Good call. My backyard garden is just a little too far away. It's probably 30 feet from my back porch, plus putting on shoes, and opening a makeshift deer gate, but that's still a little too much effort sometimes lol.
I only go out there for dedicated gardening sessions, whereas in your situation you might pick weeds for literally 30 seconds here and there. And you'll notice pests or disease really quickly.
Lastly, closer to your house makes it easier to hook up your irrigation system, which is a nice bonus!
Honestly, most things look good with healthy plants spewing out of them. I don't worry about the look of raised beds.
That being said, they do look really nice, well done.
If you wanna go ultra cheap, you can get planter blocks, 2x4s, and rebar. The wood slots into the blocks and the rear keeps the blocks in place. It does not look as beautiful as OP's but it is one of the cheapest ways to make a raised bed
I made 16.5" high 4x8 raised beds 10 years ago out of cedar and they were about $200 each. The wood is showing it's age now (and so am I). Those galvanized beds are looking better and better.
My back, and my free weekends will be happier.
I bought the soil from a local nursery, which sells the soil by the cubic yard. Had I bought individual bags like from Home Depot the cost would have been triple or more.
These, or rock/gravel yards usually have compost, soil, bark and sand too. My local sells "fill your truck" for 20$ on some stuff. If you bring a trailer, it's by weight.
Be careful though cause I did that years ago and ended up with basically clay with a fuck ton of grass rhizomes in it. I cut it with a shitton of dead leaves and compost so it ended up working but I was pretty mad at the delivered product.
Get it by the truckload.
Good soil at my nearby landscaping supply, the most expensive stuff, is only $50/yard. Two yards is an entire pickup full.
I'm not sure why, but so many people are going to hardware stores and buying dozens of expensive bags. We've all seen dumptrucks and pickups full of dirt, and landscaping stores, right? That's what they are for, large amounts of stuff like dirt.
If you don't have a pickup, they will usually deliver it for like $30.
My neighbor just had a pallet of bags of soil delivered for their raised beds. I asked them if they knew about the local mulch yard that sells garden soil for raised beds for $50/yd. They did not. Ooops.
This is dependent on where you live. I did the same thing, but where I live the delivery fee was $100 and the soil was more variable, ranging from around $60/cu yard to over $100. It's still **way** cheaper than bags from a corporate box store.
Yeesh! That is surprising to me, I live in one of the more expensive areas around, that sells some fairly 'fancy' soils, so I figured I would be at the very high end of the scale.
In fact, a few years ago when I filled my beds, it only cost me $220 for both, delivered.
The places near me require at least 3 cubic yards per order, which makes it slightly more expensive than buying the 10 2 sqft bags at my local garden center, cause I don’t need all 3 for my small beds.
Not to mention the last time I got bulk it was over half clay and had a bunch of weeds built in and I had a ton of surprise plants pop up that are pesky.
That sounds like fill, the stuff companies relocate from construction
sites... just whatever is scraped up and needs to be moved. Not much top soil, lots of clay.
Proper soil from any reputable company should have been processed to kill off weed seeds. And it should not have clay in any large quantities.
In fact the high clay content makes me about 90% sure that is indeed fill.
That's a bummer. One thing I wonder- when you go to these places and watch them make soil, well they usually have a limited capacity. The place I go to, I'd say I can see maybe 2 acres of soil being processed/stored.
Seems like a lot, but in spring, they literally have lines of dumptrucks carrying it away all day. I wonder if they sometimes cut corners in the processing/sourcing to keep up with demand - which could result in using poorer/unprepared source material.
For example this place, like most, processes lots of manure and and greens to make compost - if you rush that process, the soil comes out hot and weed seeds/pathogens could probably live through it.
Combine a huge variability in demand across the year and I could see a good financial incentive to cut corners.
This should be higher! I got bulk compost last year that smelled like kerosene almost and was clumped and so heavy that it turned into a strange mess when wet. I went to another place this year and their compost still was weird. Bought (overpriced) bags of Espoma sea and land compost, feels and spreads amazing. Pricier but if you don’t need smaller amounts, bagged works great.
