raised veg beds

frankie

Planning on building new raised beds late autumn and after opinions of the best materials to use.  I am considering scaffold board, treated decking or breeze blocks.  My original beds only lasted a couple of years they were a kit and despite being pressure treated are not doing very well!  Bed size would be about meter square and 25cm high.
Many thanks

Farway

No experience whatever with raised beds but breeze blocks sound more enduring than wood however it's treated

25_Years_On

I believe cedar is the best wood for raised beds. I used Quickcrop premium kit which has thick boards for one of my clients and they are OK after two years. The thicker the board the better. There are alternatives using recycled plastic and upvc like Link-a-bord and others. Some of these are quite expensive.

Davesnave

My standard, treated, 150 x 22mm boards are still OK after 10 years, but I got them from a proper wood yard, not a DIY shed!

I have built beds using concrete blocks too. Obviously, takes and lasts longer, or doesn't look nice if you just lay them on their backs. You could probably link them upright with metal builder's band,  screwed and plugged, but still wouldn't be a Chelsea winner and they'd need isolating from the soil with plastic or they'll draw moisture out and evaporate it fast.

Best material is probably farmers' dung board!

Martin_the_Unjust

I'm just in the process of building two myself, I am using these
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Treated-Timber-Gravel-Board---19mm-x-150mm-x-2-4m-Pack-of-5/p/107142

gamston

i just made 2 raised beds myself
i used a base of concrete bricks (and mortar to level boards) this raised the timber clear of the grass
6 X 2 treated timbers  ( i cut out a block roughly 30mm x 30mm so the sat overlapping the concrete bricks allowing any rain water to drop off bottom of timber to the ground, so no water trapped between timber and bricks)
topped with 4 X 1 treated timbers this gives 1 inch overlapping the 6 X 2's allowing any rain water to drop clear of timbers
added rubber menbrane (had some edpm left over) to inside 6 X 2's to protect timbers from soil/compost damp etc
then added ali angle to the outside corners of 6 X 2's to protect from lawn mower
cost around £100 for 2 8ft X 4ft raised beds, not cheap most of cost was the concrete bricks, i already have sheds on concrete bricks so needed to match in, if you use bricks you can normally get them free from someone