as someone with real gardens who knows a thing or 2 about agriculture raised beds are glorified pots. when did you last allow your raised bed to fallow? and if you didn't you're just adding compost to a glorified pot.
Squarefoot gardening is amazing. Great book. Gardening is one of those things that is riddled with more conflicting myths and legends than facts, so when your first starting out it is very difficult to know what to do. For example, it always surprises my family when I grow 16 tomatoes plants in 16 sqft (with vertical gardening) when all the old common sense says 1 plant per 9 sqft. Plus the book blends gardening with engineering which is really fun and exciting. Cheers and good luck with your raised beds!
Great choice with the composite decking. Two things to bear in mind; The stuff grabs heat from the sun and holds it. That may or may not create a thermal overload for plants near the edge. Two, as it gets hot, it gets flexible. You may experience some bulging , even in the short 4' runs. When doing a deck, you can work some pretty cool curves into the project by getting that decking hot. On a southern exposure with no shade, I avoid that color as by midday you need insulated shoes to walk on it. In my area we get 95-100 degree days in the summer, deck color becomes a real issue. Maybe not so much where you live.
Oh my gosh that's something to think about for sure. Do you think it leeches anything like bad chemicals into the soil by getting hot over and over again?
tip 1: you don't need spikes, when you fill boxes with dirt, they are not going anywhere tip 2: you don't need to clean ground under beds if you build taller, layered beds (which is tip 3) tip 3: build taller box - about your waist height - it is easier for your back when you have to work on them and you can fill them with more stuff that provides insulation, drainage and nutrition for your plants: first put a layer of sheep wool - provides insulation from cold ground in winter and prevent too much moisture to leave bed second layer should be branches - this provide good drainage if there is too much rain third layer - cardboard and papers - this will slowly rot and provide nutrients as well as help with keeping moisture fourth layer - compost matter - you can also put organic scraps from your kitchen - this will provide nutrients fifth layer - dirt - this supports roots of your plants sixth layer - mulch (after you plant your plants) - this will prevent excessive evaporating, over time it will rot, providing nutrients to your plants and it will also prevent weeds from growing - you add mulch multiple times over time all layers will compress, so you will have to add things into your bed, mostly compost matter and dirt, so you don't have to use any fertilizers
M Kosmos Agree on all this. Cardboard is however not a good idea. Ink solvents, slow degradation, and most of all, it creates a barrier between ground life and your raised bed (worms, insects...) who work and aerate the soil. If there's life, it is a good signal.
why would you want insulation from ground in the winter time? the ground has a LOT of thermal mass! insulating it from ground means, your 1-2 ft of soil will freeze much easier. In essence you just made a big pot
@@yoanngrange I forgot to mention to use clear cardboard (not printed) so there is no ink or other chemicals on it :) also, I always tear cardboard and paper to peaces and make layer of peaces of cardboard, not one complete peace to create barrier. I did found worms in my beds when preparing them in between seasons so I think they can get through just fine
@@yoanngrange Actually worms love cardboard and it will degrade very quick, inks nowadays are soy based so they are good to use. I use cardboard on my garden beds and in my worm castings bins.
@@NoRoads2AllRoads well, I really don't know that for freezing in long run, since I live in wormier climate and if there is freezing over winter it is usually very, very short - about day or two (if it ever happens that winter), or just over night, and I noticed that plants in my boxes are doing better than those that are planter directly in the ground. It is also worth noticing that here, when freezing occurs, it freezes just thin top layer of soil. It is very possible that in longer freezing periods this wouldn't be relevant, or helping at all...
I feel like most of Bob's vids start with "I have no idea what I'm doing, there are probably better ways, and I intend to overly complicate it, lets get started" which is great cause it just proves he just likes making stuff!