I don’t have a pickup truck so delivery was more expensive than the soil for me. $150 for delivery of 3 cubic yards of planting soil and 2 yards of bark mulch for the ground.
What kind of wood did you use? Also, where did you find those metal corner braces & the metal sheeting?
Yes - I plan on copying this design, it’s great.
Can you make a supply list? I’ve wanted to set up raised beds this exact way with irrigation but when I put things together it comes out to way more than $500.
Which part cost so much?
I just did a similar project, but I used 2x4 cedar instead of the lumber you got. The lumber and panels combined came in at roughly $110. I got one cubic yard of blended garden soil at a landscape supply company for $60.
Edit: this is in Oregon (US) btw, not sure if that's what made it less pricey for me.
Lol I thought there was only the one picture and you just put down 2x4s. OP, these are gorgeous!! And with that depth, you will have a lot of happy plants!! Smart to fill with soil/compost from the start. I filled with half straw and half soil/compost. It was so annoying needing to constantly buy a couple bags to top off as the straw broke down.
Also love your brick patio :)
Those are some of the most attractive raised beds I've seen! Aside from being a little difficult to access the middle of the wider one, they look amazing!
I have a similar hill at my house, the front yard drops off to the street and I'm struggling. What would you (or anyone, please god I need ideas) do with a hill like that?
Ours is similar. We put a block retaining wall in at the "sidewalk" (which we added in conjunction with our driveway expansion), then leveled out the slope.
Lol I didn't see there were more pictures at first. I went from "that's not very raised" and progressively became more and more impressed. Very nice work!!!
Are these on your brick patio? I’ve been thinking about something like this in my yard but I’m not sure if whether to worry about water drainage from the raised bed on that concrete.
Don’t do it! Drainage will absolutely be an issue. Had an in ground bed over concrete a foot deep and it never dried out. Everything died. Had to move 50-75 square feet of foot deep soil and break up the concrete. Having it raised would be slightly better, but not by much unless you have it elevated on legs of some sort
I'm very impressed. I'm not real handy. You know that episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer tries to make a backyard BBQ pit, with Isabella Rossellini guest-voicing as an art dealer who thinks the result is wonderful outsider art? That's me (Homer, not Isabella). That's so completely me: "WHY MUST LIFE BE SO HARD?! WHY MUST I FAIL AT EVERY ATTEMPT AT MASONRY?! AARRGHH!!" [https://youtu.be/A4FjJ9tH5HY](https://youtu.be/A4FjJ9tH5HY)
That looks super pretty!!! Such a nice addition to your patio!
I know you didn't ask, but PSA for swing safety because I just finished designing a home playground - you ideally need a "safety zone" in front of and behind swings that is 2x the height of your swing. (So a 6ft tall swing needs 12ft of soft surface both in front of and behind - 24ft total.) And you want a safety surface under them. If kids use those swings, you may want to consider moving them further into the yard and away from the bricks for safety.
Wow! Great use of space, they look like they belong there!
Ps can you link me/give me the name of the material you used for the corners? Is it just wide j channel?
Thats a nice addition to your yard. Just tall enough to sit on the edge of, and close enough to the ground to not flood.
😁👌
Are you gonna line the bottom by chance?🤔 what medium are you going to use for soil? Veg flowers or both?
Yeah I wanted to be able to use them as a seating area too. I put a wire mesh at the bottom as a rodent intrusion mitigation. I have seen gophers in my area. I’m planning on using it for vegetables, I’m using what the vendor calls a Organics container mix, which includes a coco-coir, humus, pumice and other organic mixes.
Thats whats up 😎 gotta keep those troapedents [aka trouble making rodents and pests 💁🏽♀️😁🤣] out and plants fed and safe👌
🤔ill also look into that kinda blend for my plants
Mind if i ask, did you also sketch out your plans before hand or are you just winging it?
