth a look, i think.

re: the tool hire - yeah, unfortunately it can be expensive for the smaller items. this is the thing i was thinking of to dig out holes for your posts - i think you're pretty much going to need one of these, whatever you go for. the only other alternative i can think of is to plant a U shape of raspberry canes or sweetpeas or something like that, put bamboo canes down to hold up nets, and keep her in that way - that will depend on how old she is of course.

as for the raised beds: again, it depends whether you want to work with the existing soil or just grow on top. From what you've said with regard to your clay, it sounds as though you'd rather put a weed suppressant down, and build your bed directly ontop of the soil, then fill that with topsoil brought in from elsewhere, yes? You can advertise on freecycle for topsoil, but you will need something to transport it in. i would be careful about buying topsoil, my parents did this one year to fill a raised bed and it turned out to be full of slug/snail eggs - even now, its a regular feature for my mother to be "slug hunting" with a bottle of salt in summer evenings! so make sure its from a reputable source.

A weed suppressant, by the way, if you have beds that are deep enough, wouldn't strictly be necessary. Even weeds will struggle to grow though a foot of soil/compost without light to feed it! if it makes you feel better though, simple newspaper will act as a suppressant, and will break down to give nutrients to the soil. Clay is actually *fantastic* stuff to grow in, once its been broken down, as there are so many nutrients in the soil. Its the actual breaking it down part that is so painful, especially if its compacted and waterlogged. if you do decide to work with the soil you've got, then you need to dig in lots and lots of grit. If not, then the soil to go for would be a nice medium loam - crumbly when dry, but with good moisture retaining abilities. Any good gardening book (from the library) will be able to tell you how to tell the difference. A read of this page (the wiki entry for soil) may also be equally illuminating. I would also recommend getting in compost, if you get in topsoil, to mix it through and give your plants a real good kick start. You don't say where you are but some councils are either composting themselves (taking park clippings and green compost waste from households and markets) or selling the stuff to a private company who turns it into compost (i got mine from one of these places, Fairfield compost in Manchester, who sold me a cubic meter's worth of compost for £12.50. its not the fine stuff you buy in bags from garden stores, this is for digging into the beds and enriching it).

Finally, if you do decide to work with the existing soil (rather than building ontop of it), this is what i did with my second attempt at building a bed (and which, frankly, works better than the first attempt ) - i removed the weeds/grass from an area approx 1 metre by 3 metres, putting the weeds/grass onto a groundsheet. Then i dug out the topsoil underneath, to a spade's depth (sometimes deeper) onto a groundsheet also. The weeds then went back in, with the grass downwards in the trench (retaining a little for later). At that point i put the wood in to build the sides. Then i put lots of compost in the bed to bring it back up to soil level, and then the top soil i had dug out went on top of the compost. It was finally forked a bit to mix the compost and top soil thoroughly. Once all that was done the wooden sides tended to lean out a bit, so what i did was to use the weed/sod that i had dug out earlier and retained to put in the gaps between the edge of the bed and where the wood had been knocked in, to help the wood stand more "upright". If you look on the blog there's photos, that may help explain what i mean. The reason i put the weeds/grass back in was because with all that compost and topsoil ontop they will decompose and die off, and provide structure to the soil - and plants will grow down into them quite happily.

There's a link elsewhere on this forum (on the greenfingered page) to Square foot Gardening, and that may be worth a read (the thread) and the page that it links to.

hope all that helps!

keth
xx

alanobrien

After looking at freecycle, try looking around locally for old pallets.
Shops and light inductrial units are sometimes more than happy for you to take them away. Then all you do is break then down and use them for whatever you want. I have made composters, large planters etc out of these over the years.
I can certainly imagine making rasied beds out of them by stacking the planks vertically and screwing in a batton to support them. Happy pallet hunting

nanamags

My daughter and her husband made raised beds out of an old double bed divan base. After painting with a wood paint they lined them with plastic as they are situated on a concrete base. They are several years old now and are still going strong. I have a large planting box outside my front door made from a wooden pallet. It is about 15 years old I just repaint it every couple of years.

Nanamags

tr3mor

I'd go for pallets too.

If you designed the beds right they shouldn't need posts deep into the ground. A couple of stakes and a sledgehammer should hold it.

If you want them to last longer paint them.

irnbru_2

mamamoi wrote:

What is the best & cheapest way to go about it.

In addition to the other free methods: skip diving If the skip is on the public highway you're OK to take stuff. On private property, you need permission to remove stuff.

mamamoi

Some great advice, thank you again Kethry, I will look into the links you mentioned and get DH to read it all too.... as seen as he will be doing most of the back breaking work!

Thanks also to everyone else for some sound advice. I will definately look into getting some pallets as they seem to be pretty versatile... i have noticed other plot holders have even made boundary fences out of them.

nanamags... it's funny you mentioned the divan base.... I was round at my parents today and they have a single bed that they were going to get the council to collect. I was actually eyeing it up today to see if it would work as a raised bed, so I think I may just grab that! I'm sure it will be of some use in our vast plot.

Dukie_Boy

HI MAMAMOI
DAUGHTER MANAGE TO GET SOME OLD RAILWAY SLEEPERS
THEY WERE NOT THAT DEAR THEN, PROBABLY TOO DEAR NOW

TRY THE BUILDERS YARDS YOU MIGHT GET SOME OLD
PALLETS THEN FILL THE STRUCTURE WITH CHEAP GROWBAGS
GOOD lUCK
Dukie Boy

poohbear59

We've made our raised beds from old floor boards and a set of pine bunkbeds that no-one wanted on freecycle. Also made small raised beds from old truck tyres. It is just high enough and small enough to discourage my free range hens who like nothing more than to eat my new growth of vegetables. My beans are going to grow up an old child's sprung bed base, with bunk bed heads at either side to keep out rabbits and hens.