Awesome video! I like to make stuff too😊 I used composite decking and angle aluminium to make my raised beds. I made them 24 inches deep by 6 feet in length. I also built a few 4 by 4 beds. I liked the spike you added at the end of the angled aluminium corners BUT it is really not necessary. I built mine 6 years ago and once they are filled with soil they do not move at all. The soil holds them in place. The composite decking will last forever and is probably the best material for raised garden beds. You explained it beautifully and it is an awesome video! Thank you for sharing!!!😊😊
They look good. Some advice from a person that has been gardening for years though is that getting rid of the grass was an extra step you could have done without. What I have figured out is that you make sure the soil you buy for your garden has plenty of organic compost in it, and replenish the compost every season that you plant. As far as fertilizer goes you use the slow release stuff about once a month and the quick release about once per week. Also what has helped me alot is that once my tomatoes and other fruit bearing plants started blooming I switched from miracle grow to 4-18-38 masterblend formula which has really helped my tomatoes and squash explode with fruit. Currently we have more squash than we can eat and tons of tomatoes on the way but unfortunately tomatoes tend to take forever to actually ripen and later in the summer is when we should expect our bell pepper. Another thing I would advise is that you build a drip irrigation system for your garden.
I've been re-learning how to have a green thumb these past weeks, and both Epic Gardening and Self Sufficient Me have TONS of tips, both about raised bed gardening, and de-mystifying everything in the process.
Beginning gardener here. Year 3. I learned the hard way to invest in the soil and fertilizer. I use a combination of organic and non organic fertilizers. I liquid fertilize every friday! The Rustic Garden channel has been phenomenal resource for me. And Hollis/Nancy's channel as well.
Like the beds. SQFT Garden is gonna be easy to start up. I would recommend that you remove your strawberries and plant them separately somewhere else. They are perennials and tend to shoot out and take up lots of space. Add more annuals in place of the strawberries.
That book is one of the best easy gardening reference around. A good addition to the book is a template that comes with reference of how many plants to plant per square and what plants do best together. Certain plants don't make good neighbors. Amazon sells book and template as a kit. One of the best way to water is a soaking pipe and again a little research will give you lots of ideas for a reasonable price. Stay safe, stay healthy
Another nice build, Bob! FYI, you CAN use pressure treated wood for your beds; use a heavy plastic linear to act as a barrier between the wood and the soil. Also, newer PT lumber has fewer of the chemicals that were once used, like arsenic, to treat the wood. Of course, be your own best judge for what works and what doesn't.
I did Square foot for years. Mel's mix (soil you make without dirt and weeds) really works well. If you have moles, hardware cloth on the bottom fixes that. And I recommend you read the book. Mel explains why watering from the top is a major no bueno. Other than that, enjoy!!!!
if you alternate the joints of your top layer and bottom layers of decking they will provide a bit more structural integrity when having to move it about.
Great job, I love the spike idea. You didn't need to dig up the existing grass though. Just drop them and line the bottom with cardboard. The grass will die and become compost. Also, when you fill the beds, you should fill them mostly with logs and branches if you have them. They will slowly rot over time, and as they do, they will retain moisture in the process.
I use my left over glass bulb fragrance oil bottles and fill them with lemon grass oil and stick them in the soil part way...The heat of the day warms up the bulbs and releases the scent to keep pests away.
Myeah....about those screws....pretty sure those will be the final ones....maybe in a few years, if you decide to rebuild it, you'll change them....otherwise: there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution :)) Love how they turned out :)
@@Iliketomakestuff Stainless steel screws are the correct screws to use with Aluminum. Brass is a real No No. Plain steel is OK but will rust eventually. I believe your coated screws will be fine. If it were in an aluminum boat, I'd use Stainless.
Tip: Don't water the leaves in the afternoon or before dark. Especially for things like tomatoes. Water on the leaves in the afternoon sun can burn them and water on the leaves that doesn't evaporate before dark can cause issues with fungus and blight.
@@shoyrushoyru I assume he is referring to a water droplets being able to act as lenses and focus light onto a single point on the leaves... Idk though, never heard of that being a problem.
