On Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:44:52 +0000, The Soul Patch
wrote:


hello all, had such an epic day yesterday up at the soul patch but was
going to see if anyone had any canny and most importantly cheap ideas of
how to create large raised beds. i am thinking 2 20ftx10ft beds so quite
a lot of material needed. any thoughts well appreciated!

That configuration negates the most important aspect of typical raised
beds, being able to reach every part without climbing in... if you
have to climb up into your structure it isn't really a raised bed now
is it... you then may as well make one 20' X 20' bed and use less
materials.

I'd make them sized so that you can reach in to the entire area
without climbing in and so that they use common dimensional building
materials. Don't think too much about low cost at the expense of
quality... the cheap always comes out expensive... there is no point
to building something if it will collapse even before the first
season. Something important to consider is to build your raised beds
so that it bars small tunneling critters, otherwise it's all for
nothing... they will come. Large critters are easy to deter, the
small critters require special efforts.

I used real RR ties (used) but I lined the entire interior with
aluminum flashing that extends a good ten inches below the baseline
surface, it keeps tunneling critters out plus prevents leaching from
treated lumber... also helps tie all the RR ties together especially
the corners. It was easy to add the flashing later when I discovered
the small critters coming to my salad bar. I built my bed one RR tie
high, (~12"), works for me. Mine isn't a typical raised bed, it's a
raised vegetable garden that I go into... the border serves to prevent
my good amended soil from washing away from heavy rains plus makes it
much easier to keep critters, both large and small, out... also deters
weeds from creeping in, and it was easy to attach a deer fence to the
ties, you may not need such. Mine is 50' X 50', you probably don't
want something so large but the same construction would work for any
size.