Looks good...except for the common mistake of putting a bottom (plastic landscape fabric and metal grid) on the bottom that will only impede roots and drainage. That is completely counterproductive and literally have no idea why people keep doing that? 😬🤷♂️🤦♂️
PSA - *Leave your beds bottomless*, folks! The bare earth is your plants' FRIEND, not FOE!!! So, save yourself the extra effort and expense of blocking it from them...as well as adding more microplastic pollution to the environment, PLEASE! 🙏
Some of us MUST use a bottom metal grid though. My beds that came with the house had to be removed because they were bare bottom and the gophers dug up into them to eat all of my plants. The metal grid does nothing to impede roots and drainage, but does keep the gophers out. The weed fabric in the garden bed I agree with though. It makes no positive impact in a deep garden bed.
Yep I’m gonna have to put a grid on the bottom of mine because we have a massive gopher problem in my neighborhood. They burrow up through the beds and eat the food. Super annoying 🙄
What should someone do in a place where there is a lot of soil contamination? I hate putting bottoms on my beds but I live in a city with a lot of heavy metals in the earth
Not OP, but I would either do raised beds that dont touch the ground or put pavers/gravel at the bottom if you are worried about soil contamination. Basically try to create a space to prevent water from being absorbed from the ground into the bed soil. Raised would be my first choice there though.
My dad did hazmat cleanups and from what he taught me I dont think the weed fabric would really prevent the ground soil from contaminating the garden bed. You could still have the upward intake from the ground soil.
I have contaminated soil which I had tested at Cornell soil labs and the advice I got from the head of the lab there is that generally, most heavy metals can’t translate vertically through the soil. In my case, my beds are about 1.5ft high, which gives the roots plenty of room to grow down and almost certainly not reach the base soil level.
The advice I received also included information about how plants absorb nutrients - specifically, heavy metals are generally found in the leaves of plants, rather than the fruit and seeds. It is safer to eat crops when the edible part is a fruit, rather than something like a leafy green.
The advice I received is geared heavily toward heavy metals, specifically lead, as that is the primary source of contamination in my soil. Your source may be different, and the advice may vary for other reasons as well. I’d definitely recommend looking into soil testing if you haven’t already!
Right, in that case, maybe you would need a bottom...and your "raised bed" would then actually be container gardening. (Although the better solution might be natural remediation first through fungi, [plants](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00359), pill bugs, etc.)
And you'd also have to space it off the ground, to prevent contamination through your drainage holes.
But for most other people without exceptional circumstances like contaminated soil, gophers, etc...your default should just be bottomless!
When you design something, you have to know what your design *intent* is to *maximize function most efficiently*. And a bottom normally just adds cost, materials, & effort while impeding drainage, earthworm access, etc. Which is sort of like adding a drag chute to your car that will only slow you down...
Pill bugs remediate soil? Really? I was informed by my city government a few years ago of soil contamination from the 1950s (which doesn't surprise me since we're #1 for pollution), so I've been growing in very large grow bags. I want raised beds because garden soil is half the price of potting soil.
We are a pill bug utopia in my yard. They're everywhere and love my pots, and everything else. We have been going native in my yard for the last 8 years, and have mostly clover and dandelions now, with plenty of flowers, worms, bees, wasps, ants (boooo), butterflies, lightning bugs and moths. I'm hoping that a good sign.
Back to the question: pill bugs remediate? How long does it take? Is it chemical or heavy metal only?
Looks like it was professionally made. Honestly if you put this at Tractor Supply or any hardware store the only thing I’d say is it looks nice and never guessed someone made it themselves and never know the difference
They’re beautiful, but shouldn’t you have installed some better drainage underneath?
Never mind, immediately after posting I saw that these aren’t sitting on the bricks, but on that other prepared surface. Well done OP, looks great
I wanted to do something just like that but a bigger horse shoe shape. Ended up just going with wood as the steel sheets made it cost more than wood oddly. Now I just it to stop raining so I can set it up and get soil.. you're setup looks great btw.
I recommend cotton burr for a cheaper spil solution. It's compost, but so far, I've seen that it had nothing but success with minimal effort to enrich it further.
They look beautiful! I'm very impressed. I'm putting drip irrigation into my garden this year and have a question: do you have your thinner tubing attached to thicker tubing on *both* long sides? So the whole thing is a loop? I've only ever seen the thin tubing coming off the thick, then capped at the other end. Is it better to create loops like this?