As a general rule, avoid watering the leaves (with some notable exceptions, like cucumbers). Especially after high summer when the air gets more humid (blight) . Watering should be done at dawn; mostly to minimize evaporation while not creating a slug paradise. Failing that, water at dusk, but some sort of slug control has to be implemented. Or use drip irrigation, you can turn that on whenever.
Square foot gardening, best way to start. Start small then expand once you know how to deal with your 2 beds. Great idea using the decking material :-).
As a serious allotmenteer, I would always recommend doing longer thinner beds. Base it on how far you can reach so you can weed the centre of the bed easily. Once things are growing it can be difficult, to get tools between plants so you'll need to hand pull them. For most people 1m x 2/3/4m is good. Also makes it much easier to provide supports along the edges, or use them as borders around an area such as a patio or lawn
There are some hazardous chemicals that do make their ways into what you grow but it’s so minuscule that it would never affect you. Old pressure treated wood used chromated copper arsenate. Which is toxic. But that stuff hasn’t been used in years.
@@oliverpage1139 yes, all pressure treated wood have been changed so that the chemicals used no longer leach poison into the ground. And the amount of leaching has been reduced as well.
This is a bad idea in general. Gardening is caring for living things. That requires you to be paying regular attention. Especially when new to it, you really need to avoid anything that gives you an excuse to ignore your plants.
My husband and I built 6 - 4X4 beds a few years ago and used the same book for planting ideas...weeding them is quite easy as the soil is looser and doesn't seem to pack down quite as much. I love that you are learning a new skill, hopefully it's a fun adventure for your kids as well. For us gardening is time we spend together catching up and planning our day/week, with the bonus of veg at the end of the season.
Pro tip bob... next time you make some raised beds, if you put some newspaper or flyers down on the grass you can put the bed down and the grass will compost and add some extra nutrients for the garden. Plus it saves you some digging.
Mel's book is a great resource! Been using it since his first publication. Be sure to follow his soil prep. It works great!! Nice Beds!! Those screws look pretty permanent to me!!
I don't know if it is a bad thing to do (posting another RU-vidr channel name) but I never look at comments anyway buuuut. When I was beginning to learn a bit on gardening, MI gardener is who I learned all I know from great channel he really knows alot and has awesome tips
This is what I love about this channel... Bee keeping? We got it! Woodworking? We got it! 3D printing? We got it! Gardening? We got it! And the list goes on, keep up the great work
I have just made 5 raised veg planters (12 inch by 27 inch by 15 inch high) and a single planter (12 inch by 15 inch by 15 inch high) so that I can use the 1 foot by 1 foot veg planter template that I bought last year. All the sides were made using pallet wood and the uprights came from a piece of wood that I acquired from a local bar that was being refurbished in 2019. Just had to buy some screws, nails, wood glue and liner for the project. Keep up the brilliant projects. I will be using your mitre saw station idea when I build my own tool shed in the next couple of years.
Just FYI, Those decking panels will flex outward when they are heated by the sun, Fix that problem by adding supports in the center of each "Wall". Also a good idea is to line the bottom with weed barrier and partially up the sides attaching it with staples or tack nails to the walls.
Wait, where's Josh's "First" ?? It seems wrong. (Raised beds are great because they warm up sooner so you can start earlier, but they also dry out quicker so you need to stay on top of watering)
They are amazing if you have poor soil though. In the UK I have pure clay...I could literally make pots from it. So beds for me make it easier to add manure to break down the clay and build the soil up. Otherwise I would have to dig it all out. It also helps control the weeds
Take a regular straw bail and cut out the center. Fill it with soil or composted cow manure and plant a tomato plant or two. Maintain for the growing season. In the fall you can till it into the ground to enrich the soil where it was sitting if you want to make an in ground bed or garden. If not then break it apart and spread it over the lawn to improve the soil for next year.
Just a tip that I have learnt, don't bother digging the grass up underneath the raised garden, too much work. Just lay the cardboard as you did straight over the grass, the grass and cardboard will break down and feed nutrients to your veggies.
