Raised Bed

MrBump

Alright, chaps?

I want to get some raised beds into my garden. I've used the kit wooden ones before, but I thought i might try my hand at brick built ones. 

Never built anything with bricks and mortar though, so I'm wondering if it's a foolish idea. 

I also wondered if I could use a dry stone wall sort of idea, but I guess that wouldn't necessarily work if it was filled with soil. 

Anyone got any fab success stories to inspire me? 

VimFuego

I've done a few in bricks and mortar, they generally work well, though it helps if you already know how to lay bricks. That said, it's not hard and you'll be fine with practice.
I have made a dry stone planter thingy, sort of round rather than long. It was solid enough, but if you think the base needs to be about twice the thickness of the top, then you can see it takes up a lot more space. And it was a right faff to do, working with irregular stone. 

Kittyfrisk

Dry stone idea would be OK providing you used an internal frame & liner, I did one for my ex. next door neighbours.
Bricklaying is huge fun though, although like most 'simple things' is a damn sight harder than it looks when done by someone experienced. Have fun 

JohnS37

I have built both brick and timber raised beds.  Both were successful, though the timber one is showing signs of bulging a bit after two years.  Both types are about 1 x 2 metres x 70cm deep.  They require a VAST amount of soil!  However, they are much easier to tend, harvest, water etc.
We have a lot of dry stone walls and other constructions around here (Cotswolds), and I would be reluctant to build a raised bed from this material because of the irregularity.  If you had a go at this I would recommend ‘cheating’ by mortaring between and on the inside surfaces to prevent movement.

boogieman

I made a wooden veg bed from railway sleepers. It’s 8 x 4 foot and I just cut some of sleepers in half to do the ends. It’s all bolted together with long galvanised coach screws. Make sure you line the timber sides with plastic sheeting if you do use wood, or it’ll rot out after a few years. 

I also did a raised brick flower bed round the edge of a patio in my old place. Looked ok but took me a bloody age to build. As Kittyfrisk says it’s one of those jobs that looks quick and easy when a pro does it but is a bit of a black art (like plastering). Getting your mortar mix right and avoiding getting mortar all over the face of the bricks takes a while to learn. It helps enormously if you can borrow or hire a mixer because making up mortar with a shovel is pretty tiring. Keeping it all square, straight and level is the hardest bit though. 

ESBlonde

One disadvantage of wooden raised beds (apart from the slow rot) is that slugs like to bury themselves down next to the timber sides and come out at night for a feast. You just need to take precautions, they are less likely to do this with stone/brick but they still might.

Roland

Yeah, slugs love wooden surrounds. They like bricks too.

How high are you intending to build? If you want the wall to be stable then you need a decent footing or base layer, or as @Kittyfrisk says, a frame.

Nitefly

How many bodies are you planning to bury?  This will have an impact on the depth you need.

JohnS37

You won’t get a wink of sleep you know!

Almach

We used recycled plastic boards and posts to build some veggie beds, worked out really well. Got them from filcris.co.uk.

DiscoStu

If you're building them high then fill the base with empty plastic bottles, cans, polystyrene wotsits etc, so that you need less soil/compost to fill it. Gives you drainage at the bottom too.

MrBump

Lol - no bodies, at least not yet.

I was thinking if brick only 3 or 4 courses (see?  Getting the lingo already...) - so I'm hoping that I'd only need to level the base and cement in, as from what I've read I'll be OK with that low a wall.

What I liked about the brick idea was that I can get some curves in, and that it's more permanent than the wooden structures.  This is part of a new garden project (had offer accepted on a new house, which has a comparatively massive garden, that needs structure).  Super excited, as I'm getting all garden-y in my old age, and I've outgrown the tiny garden I currently have.

Understand that I'll probably screw up the brick thing... But I figure that I've got time, and from what I've read time is key - the work isn't challenging, but the pro's get excellent results quickly, or comparatively quickly.

That's the hope, anyway!  It's gonna be a long term project, and I feel a thread coming on outlining it all!

Cranky

If you want to avoid lumber AND mortar, you could do a pavestone retaining wall type of bed with uniform stones with interlocking ridges.  Not 100% sure about this, but I think that it would breathe better than a properly sealed brick and mortar arrangement, if root rot is a problem..

But brick and mortar would look the best.

MrBump

Cranky said:

If you want to avoid lumber AND mortar, you could do a pavestone retaining wall type of bed with uniform stones with interlocking ridges.  Not 100% sure about this, but I think that it would breathe better than a properly sealed brick and mortar arrangement, if root rot is a problem..

But brick and mortar would look the best.

OK - just Googled that, and it looks bang on.  Thanks.

MrBump

Ewww... looks like it's a US only product...  Looks cool though.

MrBump

But Terraforce does something similar...

BigMonka

MrBump said:

I was thinking if brick only 3 or 4 courses (see?  Getting the lingo already...) - so I'm hoping that I'd only need to level the base and cement in, as from what I've read I'll be OK with that low a wall.

I'm no builder but I would have thought that it would need something as a base under the wall to make sure that any soil movement doesn't result in cracks etc. Maybe dig a trench and put in a bit of compacted MOT type 1 as you wouldn't really want concrete.

Iamnobody

I just had a curved brick/stone raised bed demolished and replaced with a smaller railway sleeper bed. I much prefer the sleeper look. It’s probably got a limited life span though before the timber rots, the stone one had probably been in place 50 years...

maltingsaudio

Mrs M just made one using old dexion shelves from a warehouse which was closing. Painted with Rustoleum and used wooden stakes to screw them to look quite cool

steveledzep

Hope the Flat Earthers don't read this thread 

Kittyfrisk

steveledzep said:

Hope the Flat Earthers don't read this thread 

Nah, just us Illuminati gardeners in here.