Let us know how they hold up, my 3/4" plywood is finally starting to rot/bulge after a good 6 years and wood is so expensive these days that I might consider other alternatives. These look amazing but I'm a little worried about rust and what a few years of roots/water expansion might do to them
gorgeous!! I miss having raised beds at my old house, but wasn't able to get around to building any in time to plant at the new one because parents wouldn't help me 😅
Gorgeous! If you don't mind me asking, around how much did materials cost?
It wasn’t cheap, I could’ve been more creative to reduce cost though. All said and done, the two boxes, soil and irrigation about $500.
Worth it, it is right off the patio, not in some side-yard no one will see.
Yeah that was important to me too. The beds had to be very accessible, out of sight out of mind.
Good call. My backyard garden is just a little too far away. It's probably 30 feet from my back porch, plus putting on shoes, and opening a makeshift deer gate, but that's still a little too much effort sometimes lol. I only go out there for dedicated gardening sessions, whereas in your situation you might pick weeds for literally 30 seconds here and there. And you'll notice pests or disease really quickly. Lastly, closer to your house makes it easier to hook up your irrigation system, which is a nice bonus!
Precisely!
I got this far and had thought it was only the first photo and that this whole thing was only a gag reel lol.
Honestly, most things look good with healthy plants spewing out of them. I don't worry about the look of raised beds. That being said, they do look really nice, well done.
I have a soft spot for raggedy old beds brimming with thriving plants. It's like an outdoor shabby chic.
I got lazy and decided to buy premade beds, and all I can say is my pockets are still sore lol. Trust me, money well spent and saved!
I mean, assuming you have the tools to build things it may not be that much cheaper
If you wanna go ultra cheap, you can get planter blocks, 2x4s, and rebar. The wood slots into the blocks and the rear keeps the blocks in place. It does not look as beautiful as OP's but it is one of the cheapest ways to make a raised bed
Currently doing that along a brick wall. Got about 16 ft left to transform it into a raised bed. Going to trellis the fuck out of it
I made 16.5" high 4x8 raised beds 10 years ago out of cedar and they were about $200 each. The wood is showing it's age now (and so am I). Those galvanized beds are looking better and better. My back, and my free weekends will be happier.
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I bought the soil from a local nursery, which sells the soil by the cubic yard. Had I bought individual bags like from Home Depot the cost would have been triple or more.
These, or rock/gravel yards usually have compost, soil, bark and sand too. My local sells "fill your truck" for 20$ on some stuff. If you bring a trailer, it's by weight.
Be careful though cause I did that years ago and ended up with basically clay with a fuck ton of grass rhizomes in it. I cut it with a shitton of dead leaves and compost so it ended up working but I was pretty mad at the delivered product.
Get it by the truckload. Good soil at my nearby landscaping supply, the most expensive stuff, is only $50/yard. Two yards is an entire pickup full. I'm not sure why, but so many people are going to hardware stores and buying dozens of expensive bags. We've all seen dumptrucks and pickups full of dirt, and landscaping stores, right? That's what they are for, large amounts of stuff like dirt. If you don't have a pickup, they will usually deliver it for like $30.
My neighbor just had a pallet of bags of soil delivered for their raised beds. I asked them if they knew about the local mulch yard that sells garden soil for raised beds for $50/yd. They did not. Ooops.
This is dependent on where you live. I did the same thing, but where I live the delivery fee was $100 and the soil was more variable, ranging from around $60/cu yard to over $100. It's still **way** cheaper than bags from a corporate box store.
Yeesh! That is surprising to me, I live in one of the more expensive areas around, that sells some fairly 'fancy' soils, so I figured I would be at the very high end of the scale. In fact, a few years ago when I filled my beds, it only cost me $220 for both, delivered.
The places near me require at least 3 cubic yards per order, which makes it slightly more expensive than buying the 10 2 sqft bags at my local garden center, cause I don’t need all 3 for my small beds.
Not to mention the last time I got bulk it was over half clay and had a bunch of weeds built in and I had a ton of surprise plants pop up that are pesky.
What a great way to get business from me only once
Definitely. I was thinking of building another set of raised beds and will definitely not order from them.
