Raised bed design

19 years ago

Hello,

I have started my vegatable garden, planted berries and horseradish. I told my wife I had purchased my last seeds and plants for the year. The problem or maybe blessing is I forgot to tell my mother. She called me and told me she purchased me some rubarb plants and Strawberry plants. I had thought about planting these but have almost ran out of great places to plant on the ground. I thought why not bring a raised bed to the front yard. I am looking for a good design to put the strawberries in the front yard. It has to look good, be functional and like most people I am on a budget. Thanks for all your help.

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Comments (3)

tcstoehr
19 years ago
I'm in the process of making some now. I'm making 4x12' beds, which is a manageable size for me. But I can only haul 8' lumber in my car. So I buy 4 2x6x8 boards and cut two of them in half. Two of the resulting 4 footers make the short sides of the bed, and the other two combine with the 8 footers to make the 12 foot sides. I use a simple joiner to attach the boards together and drive a metal rod into the ground at that point to prevent bulging. I use a 6" section of 4x4 placed on the inside corners and use 3.5" lag screws to attach the sides and hold the corner together. Do not drive screws or nails into the end of the boards. That makes a weak joint as the wood grain won't hold very well. It also weakens the wood unnecessarily. Use a chunk of 4x4 or 2x4 placed inside the corner and drive the screws perpendular to the wood grain.

Then I dig up the soil inside, add a wheelbarrel full of compost and 2 3.8 cubic foot bags of peat moss and mix thoroughly. This will raise the soil level near to the top, substitute compost if you have it. Simple, reasonably cheap, and looks great IMO.

Cost of materials:
4 2x6x8 cedar boards: $28
8 3.5 inch 3/8" diameter lag screws and washers: $4
2 board joiners: $2
2 3.8 cubic foot bails of peat moss: $28

Various screws, lengths of rebar, and 4x4 leftovers, all scrounged: $0
javamilk
19 years ago
How tall do you want it to be?

I've used tree branches (good diameter, cut short) to build a few beds that are only raised a couple inches or so. The front of my house looks really neat with the limbs as borders for the beds. I grew a lot of my fruits & veggies out there last year and the year before. (before I started growing too much stuff, that is!)
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marknmt
19 years ago
We built 2x10 raised beds some years ago (replacing beds made of scrounged lumber some years before that) and they are still in place. We did use pressure treated wood, which some frown on. But cedar is good too- and if I had a free source of cement siding scraps I'd look kindly on it.

But Strawberries do well in those pyramidal towers, don't they? They are maybe four feet tall, square, proably three feet at the base and one foot at the top, and every so often down the side there's a shelf from which the berry plants cascade beautifully. When the plants are laden with fruit the arrangement reminds one of Christmas trees. Should be economical, and functional and attractive.

Just my $.25 worth. Good luck!

:-)M