Raised bed advice (garden, not bedroom!)
Discussion
As part of redoing the lawn, I was quoted £2k or so for a couple of raised beds.
We trimmed the quote down a fair bit and took them off, so thinking I can do them myself.
These look like a pretty good option: https://gardensleepers.co.uk/products/raised-bed-k...
My main question is what should they be sitting on? The quote I was given included concrete footing......not sure this is something I'd be doing myself though.
I'm assuming it doesn't need to be overly complicated.....can they just sit on the existing flowerbed where I'll be putting them?
They'll be going in here
We trimmed the quote down a fair bit and took them off, so thinking I can do them myself.
These look like a pretty good option: https://gardensleepers.co.uk/products/raised-bed-k...
My main question is what should they be sitting on? The quote I was given included concrete footing......not sure this is something I'd be doing myself though.
I'm assuming it doesn't need to be overly complicated.....can they just sit on the existing flowerbed where I'll be putting them?
They'll be going in here
The ones in your link certainly aren't sitting on a concrete bed and neither are any of the raised sleeper beds I've built over the years. Just screw them together then level the ground where you want them. Staple a bit of weed membrane on the inside and you're good to go. You don't need to overcomplicate them.
I took some pictures while I built the ones at the edge of my garden.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
£2k for two raised beds... I'm in the wrong job!
I build two in our garden, one small single level and a larger twin level one, probably cost £240 for the sleepers, and probably £30 for some serious woodscrews/bolts to secure it all together.
The smaller one was just bedded down on some sand, the larger one got some VIP treatment with some dry mix motor!
They were both dug slightly into the ground to hide the bedding material.
I build two in our garden, one small single level and a larger twin level one, probably cost £240 for the sleepers, and probably £30 for some serious woodscrews/bolts to secure it all together.
The smaller one was just bedded down on some sand, the larger one got some VIP treatment with some dry mix motor!
They were both dug slightly into the ground to hide the bedding material.
I made mine from pieces of 2x8 timber I "rescued" from an old building that was being demolished. I dug a trench out about 6" wide and 4" deep and filled it with 20mm gravel then rested the timber frame onto that. Helps that the bottom of the wood isn't in permanent contact with the soil.
We built two new beds and replaced one knackered bed last summer.
These were the two new ones. We built on what had been an old pond which had been removed before we purchased the house. I pulled out the (heavy) edging stones and levelled the area with 20mm gravel (which also matched what was already down). Will hopefully help the underneath of the timber being sat on something free draining.
I used 200mm x 50mm treated boards. Each level is built separately but then screwed into the inside pegs knocked well down into the ground. I lined them using DPM from Screwfix. Decent outdoor timber screws from Timco or Spectre are worth the money. I used 100mm for joining the boards and then 75mm for fixing into the internal pegs eg
https://www.fastco.co.uk/spectre-6-3-x-100mm-timbe...
Taller beds means more timber to buy and soil to fill but less bending when working on what's growing.
A cut list optimizer is useful to get the most economic set of cuts (figure out the best lengths to get if you have a choice of 2.4m, 3.6m etc) and reduce waste.
https://www.opticutter.com/cut-list-optimizer
These were the two new ones. We built on what had been an old pond which had been removed before we purchased the house. I pulled out the (heavy) edging stones and levelled the area with 20mm gravel (which also matched what was already down). Will hopefully help the underneath of the timber being sat on something free draining.
I used 200mm x 50mm treated boards. Each level is built separately but then screwed into the inside pegs knocked well down into the ground. I lined them using DPM from Screwfix. Decent outdoor timber screws from Timco or Spectre are worth the money. I used 100mm for joining the boards and then 75mm for fixing into the internal pegs eg
https://www.fastco.co.uk/spectre-6-3-x-100mm-timbe...
Taller beds means more timber to buy and soil to fill but less bending when working on what's growing.
A cut list optimizer is useful to get the most economic set of cuts (figure out the best lengths to get if you have a choice of 2.4m, 3.6m etc) and reduce waste.
https://www.opticutter.com/cut-list-optimizer
This was discussed recently here raised beds, with lots of tips, some my own!
Sourcing your own sleepers and cutting to the size you want may be cheaper than the ones in the link. Screwfix or Toolstation for the landscape screws, wafer head ones can look snazzy; and a product like this for cut any cut ends.
Sourcing your own sleepers and cutting to the size you want may be cheaper than the ones in the link. Screwfix or Toolstation for the landscape screws, wafer head ones can look snazzy; and a product like this for cut any cut ends.
Diarmuid Gavin makes some raised beds in this episode of Garden Rescue shown a few days ago. It doesn't give detailed instructions but it shows the basics. He used treated timber that looked about 2 inches thick and put thick cardboard at the bottom. There was no cement/concrete mentioned.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002wxyy/gar...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002wxyy/gar...
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