That's why I came to the comments. I was going to suggest the same. I have an 8ft x 40ft bed and 15 years ago we just mowed the spot over and over to get it as low as we could. I then used all the newspapers we had saved and laid them all out, wet it with the hose and the grass died off. Now that we don't get daily newspapers anymore, all the cardboard I was about to toss out from a large heater we had to replace will now get some use. 🙂 learn so much from RU-vid
newspaper does great too. There was a woman who was a master at home gardening for sustaining food. I forget her name now but she's basically a legend in the early american garden world and she always used a small stack of newspaper about the thickness of cardboard. After about 2 years get the soil tested by a local place for nutrient levels so you know what to tweak.
Nice idea. Very nicely explained. Made the same thing previously with old composite lumber after replacing a composite deck with a new one. But I made the beds so that straw bales would fit snuggly inside. And since ours were about 12 feet long we used some old locust fence posts as hidden bracing on the inside. That stuff will not rot for a long long time. Filling the beds with straw bales for a straw bale garden saves money, at least where we live, compared with filling them with good potting soil. And after the first season much of the hay turns into compost to use for planting the following year. Plus the hay bales are higher, so less bending. Not sure about the need for angled side posts to stick in the ground though. These beds are not going to blow away in the wind. I did paint the aluminum black to match the posts on our deck and used black decking screws. Looked nice. One other diffetence. My composite boards had grooves on the sides. I jammed 1/2" round foam insulation into the grooved before sscrewing the boards on top of one another to stop water or soil from leaking out. Worked pretty well.
Many studies out there about PT lumber in raised beds. One by Penn State suggest, like most studies now, it is completely safe material to use with no amount of leaching that will make an impact
Hey Bob, If gophers or voles are a problem in your area some heavy wire mesh at the bottom of the box will keep the burrowing critters from visiting your nicely planted smorgasbord.
My mate from work did something like this a couple of years ago and his 70yo neighbour suggested he size them to be almost waist height and only about 3/4 of an arms length wide to save back strain and such from bending over, weeding, etc. also root vegetables tend to grow better in deeper raised garden beds. Its a great covid project though! Thanks Bob!
Good one. Simple and efficient. Two things: Cardboards at the bottom, they forbid worms and insects from the ground to work your top soil and make it "alive". You need connection with the ground. Then, to slow down wood rotting, you can add a plastic alveoled layer between the wood and the soil. So the air can pass and allow boards to dry when wet from the rain. In short: contact from the ground, no contact from the wood. :-)
Cool project. Now you can try to find some mulch to cover the soil. Naked soil tends to kill life in the soil. Covering it up help keeping moisture in the dirt.
I am older and have gardened for years..I also used to watch a tv show called The Square Foot Gardener...he put different crops in each square foot..yours looks like you planted the same thing in each square...he started off with mostly seeds....he had like a square foot of lettuce , a square foot of beets etc..cucumbers will take up a lot of room so put them on the outside squares so they can grow over the edge of your boxes...good luck with your garden.
Those look really nice. I actually used composite decking to make my raised beds years ago. Just an FYI from experience the boards will bend from the wait of the soil over till with nothing supporting them on the sides.
Aaron Alton I was thinking the same. Probably some extra decking pieces cut in a similar spike shape and driven vertically down against the sides in the middle would probably provide good support.
