Kitchen Garden Forum

Ricard with an H wrote:
At the risk of exaggerating I've always been more comfy with ladies wearing baggy cardi's complete with mud and their hair looking like it was on fire at some stage.

Sounds as if you are describing my cook.

Ok, back to the raised beds then before this get's out of hand.

When I realised that there has been tried-and-tested widths that were sensible I split one of the beds in two, half became a cold frame with two polycarbonate lids.

Then I realised that to get the same bed-area using this sensible design it would cost me £60 more in timber and to get sensible amounts of grass in between I would loose out on bed area so I persisted. All the beds are made with lengths of treated timber either 6 or 4.8 metre lengths cut in half.

Biggest mistake I made was that I never thought about Moles, this bed has expanded metal at the bottom and if I have the back for the digging i'll move soil from one to the other then place ex-met down.

hi richard i got topsoil for £35.00 a ton delivered it seems ok,no stones or weeds & when wet it does not go into solid lumps. i have found a problem with my raised bed,the wooden planks used are comming apart where they are one above the other has anyone any idea how i can strengthen them.i have thought about putting breeze blocks round the bed but this is more expense.

Is this because the soil-infill is pushing them ? Perhaps you could take a photo.

If you create a raised bed by placing planks on-edge one above the other you will need to join them either by gluing them edge-to-edge, timber battens internal or external or you could use galvanised jointing plates available at builders merchants or online sources such as Screwfix or Toolstation.

Yes, it's going to cost a little more. Like me you've made a mistake, the effort you've put in so far will be a waste if you don't fix it quickly because come winter rains there will be more pressure inside the bed from the soil pushing outwards.

yes it is the soil infill that is pushing them out,i will have a go at your ideas thankyou.