Build your own box!

link-a-bord raised beds

In this months magazine there is a ad for raised beds or containers made out of recycled plastic, www.link-a-bord.com . I do not know what they are like, but a 108cm x108cm was £15. I have ordered one to have a look, will let you know what it is like.

Louise

I have link a bord beds but I buy the boards individually so I can make the beds to my own size - I think they're brilliant

Why not become a recycler and scavenge the wood that you require from old palettes. i have managed to build a fence at the end of the allotment from the ones that i have salvaged from a pile on a local building site. They are good places to look as they tend to get larger palettes. Don't forget to ask first though .

I totally want to go down the recycle route and make my own. I think it's going to be a case and try and try again! The pallets idea is good.

Garrett

It really is dead simple to do, as long as you have the right sort of timber. And therein lies the rub...even unplaned timber in sizes big enough to build heavyweight, "adult" boxes costs a fair bit.
I've done several, I rarely grow veggies any other way, and there are two main things you need to decide; 1) do you want the posts inside or outside the box, and 2) how high/long/wide do you want it. The higher the better, it's easier for weeding if not for varying soil mix for drainage, manuring etc, but you need massive amounts of soil.
The bigger/higher it is, the more you want heavy weight timber rather than short, relatively dodgy boards such as those you get from recycling pallets. I have seen 1m high boxes literally bulging like the sides of a cow once the soil gets rain-soaked inside !
Sorry to rain on your parade, but in my experience most recycled pallets have splintered bits by the time you get them apart, and because they use barbed nails it is a truly awful task pulling them apart. Never again. Old scaffolding boards, such as those that scaffolding companies must periodically throw out, are perfect, once you remove the end bands, the only problem is that I think most companies have swopped to steel now. Old tongue and groove floor boards however are excellent, and you can get them by looking for companies renovating blocks of flats;most builders nowadays don't have yards for storage, so are often keen to pass on items that otherwise must be landfilled.
The cheapest effective fixtures are the mediumweight nails that have barbs, but screws are better for ease of replacing damaged boards, etc. (Normal nails will do if heavy duty enough, but you will typically run into more knots or other nails with the bigger nails.)
The most important tool when assembling, other than the drill if using screws, is a set square. You start off by fixing a board onto a corner post, then multiply this three times, four if you don't need to use a barrow to run soil into it. If you don't make sure you have the boards exactly at right angles when fixing them onto the posts, then when you come to join up the box it is a real dog's dinner. Do not make the mistake of putting the posts in first and then using a spirit level to put the boards on...unless you like lots of soil levelling and wood sawing work ! Much easier to assemble the sections, put them in place in exploded form, check it's the correct place etc, then put the whole thing together and sink the posts into pre-sunk holes. Note that you will probably want to have mulch matting under the boards, as weeds love to lurk at the bottom of the sides.
I would send you photos of the last one I built garrett, I took them specifically to put on a website; but I only have dial up and I'm still trying to get the hang of this computing lark, so I don't even know how you find out or post an email address on the forum, or even if it's advisable ! Fancy a CD by snail mail ?

Hello Snowhare, if you want to send someone on the forum an e-mail, go to the top of the page, click on Members List, click on the letter of the name, find the person and click on it. You'll find the info you're looking for in the Contact info box. Hope this helps.

Snohare don't post your e mail address on the forum because everyone reading the grapevine will be able to see it. If you want to send someone your e mail address then send them a personal message. You do this by clicking on the members name and selecting Send A Private Message.

Thanks guys, that's exactly the sort of thing I needed to know ! Cheers.

I just knock them up out of anything to hand. Old pallets, bits of driftwood etc . Nothing fancy . I get two big bits and nail a couple of thinner lengths across the top to hold them together then fill the ends in with bits of old broken bricks, paving and some stones.

joists

when i bought my house i wanted nice railway sleeper beds but since ground force was in full swing the price of railway sleepers went sky high. At a local timber merchant i managed to get roof joists which where the same dimensions but half the thickness of sleepers (made them easier to work with too) and they are treated against rot. They are now 5 years in situ and still as good as they day i banged them in.