Raised Bed Borders

I had to tear down my deck to correct the drainage around the house. I used the redwood decking to make boxes. Even redwood will break down in the soil. The corners are the weakest points. If you just use scews or nails, they won't last very long.

I used galvanized angle metal with holes already formed. I drilled holes through the wood and used nuts and bolts to connect the wood and angles at the corners. Then I used a vinyl edging to support a layer of plastic around the inside of each box. This separated the soil from the wood. These boxes are now 15 years old and still in good shape. Using plastic to separate the soil from the wood would also work for keeping creosote from leaching out of railroad ties.

My boxes are nearly 20 feet long and two boards high. The pressure from the soil gradually warped the boards, so several years ago I raised each box onto landscape timbers and used rebar to go through the timbers into the soil. Each rebar extended above the soil through the timber and along side the redwood boards. Then I used a piece of sheet metal and "U" bolts to fasten the rebar to the redwood. This straightened out the boxes and they have looked good since then.

Drainage is another consideration. My soil is very hard clay, and the first few years the plants suffered from poor drainage. When I figured out why the plants were sick, I ended up digging a trench below and through each box and placing a plasting drainage pipe to take the excess water away. The plants were much healthier after that. It sure would have been easier if I had done it from the start.

If you are placing this against the house, the drainage issue will be critical, as you do not want the water draining to the house.

I never had good luck with soaker hoses. I tried many different configurations. I always seemed to have dry spots in each box and had to water by hand where the soakers didn't perform. Soakers are great for rows, but if you plant intensively some plants will get too wet and some won't get enough water. I also had a problem with succession plantings and the soaker hoses because they were hard to work around in the middle of the season. I occasionally punctured them and they don't work well at all with a hole.

Now I have made a custome sprinkler for each box. I used 1" white plastic pipe with T fittings and sprinkler risers. Each sprinkler head only costs about $.50. I use about 6-7 heads in each box and adjust them so the water doesn't get into the paths. It's easy to change the riser height to accomodate plant growth. Each custom sprinkler has a quick connect fitting so I can snap on the hose. Total cost for each sprinkler was ~$10.

I like the cement block idea. If you can get them cheaply or free it would work great. If you buy new, they will be very expensive. I figure a 12 foot by 4 foot box 2 blocks high would take 52 blocks. They cost ~$2 each at HD. My boney butt isn't too comfortable on the redwood boards after an hour or two.

If you wanted some temporary raised beds that will last roughly 2 or so years so you can check out sun exposure, deer traffic....use straw bails. Use the bales as the border and then fill with soil. excellent for the back as you can sit on the edges and weed and then when they start to decompose, mix them in with the soil and add somemore bales on the outside. I use this method all around the farm and love it. The composted straw is also excellent for mulch.

How cheap can you get square straw bales these days?

I understand square bales are roughly 15"x18"x36".
How much do they weigh when they come in this size?
I would guess perhaps 40 pounds and $2 at At $100/ton?

I think if I used straw bales they would become 18" wide paths between 36" wide rows and there would be another layer of strawbales underneath everything. 15" of straw under the raised beds and 30" of straw under the paths. An area 15'x15' would have 3 3'x12' rows. Since about 50% of the area is garden and 50% is paths and borders you would only need to dig down 7.5" to fill the beds with 15" of soil. I would dig down 12" if I had good soil or even just good dirt since some of this soil would mix in with the straw. Rocks would get filtered out and you could toss those aside as you go. If my soil was very rocky I would only go down 6" or so and add as much topsoil to the beds that I need when done. If the soil was very heavy clay I would work hard to go as deep into this as I could since once the clay way on top of the straw I think you could get some very interesting results.

If you did this the 15'x15' area with 3 3'x12' beds would need 74 bales, which I think is about 1.5 tons but might cost only $100 if you get a good price.

I have forgone the expense and time related to building walls to the raised beds. Our beds are permanent rows (3 ft wide) with permanent pathways between (made of recycled cardboard) I throw all sorts of organic materials into the beds and each year they are healthier and there are more worms. The trick is to rotate what you plant. We have hard pan clay and doing this has created deeper rich dirt without backbreaking digging or building a wall.

I read that the rotting wood/log method is used in Germany or Austria. You put a rotting wood down the middle of the bed and cover with dirt/humus. It attracts a lot of worms as it rots thus making the soil healthier (castings) and drain well (worm tunnels) and hold water better (humus). I've tried that on a small scale--it works. I hope to do more this year.

