Raised bed ideas please

[selrufus]

I need to make some large raised veg beds size will be approx 16ft long by 4ft wide, the obvious idea is to use pallets but the last lot of beds we made the pallets have started to come away at the sides after 3 years so really need something longer lasting and stronger (perhaps it was just our design that was poor). Railway sleepers are the next obvious suggestion but that is going to be expensive so any ideas with photos if possible please to give us some inspiration as we'd like to get started sooner rather than later?

Also I have a second project to do for my Dad, raised veg beds of a similar size but we need to put a path down the middle and around the edges of them, again any ideas would be most helpful please?

[Annie]

We used scaffolding planks to make our raised beds, the beds end up about 10" deep and the planks are 8' in length. we made smaller beds but I dont see why you couldn't join 2 along the lengths to make the size of bed you want and then cut one in half for the shorter sides. Try your reclamation yard.

[Steve valentine]

What Annie said, you can get used scaff boards fairly cheap. Although sleepers would look better, they aren't exactly cheep!

[vegalot]

If you go with the scaffold board idea, then try some scaffolding companies, they sometimes sell off the old boards quite cheap, I pay around 20p a foot and they always throw a couple of "bad" ones in for free.
Most of my raised beds are built from the sides of an old concrete garage, the panels are 4' x 18".

As for paths around the beds, I use a gravel and slab mix around mine, you can just see them on the right of this photo.



Level the ground, put some weed suppressant matting down, then lay the slabs and surround with gravel.

[jaynetheweed]

Hi, my son and I are into recycling pallets - we had some given to us about 6 years ago and we've had composters, benches, raised beds, the lot - but in five years the weather has taken its toll - but never mind - the wood was free, the screws are mainly good to go again, a rebuild gives us something to do. Perhaps because the wood was free we didn't look after them as we should have - they didn't get an annual coat of treatment like the patio furniture or the fencing every couple of years. Anyway, this year we found chicken keeping and we've got a couple of ducks too - so we wanted to build a coop for the ducks - we purchased one for the chickens - over £120 and falling apart within 3 months! I did buy some wood for the ducks, but it was a reclaimers yard, so all cheap - less than £30 for the lot and its much bigger. Getting back to the subject - on the hunt for "free" wood, we cam across an engineering firm that has pallets they use to store oil on. These are incredibly heavy duty - The wood used is either 4 x 2, 4 x 3 or 4 x 4 - yes, some of it I have used as fence posts - so it depends where you get your pallets from. Try an engineering firm - ours is happy to give them away as they have to pay for disposal otherwise. They tend to be quite large, about 5ft long too, so maybe you could use a few together. They would definitely do the framework.....

[Mo]

.....- they didn't get an annual coat of treatment like the patio furniture or the fencing every couple of years. .......

What do you use to treat wood, now that you can't buy creosote. OH says it's not worth bothering as the stuff I bought last time doesn't have anything to kill nasties. We have bare wood on the window frames and bargeboards and I usually go round every year...big job so want to do some good.

[jaynetheweed]

I just used regular wood preservative, but making sure it was pet safe. I buy ronseal or cuprinol one coat, as long as it states its pet safe on the label. The coops have been painted with it too. As I said, it isn't going to last forever, but some of the pallets have been pressure treated, so will last as long as wooden decking - 10 years or so guarantee on some. You can tell by the colour of the wood if its been done. If you build in a design that doesnt overlap, you can replace individual boards as necessary. And remember to treat all edges of the wood - especially the sawn edge as this is the most at risk of water ingress. Don't just paint the bits you can see!
Good luck

[zedhead]

Scaffold boards are good for me, you can buy them new from places like Jewson and are around 12' long.

Barry

[HappyBob]

The last lot of 2nd hand scaff boards i bought were two years ago and cost £100 delivered for 20 * 13ft boards which work out out at a fiver a board, which I thought was good value.

[Richard]

One day this week I'm bringing the Cricket Club Van home with some bits and bobs plus about 6 pallets which I had in mind to make some raised beds with.

Richard

[Neilyman]

What do you use to treat wood, now that you can't buy creosote. OH says it's not worth bothering as the stuff I bought last time doesn't have anything to kill nasties. We have bare wood on the window frames and bargeboards and I usually go round every year...big job so want to do some good.

I recommend Creocote. It works as well as & smells like original creosote, & comes in light & dark colours.
But it from Toolstation.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Paintin ... 176/p80210" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;