Good job and here's my advice!there was no need to rip up the soil under the beds if you're going to put cardboard down anyway. It will smother the grass and become part of the soil for your bed. It's very rich.also if you don't want to fill the entire thing up with mud or you can't I would suggest putting would broken branches leave clippings grass clippings or any other natural material that will break down at the bottom of your bed to help bulk it up so you don't need as much mud. My other advice would keep an eye on the width of your bed if you cannot reach the centrefrom all sides then you will have to lean over into your bed and there's a chance of you crushing plants or falling in it
We actually scalped the grass so that we could move it to other areas of the yard that are bare. It's taken quite nicely in those new places with some watering 👍🏼
I don´t even have a garden, nor do I know much about it, but I do grow carrots, potatoes and some herbs on my balcony :D I just did how I remember my grandparents were doing it when I was a child, seems to work, it´s growing like craycray :D lol can´t keep anything alive inside tho hahaha anything I take inside is as good as dead.....so we only have fake, plastic plants/flowers inside.... Next year I´m thinking of giving some tomatoes a try too :) I have a corner where it´s perfect for them! I´m using dirt mixed with sand (from my grandparents old place, it gives the BEST potatoes) and a good chicken manure, smells awful for a few days, but it turns my balcony into a lush oasis, much better than all this boring, gray concrete that surrounds us here :) 💜
I built some similar beds about 5 years ago with cedar. They are still working our great for us, and eating freshly picked fruits and vegetables is such a satisfying feeling! Awesome job! Small story; I have been into making things from scratch and baking for years, but recently got into making breads. This year we made sure to plant tomatoes, basil, spinach, oregano, green and red peppers, and jalapeños. This summer a project of mine is to try to perfect making pizza entirely from scratch. Get better every time! 👍
I dont know if you have alot off snails where you live, but if you have a top tip is to use the angel aluminum as a small shelf on the top off ure square gardenbeds. Like an invertet L hanging out a bit to keep those snails from crawling inside and eat ure greens. Very nice video.
My family and I built something close to these, turned out great, I mentioned your channel and what you do and they love the idea, thanks for the inspiration!!!
As a former home builder, I enjoy great DIY projects and yours is an EXCELLENT one. Very nicely done. Thanks for sharing it in your video. Having said that, let me offer some experience based tips. You will find in some of my gardening videos on my channel some reasons why I stopped trying to grow with Mel's method. It isn't that it doesn't work but if you truly follow it correctly, it is extremely expensive to produce enough food for even 1 person. Mostly it's the mix cost, but building enough beds is fairly costly too. BTW, you can purchase useful beds precut for about $50 each which are made of red cedar. They will last several years. Considering the value of your labor plus the materials, I'm willing to bet your cost is 2X or 3X that amount for each bed, probably about $150 each....not including the soil! As a single guy, I found it takes about a dozen beds to truly generate enough food consistently to make a significant dent in reducing grocery costs appreciably. One or two beds just gives you a snack now and then. Weather, insects, animals, etc. all steal a little from your production. With just 2 beds you will have a fun hobby but you won't produce a lot of food. So keep building a LOT more beds! So if you build, say, 10 beds and your labor, materials, soil, etc. cost say $200 per bed, all of a sudden you have $2,000 in getting enough bed space to grow the food your family wants to eat. There's a reason people in poor places don't use Mel's method and just plant in rows in the ground. It's FAR CHEAPER! Mel's method is for rich gardeners with fat wallets. Second, you stopped filling your beds a couple inches from the top. After a few rains, that loose, new soil will compact down to where your bed is only about half full of dirt. You need it totally full, not half full, as veggies need several inches of soil for their root structure. You will need to add more soil as it settles until you get the bed brim full to the top. Believe me, soil will need to be constantly added over time as when you pull out veggies to eat, some of the soil will adhered to the roots. And soil contains organic materials which decay and disappear over time. My advice is to start a compost pile immediately and begin to make your own compost. I have videos on how to do that. Then as your soil settles you won't need to go buy more soil. Just top it off with finished compost. Third, once you figure out that your beds will be only half full and you eventually fill them up, you will then find that the strength of the sidewalls really matters. I'd recommend you cut some FLAT aluminum stock for side supports (with spikes) and attach one midway along each sidewall....four to a bed. This will bind the top plank to the bottom plank midway along the