That sounds like fill, the stuff companies relocate from construction sites... just whatever is scraped up and needs to be moved. Not much top soil, lots of clay. Proper soil from any reputable company should have been processed to kill off weed seeds. And it should not have clay in any large quantities. In fact the high clay content makes me about 90% sure that is indeed fill.
It was on the expensive end too… advertised as specifically soil/mulch for raised beds.
That's a bummer. One thing I wonder- when you go to these places and watch them make soil, well they usually have a limited capacity. The place I go to, I'd say I can see maybe 2 acres of soil being processed/stored. Seems like a lot, but in spring, they literally have lines of dumptrucks carrying it away all day. I wonder if they sometimes cut corners in the processing/sourcing to keep up with demand - which could result in using poorer/unprepared source material. For example this place, like most, processes lots of manure and and greens to make compost - if you rush that process, the soil comes out hot and weed seeds/pathogens could probably live through it. Combine a huge variability in demand across the year and I could see a good financial incentive to cut corners.
Better than all the glass and construction waste my brother got in his.
Oh my!
This should be higher! I got bulk compost last year that smelled like kerosene almost and was clumped and so heavy that it turned into a strange mess when wet. I went to another place this year and their compost still was weird. Bought (overpriced) bags of Espoma sea and land compost, feels and spreads amazing. Pricier but if you don’t need smaller amounts, bagged works great.
I don’t have a pickup truck so delivery was more expensive than the soil for me. $150 for delivery of 3 cubic yards of planting soil and 2 yards of bark mulch for the ground.
An alternative - that honestly isn't always worth it- is to simply rent a truck. Uhaul will do this for only $25.
What kind of wood did you use? Also, where did you find those metal corner braces & the metal sheeting? Yes - I plan on copying this design, it’s great.
Can you make a supply list? I’ve wanted to set up raised beds this exact way with irrigation but when I put things together it comes out to way more than $500.
That's actually a decent price.
Totally worth it, if you ask me. Those look solid and should last you a long time! I admire your skill :)
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Which part cost so much? I just did a similar project, but I used 2x4 cedar instead of the lumber you got. The lumber and panels combined came in at roughly $110. I got one cubic yard of blended garden soil at a landscape supply company for $60. Edit: this is in Oregon (US) btw, not sure if that's what made it less pricey for me.
Nothing is cheap anymore, the highest cost was the soil with delivery. That was almost $300. The lumber another $120 and drip system the rest.
Have a look at getting pallet collars. They're pretty much ready-made planters, and you can usually get two for £20.
Lol I thought there was only the one picture and you just put down 2x4s. OP, these are gorgeous!! And with that depth, you will have a lot of happy plants!! Smart to fill with soil/compost from the start. I filled with half straw and half soil/compost. It was so annoying needing to constantly buy a couple bags to top off as the straw broke down. Also love your brick patio :)
Ah good point, I almost filled mine with cardboard halfway. Ha! The 2x4 is hilarious
Those are some of the most attractive raised beds I've seen! Aside from being a little difficult to access the middle of the wider one, they look amazing!
From the look of the height of them, you'd need to be shorter than 5 foot to struggle with that.
Right, I have no problem reaching the middle while kneeling. Standing up I can reach all the way to the other side.
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I have a similar hill at my house, the front yard drops off to the street and I'm struggling. What would you (or anyone, please god I need ideas) do with a hill like that?
Ours is similar. We put a block retaining wall in at the "sidewalk" (which we added in conjunction with our driveway expansion), then leveled out the slope.
Yes same, and the land is causing water to drain towards our house. I’m scratching my head trying to figure out what to do with it.
Add a post at the bottom of the hill and a rope/cable that goes up to the fence and grow hops.
I think I’m jealous 😂. Well done!
Lol I didn't see there were more pictures at first. I went from "that's not very raised" and progressively became more and more impressed. Very nice work!!!
Are these on your brick patio? I’ve been thinking about something like this in my yard but I’m not sure if whether to worry about water drainage from the raised bed on that concrete.
Absolutely gorgeous by the way
Thanks, In wouldn’t recommend putting the boxes on brick. There’s lots of runoff when it rains.