What Brandy is talking about is TAR that they use to cote the ties with....seems like I read in Mother Earth one time that you needed to line the inside of the beds with plastic Sides only and this should work just fine. As for me I use the Cinder blocks, to make a 4x9 bed you need 48 blocks stacked 2 high

could you use 35/55 gallon drums turned on ther sides held in place with rebar.you could drill seep holes on the inner side that were very small and then fill the drumms with water?just an idea

Hey gobug, I like you idea of watering with your custom made sprinker heads.
Would like to see a picture if it wouldn't be too much trouble.
Thanks
Bill

Porboy- I don't have one handy, but I can take one tomorrow.

Prayalot- The Tar in railroad ties is called creosote.

I am LOVING the rotting wood idea ~ now I know what to do with all that punky wood the previous homeowner left in nice little piles along our property line!!

Ricki

Here are some pics: http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

I prefer stone, but I will use old logs.

I would never use cedar, railroad ties or treated wood.

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I've used old decking wood for flower beds because I don't plan to eat them, so why not?

I did use some old deck wood for a bed with tomatoes and grapes in it, but I sealed the wood first. I used the wood because I had to bunny proof, so needed to be able to pound nails and clips in.

I've also used old bricks and am replacing them with cinder blocks. I also plan to build two large beds out of cinder blocks this spring --- like others, I'll be making them two cinder blocks high and stagger the blocks.

I've also just laid straw and stuff down and planted that way. I don't like doing that too much, though, because I have a couple of large, rambunctious dogs --- they understand boundaries when they're made out of brick or wood. Otherwise, though, they tend to dig everything up and nap in the beds. Grrrr.

Thanks for the input on the Railroad ties, we had started off thinking about cinderblocks, but the ties were free. Will definately do some more research on this, would never have thought about the treated wood being a problem. Lots of people around here use them for flower beds, but duh I guess I did plan on eating what I grew

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Nice photos Paul. Thanks for posting them. It looks like a nice tractor as well.

Here are some photos of my garden boxes:
http://community.webshots.com/album/181559487ndFNIS

Gary

gobug,

Are you tinkering with ferro cement for projects?

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gobug and Paul: your beds are inspirational.

I'm esp. taken with gobug's and am planning on sniping the setup from the second photo for my own. Very nice!

Gobug, I bookmarked your website for later inspiration.

Paul: your log pile/raised beds, if my DH will go for it, is a fantastic idea. We have an overwhelming number of these irritating piles on our new property. I can see using this technique to build up beds for ornamental gardening, landscaping, even though they'll settle somewhat.

Great thread. I just have tons of 8 - 10 " cedar logs and trees that need to go, and was thinking about bordering the beds with those. By the time they rot in seven or eight years, there will be more to take their place as we have more cedar than anything.

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Keep in mind that there is a good reason why cedar rots soooooo slowly. And why most stuff won't grow under a cedar tree ... it has a sort of natural herbicide/fungicide thing going on. It makes your growies sad. Personally, I wouldn't use it near my raised beds.

Notice the other raised beds in those pics of mine. Stone is the best. Old logs are okay, but I intend to replace the logs with stones as the years pass.

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Paul
I have been playing around with ferrocement for a few years now. At first I was interested in making a ferrocement house, but the code gods would complicate the process beyond practicality. Now I just plan to make some sheds and water tanks this spring. (no permits required) Some of the photos with the garden shots show a 20 foot 3x6 ferrocement beam I made this fall. It's a prototype for a 36 foot beam to hold up windows for a greenhouse addition to the garage.

My property is "blessed" with abundant rock, so I will be making all the new beds using rock. Unfortunately, I will have to work on the soil to make it good enough for the boxes. This weekend I am taking 6 trashcans full of chipped yard debris to the property to get the compost pile started.

Countrygrrrrrrrrrl/Bresias - thanks for the compliments.

Md Tn Mama mentioned the trick of rotating the crops. This is important. I have a basic planting list for each of the 4 large boxes and I just rotate it each year. I mess with it a little each year.

The nice thing about boxes is that you can make divices like arbors, cold frames, row covers and trellises that can be moved from box to box as the you rotate the crops. I really like cattle fence panels because they are so strong, cheap and can be used for several purposes. I also made hoops of quarter inch pencil rod that support row covers. (You can see the hoops in the sprinkler photo) I used a sewing machine to stitch a hem on each edge of the row cover fabric and inserted a piece of rebar. This keeps the fabric in place even in high wind, and makes it simple to lift out of the way when working the box.

Thanks for the information about using decomposing wood on the bottom to encourage worms. I have noticed how worms love this, but never thought about using it on the bottom of the boxes. One side of my garden box area is espaliered fruit trees, plus my neighbor has elm trees against the other side of the yard and I always have a lot of prunings. Now I plan to take them to the mountian property to put in the future boxes.