bed walls and give you a more rigid box. You will need that, as wet soil is very heavy and will push outwards, bowing your beds over time. You will find that out! Fourth, you are wasting a lot of time and effort with the screws and strings on each bed. Over time all the strings will deteriorate and break. I tried that initially too. There's a better way. I built a frame using 1 inch wide wood stock that produces 9 squares, each one foot square. I can sit this frame on top of my bed at planting time and use it as a guide, then move it to the next bed as needed. Simply store the frame when not in use. You get the exact same results without screws and strings all over the top of your bed. Much neater looking overall and you never have to replace the strings. Fifth, the cardboard you put in at the bottom as a weed blocker will likely work for a couple years. But it will rot and deteriorate over time. Periodically you may need to scoop all the growing mix out of the bed and replace that cardboard with a couple layers of good quality weed blocking fabric. That too will deteriorate over time but you DO want to keep a weed blocker in place. Run some of the weed blocker fabric up the sides to the top of your first side board level. Most of the weed growth that comes up from the ground below the bed tends to come up along the sidewalls. So if you run the weed blocker fabric up the sides, then put the soil back in place to hold it, you will have less weeds to worry about. You will still get weeds however, particularly if you are buying loose garden soil from a nursery. Most of that soil will have weed seeds in it. You will be creating an EXCELLENT environment for the weeds in your new soil to germinate and grow. Weeds, as we all know, grow far faster and better than veggies. Birds will excrete weed seeds into your beds too. So you will be dealing with weeds, just somewhat less weeds than if you planted in the bare ground. Unless you have a lot of organic material in your growing mix, raised beds require more frequent attention to the watering needs of your plants. They are typically warmer because they are raised and the soil tends to drain more rapidly. Thus you will need to insure that you are giving the plants enough water. Keep a close eye on that. Mel advises you to keep a bucket of water next to your beds and give them a drink every time you pass by. It's his way of saying the raised bed method requires good watering habits. Plants do grow very well in a proper growing mix in raised beds. Stick with varieties that are easy to grow and suited for your growing area. You should have good results and a lot of satisfaction but you will need to devote time to this task. But gardening takes time each and every day, particularly when you plant enough to feed your entire family. So be prepared. You cannot go off on a two week vacation unless you have someone else come tend your garden. Tons of things happen quickly when you are not around. Animals (deer, squirrels, raccoons, etc.) may find your plants and feast on them Storms may damage them. Pests will invade and decimate your plants. Disease can take hold. The meter reader may pick your prized tomato just before you do. And sometimes your crops will just fail, for reasons which may not be too clear. Nothing is guaranteed in gardening. Still, have fun and keep at it. You will learn more each time you plant something and get better at it. Good luck!
In my experience, you don't really need to add any spikes or rebar to hold the bed in place. Once it's filled, the weight of the soil should hold it just fine. As far as material goes, regular dimensional lumber isn't actually that bad, if you give it a coat of linseed oil. I made raised beds out of regular 2x12s with one sloppy coat of linseed oil, and they're still going strong after ten years here in the Pacific Northwest.
I was watching another woodworking RU-vidr and they deliberately didn't protect their wood for a table to see how long it would last. They're also 10 years and going, last I checked. So yeah, if you don't mind remaking the boxes every few decades, regular wood is perfectly fine.
Don’t overwater and good soil with lots of drainage..ahhh, it’s a fine balance. Good luck..A garden grown with care and attention will give you more than you can possibly imagine, especially when you add the love!
Hey Bob just finished 4 beds at my house and 5 city pickers containers. Look at the rain bird gardeners kit on amazon for $35. Its enough to get you going and the big box stores and amazon sell all the fittings to do whatever you need. Add a timer and no worries about watering. I'm going to try the bhyve smart timer. Im using over 75' of 1/2 tubing and 30+ emitters watering each plant directly. Im also using emitters to fill up the city pickers reservoir.
When You're planting and potting new plant you have to water them absolutely tonnes to help them settle into the soil also if you do this again in pots or other raised beds I would recommend crushing up Styrofoam and mixing it into some soil then filling up the container halfway and filing the rest with the same soil without Styrofoam it helps with drainage
Good luck with the garden. I have the square foot gardening book and the raised beds have been on my list for a while. Again, good luck. And, thanks for the video.