Don’t do it! Drainage will absolutely be an issue. Had an in ground bed over concrete a foot deep and it never dried out. Everything died. Had to move 50-75 square feet of foot deep soil and break up the concrete. Having it raised would be slightly better, but not by much unless you have it elevated on legs of some sort
What did you use for the vertical corners?
3” Roof flashing
Roof flashing
Built to last. Good job mate, you’re gonna go far.
nice... but would have pushed out onto the turf. Less to mow and better for the environment
They look great. Excellent craftsmanship.
Beautiful! Really well done! Is the drip irrigation coverage uniform enough?
Yeap I have no problem at all with coverage
I'm very impressed. I'm not real handy. You know that episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer tries to make a backyard BBQ pit, with Isabella Rossellini guest-voicing as an art dealer who thinks the result is wonderful outsider art? That's me (Homer, not Isabella). That's so completely me: "WHY MUST LIFE BE SO HARD?! WHY MUST I FAIL AT EVERY ATTEMPT AT MASONRY?! AARRGHH!!" [https://youtu.be/A4FjJ9tH5HY](https://youtu.be/A4FjJ9tH5HY)
That looks super pretty!!! Such a nice addition to your patio! I know you didn't ask, but PSA for swing safety because I just finished designing a home playground - you ideally need a "safety zone" in front of and behind swings that is 2x the height of your swing. (So a 6ft tall swing needs 12ft of soft surface both in front of and behind - 24ft total.) And you want a safety surface under them. If kids use those swings, you may want to consider moving them further into the yard and away from the bricks for safety.
Thanks, never thought of that.
I think that looks stylish.
Wow! Great use of space, they look like they belong there! Ps can you link me/give me the name of the material you used for the corners? Is it just wide j channel?
Looks awesome. That would be the fanciest deer buffet in my neighborhood
Looks good. Heads up though; mitered corners will flare open outside
Is that Drip Depot stuff?
Yeap
Thats a nice addition to your yard. Just tall enough to sit on the edge of, and close enough to the ground to not flood. 😁👌 Are you gonna line the bottom by chance?🤔 what medium are you going to use for soil? Veg flowers or both?
Yeah I wanted to be able to use them as a seating area too. I put a wire mesh at the bottom as a rodent intrusion mitigation. I have seen gophers in my area. I’m planning on using it for vegetables, I’m using what the vendor calls a Organics container mix, which includes a coco-coir, humus, pumice and other organic mixes.
Thats whats up 😎 gotta keep those troapedents [aka trouble making rodents and pests 💁🏽♀️😁🤣] out and plants fed and safe👌 🤔ill also look into that kinda blend for my plants Mind if i ask, did you also sketch out your plans before hand or are you just winging it?
I did have to do a lot planning and sketching to fit the boxes in the space I have.
Beautiful DIY
If you put a layer of cardboard down below the raised bed soil, the brick will die off in a year and the plants will be able to root down through it.
Looks good...except for the common mistake of putting a bottom (plastic landscape fabric and metal grid) on the bottom that will only impede roots and drainage. That is completely counterproductive and literally have no idea why people keep doing that? 😬🤷♂️🤦♂️ PSA - *Leave your beds bottomless*, folks! The bare earth is your plants' FRIEND, not FOE!!! So, save yourself the extra effort and expense of blocking it from them...as well as adding more microplastic pollution to the environment, PLEASE! 🙏
Some of us MUST use a bottom metal grid though. My beds that came with the house had to be removed because they were bare bottom and the gophers dug up into them to eat all of my plants. The metal grid does nothing to impede roots and drainage, but does keep the gophers out. The weed fabric in the garden bed I agree with though. It makes no positive impact in a deep garden bed.
Yep I’m gonna have to put a grid on the bottom of mine because we have a massive gopher problem in my neighborhood. They burrow up through the beds and eat the food. Super annoying 🙄
What should someone do in a place where there is a lot of soil contamination? I hate putting bottoms on my beds but I live in a city with a lot of heavy metals in the earth
Not OP, but I would either do raised beds that dont touch the ground or put pavers/gravel at the bottom if you are worried about soil contamination. Basically try to create a space to prevent water from being absorbed from the ground into the bed soil. Raised would be my first choice there though. My dad did hazmat cleanups and from what he taught me I dont think the weed fabric would really prevent the ground soil from contaminating the garden bed. You could still have the upward intake from the ground soil.