Hey gobug, Thanks for the pictures of your garden. I will be using your idea for watering and gardening this year. Paul, thanks for your idea of using old wood for building
raised beds. Good thread everyone.
Merry Xmas
Bill

This thread has gotten very very interesting. I am really getting keen on this ferrocement and cob and rammed earth stuff. When you can get materials cheap like $20 to $100 a ton it really makes it fun to think about how you might redesign your backyard. I am not really far North at 46N, far enough for a low sun angle and an average soil temp of 40F. It is a wet climate also, which make the frost stay in the ground that much longer. The best sun for growing here is May, June, July but the soil never warms up until the days start getting shot again. In September to October the soil is warm enough despite the odd shallow frost, but the days are too short for any real growing.

What I would like to try with ferrocement is some artifical south sloping terracing. The back of my house faces South but my yard slope upward to the South at perhaps 6 feet in 60 feet. So a sun angle of 46deg on March21st becomes 40deg, and 66 in June becomes only 60. My roof is a shallow sloped East and West with a 13' peak bove the patio in the middle and 9' on the ends. I would like to try sodding bits of the roof someday, but what I have in mind is to have some sort of terracing that starts up there and works its way down into the backyard. The patio would still be their in the middle, but the terracing would come down the two sides. I don't really have a need to increase the 1400sqft of heated space of my house, but I have no basement so some storage under the terracing would be nice.

So what I picture is some sort of ferrocement giant steps sort of like stadium seating with storage underneath. I think I would slope it such that I would have a 3' wide bed starting at the corner of the roof at 9' height dropping 2' to a 1' wide path and another 4' wide bed, so I would terrace on downward 2' for every 4' run. The beds would be at 9',7',5',3' before hitting the current backyard sloping up to the south. Those 4 beds would be about 6' wide then a 2' wide path of stairs going down to the South, and another 5 beds at 10' because of roof pitch and then 8',6',4' to 2' because my yard kind of slopes that way, or it will. Then I would have my existing patio and I would leave the other side alone for now becasue of trees over there.

So I basically have a sort of 6-pitch ramp 14' wide with 16-20' run and a 6-7' rise. The soil in the beds and paths would be about 3' deep however, including drainage, so the main structure would be only 14' wide along the roof of the house, 7' high for 4', dropping to 5' for another 4' and then 3' for another 4'. These 3 giant steps would be built of ferrocement with support columns of ferrocement filled drain pipe every 3-4'. There would be a retaining wall on each side and the storage space would basically be a 4' wide tunnel with a door on each end and 4 3' wide storage bays 8' deep. The retaining wall on the side of the house would start curve to follow the property line. The retaining wall by the patio would curve more dramatically around the patio to make a natural curve. So the terrace would grow wider and curve naturally as they descend and the beds would not be exactly 14' in total length including path bt would start at about 12' and end perhaps 16' or blending into the back lawn which is on top of the ledge. My house is on a slab on a rock ledge so there is no foundation to disturb. The ferrocement might not be showing on all the retaining walls but it would underly the structure. The storage area door wood be a heavy wooden door that appears to be built into an area excavated into a hillside.

Water from the roof would naturally be diverted to irrigate the terrace. In the top beds, squash and pumpkins would be grown to spread out over the gravel roof and perhaps cascade off the side of the house above the laundry and garage. Squash don't need a lot of soil to spread out from as long as it is rich in compost and well watered. I would add a door to access the storage area from the laundryroom, but technically it would be a shed, or a retaining wall, or something else that doesn't require codes. I believe the soil would warm up very quickly in the Spring if I open the two doors, and possible the laundry door, for cross ventilation on sunny days, and closed them on cold nights. Warm spring rain off the roof would also work wonders.

I think the terrace would also be extended in the Fall if I kept the doors closed, and the laundry room open. There is a lot of rain in September and October so I could direct colder night rain away, and allow only warmer daytime rain to water the terrace. Hot frames could be added to allow some growing into November. The upper frames could be kept closed to act as solar hot water heaters to preheat water irrigating or perhaps circulating through the lower terracing. Some beds would also be used for composting in the winter and the composting tea would get mixed in with the irrigation. It is possible that greywater from the laundry room would work in also, improving as it works its way down the terracing after mixing with composting leaves in the fall. Quite an experiment. About 200-250 square feet of beds altogether. That's quite a bit more than the 50 square feet I have now. Perhaps 30-40 tons of new material, mostly soil but also cement and sand and chickenwire for ferrocement understructure. At an average cost of $25-$33/ton the total cost would be roughly estimated at $1000, and a lot of free labour. I could also have one of those waterfalls I suppose.

I wonder how I will keep those deer off my roof that love eating my squash?