Great idea using composite decking. One tip for next time: leave the old grass and cover with cardboard and compost then wood chips. That retains the microbiome which leads to a healthier soil.
I used the Square-Foot gardening method with students. We found growing taller plants like corn or tomatoes in the middle squares and vines like cucumbers on one side with a trellis makes it easier to reach during harvest and keeps people from stepping on the soil.
we have a drip system that control watering during the night. some of the other comments have great advice on watering systems with buckets and pvc but if you live in an area with cold weather in winter, pvc can freeze with water in it and since it cant expand but the water still expands, it can crack easily. also pvc will get more brittle the more its in the sun. for these reasons i suggest rubber hosing. thats what we use for our garden and animals.
Yes, or if you have gophers like we do in California. They are hyper destructive and you'll be so happy you put the extra expense/effort in thwarting their tunneling.
I like the idea of aluminum corner brackets. That’s about it. A couple of things to be aware of: 1. The spiked ends were unnecessary and a safety hazard during assembly and transport. 2. Composite decking is absolutely not food safe. If you use for flower garden that’s fine, but NEVER for vegetables. Personally I would not even consider for flowers as the chemicals from the decking board will leech into surrounding soil as well. Just use cedar instead.
Really fantastic work, Bob! 😃 One tip is to make small label signs for each square. Then you can write down in each what is planted there. 😊 And carrots! Don't forget to plant some carrots! I love eating raw carrots since I was a kid and my mother planted it in the farm! 😂 Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
new subscriber - thanks for all the great videos. i've been gardening for almost 20yrs. one of the best things you can do for your beds is to not over water. considering these are raised beds that's a huge hurtle avoided. the next best thing is to get a few inches of compost on each bed. for those sized beds i would have just used compost instead of dirt but too late for that now. maybe in the fall when you pull all the plants out you can put compost in. if you have access to spoiled hay or wood chips that makes a nice cover for the top of the garden. this shades out the weeds and holds moisture better.
I like the idea of permanence. That is, build it once and it lasts forever. But one thing I found out when looking at Home Depot, is they have a composite brand called Fiberon Armor Guard. The problem I saw is that the durable coating (rot resistant) is only on the top and sides (they're deckboards). Thus the side that will be exposed to soil (the bottom of the board) is apparently just fiberboard, and that won't last long. So if you like the idea of this video, make sure the boards you get are coated on all sides.
You can use weed blocker netting and or pea gravel stones to cover the bed. I like stones as they help keep the soil from being disturbed from watering and they prevent animal digging and weed growth. Light colored stones should reduce soil temp preventing some evaporation too
Always use some type of metal netting. 15 years ago I bought netting at a garden place that was not metal. Some animal, either a large rabbit, squirrel, or even a ground hog chewed a large hole through it overnight. Since I bought the heavier metal netting, I've not had a problem
Here's an idea for growing potatoes. We have a dozen big builders trugs (those big flexible bucket things with two handles) with drainage holes drilled in the base. We start four seed potatoes in each of them with about 4" soil. As the leaves emerge we cover then with more soil until after a few weeks the trug is full. Then leave to grow (watering regularly of course) until the leafy tops die off. Each time we need potatoes we tip out a trug into a wheelbarrow and harvest the potatoes, this means we can pick out every one right down to pea sized, and without any damage from digging tools. The soil can then be tipped into a raised bed planter to grow something else. It is wise to do crop rotation so that the same crop is not grown in the same soil year after year, this allows different nutrients to be used and replaced in the soil and prevents pests and infections from getting a hold. If you want to grow carrots note that the carrot fly can only fly 2' above the ground. So grow your carrots in containers placed more the 2' high (we have ours on an upstairs balcony) and the carrot fly won't be able to find them. You can also do 'three sisters planting'. Plant sweet corn, beans, and squash in the same bed. The corn forms a tall structure that the beans will climb up while the squash provides ground cover to suppress the weeds. Three crops in one space! Also now is a good time to also build a composting bay. Plenty of info online to help you find one that works for you. Do also look at Anne of all Trades channel for good growing tips: ru-vid.com/group/PLWNVttqlY0tUH-iUaRyLrwqe4ymo9uzp5 I am not a natural gardener but I learnt a lot through working with our local Incredible Edible group. Do you have one in America? www.incredibleedible.org.uk/ Good luck.
