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Square Foot Gardening

Cinder Block Raised beds freeze and break?

15 years ago

I am very near buying stuff to build cinder block raised beds and see a lot of comments here on using them, but I have one question that I have not had good luck finding an answer to... If you're in a climate with harsh winters (zone 5, bordering 4), if you fill the holes in the cinder blocks to plant things in, will the cinder blocks crack/break over winter from the freezing and thawing of the soil in the holes?

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Comments (2)

bsntech
15 years ago
I'm in zone 5.

I have compost in the cinder blocks - and they have now been filled for one season thus far. No problem with breakage.

My blocks are only two blocks high though; mostly used it as a retaining wall but I still use it to plant in.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden Blog
ne_wvhills
Original Author
15 years ago
I'll probably only go one or two courses high as well. I got to wondering about this and asked a local cinder block supplier when price checking and he seemed to think they would break, so I figured I'd check with others doing this to see what's been seen in practice.
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