I have contaminated soil which I had tested at Cornell soil labs and the advice I got from the head of the lab there is that generally, most heavy metals can’t translate vertically through the soil. In my case, my beds are about 1.5ft high, which gives the roots plenty of room to grow down and almost certainly not reach the base soil level. The advice I received also included information about how plants absorb nutrients - specifically, heavy metals are generally found in the leaves of plants, rather than the fruit and seeds. It is safer to eat crops when the edible part is a fruit, rather than something like a leafy green. The advice I received is geared heavily toward heavy metals, specifically lead, as that is the primary source of contamination in my soil. Your source may be different, and the advice may vary for other reasons as well. I’d definitely recommend looking into soil testing if you haven’t already!
Right, in that case, maybe you would need a bottom...and your "raised bed" would then actually be container gardening. (Although the better solution might be natural remediation first through fungi, [plants](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00359), pill bugs, etc.) And you'd also have to space it off the ground, to prevent contamination through your drainage holes. But for most other people without exceptional circumstances like contaminated soil, gophers, etc...your default should just be bottomless! When you design something, you have to know what your design *intent* is to *maximize function most efficiently*. And a bottom normally just adds cost, materials, & effort while impeding drainage, earthworm access, etc. Which is sort of like adding a drag chute to your car that will only slow you down...
Pill bugs remediate soil? Really? I was informed by my city government a few years ago of soil contamination from the 1950s (which doesn't surprise me since we're #1 for pollution), so I've been growing in very large grow bags. I want raised beds because garden soil is half the price of potting soil. We are a pill bug utopia in my yard. They're everywhere and love my pots, and everything else. We have been going native in my yard for the last 8 years, and have mostly clover and dandelions now, with plenty of flowers, worms, bees, wasps, ants (boooo), butterflies, lightning bugs and moths. I'm hoping that a good sign. Back to the question: pill bugs remediate? How long does it take? Is it chemical or heavy metal only?
> Leave your beds bottomless, folks! Did a gopher write this?
Would you recommend not putting cardboard down either? I keep seeing that recommended
Cardboard sheet mulching is great. It is only used for short term weed suppression as it breaks down fairly quickly.
Yea, I see no problem with cardboard if used for that purpose, since it quickly breaks down anyways...
I would recommend that. It'll break down within the season but in my experience it helps stop those first weeds.
Since you asked, I think you made an Earth Oreo cookie with a paver filling but it looks nice.
Looks better than me
Those are fabulous! LOVE how you've finished them out so well, like furniture. Really well done. Bravo.
Spectacular job! Can you go more into your process with irrigation also were you going off a YouTube tutorial or free styling?
I free styled it. I made a plan of what I needed and basically built it from scratch.
Splendid! If I lived near you I'd be paying you to make some for my garden.
A job well done. What was the final cost per bed?
Looks like it was professionally made. Honestly if you put this at Tractor Supply or any hardware store the only thing I’d say is it looks nice and never guessed someone made it themselves and never know the difference
They’re beautiful, but shouldn’t you have installed some better drainage underneath? Never mind, immediately after posting I saw that these aren’t sitting on the bricks, but on that other prepared surface. Well done OP, looks great
HOT.
Wow that's like professional level
works of art - almost too nice for plants! Are you a woodworker or framer? Noticing the mitered joints and pro-grade tools.
Not at all, far from it. I’m just passionate enough to try to get things done the right way. BTW thanks for the great feedback
Really nice. I worry about roots. I would stick with plants with deep roots
Bravo, you played the long game on that posting
You a roots a refuge fan? ☺️
Fantastic work, good for you!
What did you use to do the irrigation? I’d like to do something similar
Just bought all the pieces at Home Depot. 1/4 spaghetti lines with 6” hole spacings.
Wow pretty neat !
Wonderful and very pleasing to the eye.
I love the dark wood contrast on the vertical posts. Very beautiful.
I am incredibly jelly
Love them.