Top Tip.... the chemicals you are trying to avoid by not using pressure treated lumber has been discontinued in the production of pressure treated lumber since 2003. Pressure treated lumber today are treated with borates or copper based preservation chemicals. The most common preservative today is an alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) which is actually some of the BEST lumber to use for raised beds. If you wish to make sure there are NO chemicals at all, you may seal it with a high quality sealer too.
Thanks for this video!! I just built two of these, will build a 3rd one this weekend. The only variance was mitered corners - this was a must for me since all I could find at the time was 1-1/2” aluminum angle, not wide enough for a butt joint. I would add a photo but not sure if I can. They look great!!!!
I really like this idea of using composite deck boards like Trex. Maybe the only thing I'd add is a vertical stabilizer bar on the inside of each side near the middle. It would connect the top and bottom boards and provide a little more stability. Like a metal mending plate. The idea of cutting your own corner pieces with a built-in spike is pretty clever.
This is fantastic. I have a bunch of leftover composite scraps from a deck project last year, and overbought on garden bed compost this year. Problem solved. Thank you!
mulch. water regularly. add liquid fert or organic fert after 3 weeks (or organic compost). Good job. Great way to make a raise bed. love it :0-) . thank you for sharing
If/when you decide to rebuild (or expand), make the beds rectangular. You’ll find with the 4′ square beds that there’s a section in the middle that you have to lean over to reach. 5′ × 3′ will eliminate the lean-it makes a huge difference as you get older.
Nice project, I learned the hard way too... best advice was to use drip irrigation and water the soil not the stalk and leaves. Also, you'll learn about blight, weather, temperatures, what plants are compatible, what pests come, how to get rid of them. Etc etc... farmers definitely have it hard.
Hi, if you have lettuce or any other leaf greens, its best to put some copper band around the top of your raised bed, slugs hate it. Just a hand tip. Hope it helps, love the idea of the spikes, brilliant.
I liked a feature that Steve Ramsey added to his planters. He did a false bottom so that he could raise it up higher without filling the whole volume with soil, but it still maintains an nice aesthetic.
You are the one always giving me advice and ideas. In this case - I wanted to give you some. I am doing something similar - but I am using 3 foot beds and Hugelkultur. "Self Sufficient Me" is a good channel to check out for that (that's not me). Basically, you won't have problems with grass coming up from beneath - it can grow up through the soil up to 2 feet depending on the type. Also - you will save your back. By using Hugelkultur techniques - filling the beds should not cost much more. You can easily elevate the beds you have though - at some point - obviously. EDIT: Spike idea = awesome. I will steal it.
Nice Landcruiser 80 ;-) Oh yeah...nice raised beds also I will place some metal square tube as pillar in the middle of the composite plate. This will prevent from bending in time the composite plate due to weight of the dirt/ground/substrate. In time they will deform (barrel distort or so..)
Hello Bob! Good to see you getting into gardening. I know you are locked up and the resources are limited, but I want to highlight a few things should have been done differently. The main functions on an elevated planter are: -retaining bugs from your own soil so they are not eating the roots. For this you have to put some barrier below the planter. Typical solution is geotextile or garden pond foil. -to retain minerals and compost in your quality soil the barrier is equally important. You will water the plants and the water will was the compost into deeper layers and maybe to your grpund. -to retain water better. Usually elevated planters are a sparate little ecostructure and as the soil is segregated the water will be held longer in the planter. Many folks put drain pipes and rocks on the bottom. You will still have good results in the first year but if you plant carrot or raddish expect some roots to be chewed by bugs in the soil.
