Short version: I’d like recommendations for an easy-to-assemble system for a small (50-150 square feet) backyard raised-bed garden.
About ten years ago, I built a bunch of raised beds for my wife for her birthday. It’s about the only carpentry I’ve ever done, and given my inexperience, we were both pretty pleased with the outcome, even if they were nowhere near perfect. But over the years the boards have rotted, and our front yard has become shadier due to neighbors’ trees, and I’d like to set up the garden in the back yard. However, I don’t have anywhere near the time I had ten years ago (now I have two young kids). I do have a little more money, and would be willing to invest a few hundred bucks in a simple-to-assemble raised bed system. I’ve seen several systems available at Home Depot and Lowes, but I have no idea how to evaluate them. Does anyone have any experience with a good, not too complicated, not too expensive system for setting up raised beds?
I’ve got some of these because they were cheap and plastic. Redwood is way too expensive. I just got them so I don’t know how long lasting they are, but they’ve been rated pretty high. They don’t rot like wood. The only negative review I’ve seen was someone complaining that they were unable to move it after it was installed for two years. This is a ridiculous requirement and should be completely ignored.
I was trying to buy the 4’x8’ ones from Lowe’s, but they were never in stock. Those one’s give you two types of connectors, a corner and a T which is more flexible. I wish I could have gotten them.
You can also buy individual connectors from the factory, but they are outrageously expensive and very expensive to ship, so I’m trying to make do with what came in the kit.
I make my raised beds by going to the Home Depot and picking out lumber and having them cut it to size for me, then just using an electric drill to screw the boards together. The whole process takes about ten minutes per box, and is really cheap. You can paint the outside if you want them to look nicer. The thicker the boards, the longer they last, but I find it easy enough to just replace them when they rot.
If you build your own, add an L brace at top and bottom of each corner to delay warping. I made my own with pine boards; they lasted about 5 years. I found a redwood place with cheap kits and they’ve held up for about 5 years with no rot or warping (I did reinforce them).
Check to see if you have a local community garden group. They will have the best advice for your area.
The beds should run north and south so that all plants will get east to west sun all day without some plants shading others too much.
The best size is 4 feet wide by however long you would like. At 4 feet wide, you will be able to reach easily in from either side.
If you go with wood borders, you should plan on having to replace the wood from time to time depending on your local conditions. My area is hot and humid, so we have to replace more often.
If you choose construction bricks, they will be more expensive than wood but will last forever and need not be replaced. The wide ones (with the holes in them) will also give you a nice place to sit, a place to prop tools and implements, and also a spot to anchor other things like a row cover if you need one.
In my area, we cover the ground with a weed block before the construction of the bed.
I have two recycled plastic raised beds that I bought in kit form over 10 years ago and installed with little effort. They’ve held up well and look good.
I can’t find any reference to the (Pennsylvania?) company I bought them from in a brief Google search, but there are other such products on the market.
A trick to make these last – line the inside of them with non-rotting plastic material, to make the wood sides last much longer. The pink styrofoam 4x8 insulation panels ar cheap and can be easily cut to size. Or use leftover plastic lawn signs from a defeated political candidate. That gives you a nice-looking wood outside, but a non-rotting plastic inside to hold the wet dirt & plants.
3 sheets of corrugated iron (roofing stuff, not sure what you call it) cut one in half.
Timber to make an upright in each corner.
Plastic ground sheet for the bottom.
1 piece of timber in each corner, screw the corrugated iron to the timber to make a rectangle box. I sheet or iron down each side, a half piece on each end. Place on plastic sheet, fill with whatever kind of soil mix floats your boat.
When you’re finished with it or want to move it, too easy to move, just the soil stays behind.
Here was my mistake, if it helps you in the placement and planning of your beds.
There’s a trio of silver birches about 20 to 30 feet away from my raised beds, on the other side of a firmly compacted gravel patio. After about ten years, the trees’ roots had grown under the patio and reached up into the beds and then formed an strong wiry network all through the soil. There’s no way to keep them out, short of placing an impenetrable steel barrier between the trees and the beds, and that’s too huge of an engineering project for us to take on.
I’ve had to give up my raised beds as a result. The roots eat all the nutrients and drink all the water out of the beds and nothing will grow there anymore.
It is so flattering that y’all read me saying I want something easy and respond by telling me where to put L braces and to cut corrugated iron and the like.
Alas, no.“Easy” means that tools should not be involved in the construction.
Get metal stock tanks. They come in a variety of sizes. Drill some holes in the bottom for drainage. That’s all you need to do, and they look fine, work well.