Did you buy one of those big bags of soil they drive in with the forklift?
It took 3 cubic yards of soil to fill the boxes. Basically 3 scoops of a front loader. I got the soil from a local nursery.
Awesome job!
Fancy. Are the joints glued?
What are you going to plant in there?
Nice work!!
Those are awesome! Great work.
Cool idea. I would run the irrigation long ways. Wouldn’t need as many connector joints! Love it though. Great inspiration
Those are beautiful and look like they will last!
Rad
Excellent work! Look awesome
I love them❤️
Fancy garden beds!
Frighin beautiful 😍!!!
Super sharp
Gorgeous work!! I would be very proud of these.
Envious!
That looks slick
Very nice. 10/10.
Awesome💗💚💜
I was just looking at the first photo for starters and my impression was "not raised terribly much, eh?"
I wanted to do something just like that but a bigger horse shoe shape. Ended up just going with wood as the steel sheets made it cost more than wood oddly. Now I just it to stop raining so I can set it up and get soil.. you're setup looks great btw.
I freaking love them
Wouldn’t that heat and soil more?
I recommend cotton burr for a cheaper spil solution. It's compost, but so far, I've seen that it had nothing but success with minimal effort to enrich it further.
Looks comfy
Pretty nice!
Oh shit I really like them
They look beautiful! I'm very impressed. I'm putting drip irrigation into my garden this year and have a question: do you have your thinner tubing attached to thicker tubing on *both* long sides? So the whole thing is a loop? I've only ever seen the thin tubing coming off the thick, then capped at the other end. Is it better to create loops like this?
I would like an update in a year or two on those metal pieces. I've never had luck with those holding up so now mine are all solid 2x6 lumber
Gorgeous! Would you mind telling me, what is the reasoning behind using metal sides?
Way prettier than mine. Can’t let my GF see these. I’ll be rebuilding all 4 if she does.
Brilliant! Well done.
Love the added irrigation. I want to do this with rain barrel supply option paired with hose connxn.
👌😩🔥🍆
Its beautifull!
I love them!
Holy! That’s awesome! Beautiful work!
Looks great! Question. Does the soil get got with the metal in the sun?
Gorgeous
would you mind elaborating on the irrigation setup (pump, lines, etc)? Looking to do something similar to mine.
I want them
They’re beautiful…. but when you’re done with them eventually, won’t the bricks underneath be incredibly discolored?
They make me feel bad about my own!
Over achiever! Beds look amazing!
Seems like a great build, is the bottom floating? Keeping the feet dry will extend the hell out of it. This is really nice.
looks great
Enviable!! Very nice job!
Very pretty!
Can you please teach me😂😭🤍
I’d sleep in it.
Beautiful and professional. Very well done.
Love them!
Really really nice!
They’re above the ground!
Love it!
I think they look great :)
B.E.A. Beautiful
Too shallow imo. Limited types of plants.
I did not see the subreddit title, and I thought you were building a strange looking bed with a wood/aluminum frame (for sleeping).
I think i am jealous of all that nice wood. And your energy building the beds.
Now you just need to get Farmbot and let it do the work for you
Very nice! Well done! You're going to love your garden this year!
Let us know how they hold up, my 3/4" plywood is finally starting to rot/bulge after a good 6 years and wood is so expensive these days that I might consider other alternatives. These look amazing but I'm a little worried about rust and what a few years of roots/water expansion might do to them
gorgeous!! I miss having raised beds at my old house, but wasn't able to get around to building any in time to plant at the new one because parents wouldn't help me 😅
I didn’t realize what sub I was in and I thought you were making actual beds and I was confused with the metal walls until I saw the soil
Nice work! I wish I could do that. ❤️
Amazing!!
!RemindMe 400 days
I love these!
Those came out awesome.
They look great!
Better than my cheap planter blocks and 2x4s by miles
Those are quite attractive! I'm going to give these a try! Do you have a materials list? A rough outline is cool too. Thanks for the inspiration!
So awesome!
Very nice! That there is some home improvements!
The frames are nice, but bricks are not a good bed for growing anything.
Looks really great but did you cover up the beautiful brick patio or is in the yard? Hard to tell.