How to make raised beds. How to make beds from boards with your own hands: let's figure it out together

When making your own raised beds, wood is the best option. At a summer cottage there are often boards that are well suited for forming a box.

An earthen embankment with high sides is installed in places with poor soil and where the area is often flooded. This helps to increase the yield of planted crops and make them easier to care for. The boxes are placed both in open areas and in greenhouses.

Advantages of wooden structures

Bulk beds made from boards have many more advantages than disadvantages. Positive points include:

1. 1. High fences are built on land completely unsuitable for cultivation, and lawn grass is sown between the rows.
2. 2. It is convenient to dig and remove weeds. Such work is best carried out in a small space.
3. 3. Wooden structures are easily assembled in the spring and simply disassembled in the fall.
4. 4. There is no dirt between the boxes, because it is possible to lay paths. This is important during the rainy season.
5. 5. The crop ripens faster. This is ensured by the formation of drainage, and during cold periods the plants are covered with tarpaulin or film.
6. 6. During the season, you can plant different crops in one place, which ensures double harvesting.
7. 7. The dacha plot is beautifully transformed.

The disadvantages include the following:

• wood deteriorates over time;
• manufacturing requires investments, both physical and financial;
• It is desirable to have drip irrigation, since the soil dries out quickly;
• The soil in raised structures needs frequent fertilizing.

Considering the decorative nature of the product, beds made of boards can be installed in front of the house.

Wood for fencing

The tree is sold in the form of boards, slabs, picket fences or timber. They can be used for fencing. However, the best option is boards. All existing types of wood are suitable for making beds. Moreover, each has its own characteristics:

1. 1. Oak and ash. The material has great strength. It resists rotting well. The disadvantage is the high price.
2. 2. Pine. Belongs to an inexpensive breed. Boxes made from such wood do not last long. Rot appears quickly. When using it, it is necessary to use special impregnation.
3. 3. Larch. Due to the presence of resin, the material lasts for a long time.
4. 4. Cedar. The amount of resinous components is small, but the service life of the breed is long. Together with larch, cedar is considered the best option for making a frame. In addition, these varieties have a low price.
5. 5. Acacia. It withstands the influence of wet soil well, but has high hardness. During the work, a power tool is required.

When choosing boards, you need to choose only high-quality wood. After 2-3 years, rot appears in a poor wooden structure and holes form. Through them, black soil will spill out.

Preliminary processing

Before starting work, the material is impregnated. This increases its service life by several years. The main thing is that the solution does not contain toxins. Wood is hygroscopic. She passes all the elements through herself. In this way, toxins will enter the soil.

Processing is carried out with the following substances:

1. 1. Sunflower oil and propolis. The ingredients are mixed in a 3:1 ratio. The solution is shaken. The surface is cleaned of dirt and dried. Then the mixture is applied to the wood twice with a sponge. There is protection against rot, fungus, and mold. However, the composition does not last long and after some time the procedure must be repeated.
2. 2. Beeswax. Refers to expensive but effective means. It covers the entire surface.
3. 3. Copper sulfate. The solution is purchased ready-made. Apply onto a sponge and apply to the surface in a circular motion.
4. 4. Lime. Refers to the most accessible method. Lime is diluted in water and the surfaces of the boards are whitened with a brush.
5. 5. Finnish method. The paste is being prepared. 10 liters of water are brought to a boil. During this time, 800 g of flour, 0.5 kg of salt, 1.5 kg of copper sulfate and the same amount of dry lime are gradually added. The boards are coated with a hot compound.

It is especially important to process wood in a greenhouse. Due to high humidity, it quickly begins to rot. Ants often live in it.

Fence sizes

Before you start making the box, you need to decide on its dimensions. It is difficult to give wood a shaped shape, so the frame is made rectangular.

When making a box, the guideline is based on the following parameters:

1. 1. Height. The value is within 15-20 cm. It is not recommended to raise it higher. This is due to increased material consumption. In addition, in winter, the black soil freezes, expands, and the middle part of the box expands. If a warm bed is formed, then it rises to a height of 70 cm.
2. 2. Width. This size depends on the height of the person working in the garden. Usually it is in the range of 90-120 cm. According to other calculations, this value is half the employee’s height. The main thing is to be able to reach the middle of the box with black soil from any side.
3. 3. Length. This size is a free size. However, in order not to weaken the rigidity of the structure, they adhere to the value of 4-6 m. By investing within these limits, you can be sure that the side walls will not bend outward.

The number of boxes depends on the size of the garden and the type of products grown. The distance between the beds is left such that free movement is ensured. With this planting, crops receive sufficient lighting.

Step-by-step production

In order to properly make raised beds at the dacha with your own hands, the following materials and tools are prepared:

• boards;
• beam;
• construction mesh;
• primer;
• self-tapping screws;
• shovel;
• roulette;
• building level;
• Circular Saw.

The timber is sawn into pieces and, together with the boards, is treated with a protective material. Particular attention is paid to the lower elements that are in direct contact with the ground.

Choose a convenient place that is well lit during the day. The soil is being prepared. All stones and debris are removed. If the earth is dug up, it will better allow moisture to pass through it. If the chernozem is highly hard, you need to remove the top layer of turf and then assemble the structure.

2 boxes are knocked down one by one. At the ends of the boards, 2 cuts are made at an angle of 45 degrees. These places are placed next to each other, and fastening is carried out using a beam, which is placed in the corner. Another way is overlap. In this case, the connection is made with self-tapping screws.

In order to give rigidity to the long side, a spacer is placed in the middle. Both boxes are connected together using bars. They are sawn off larger than the height of the walls, so they protrude by 10 cm.

As decoration, boards are installed horizontally on top. They also serve as railings.

To get a high-quality harvest, it is necessary to put a lot of effort into arranging the site and growing various crops. An alternative to painstaking garden care are raised beds - not very large elevations designed for cultivating vegetables and herbs.

In order to build raised beds with your own hands, you do not need specific equipment or any special skills. The structures along the entire perimeter are fenced with hand-made walls, because of this the overall ground level becomes higher than in an ordinary garden plot. This device has its own characteristics, namely: the hill is made in several layers, which contributes to high-quality soil fertilization, protection of the root system, and good growth of crops.

The entire structure of the high bed consists of 6 layers:

1. Bottom protective layer made of metal mesh.
2. Wood chocks.
3. A mound of branches and bark.
4. Part of the active layer made from paper scraps.
5. A nutrient layer of fallen leaves and grass cuttings.
6. The directly fertile part of the soil.

Using metal mesh protect the root system, thereby preventing the penetration of pests. The upper part of the structure is filled with fertile soil, where various crops are planted, which subsequently take root in another layer of foliage and grass, where vegetables and herbs are fed. Bark, logs, and paper scraps are used as semi-protective components necessary for filtering moisture and metabolism.

All of the above layers of high beds are enclosed with a special frame made of brick, wood or plastic.

Gallery: raised beds (25 photos)

Advantages and disadvantages

When compared with ordinary garden structures intended for growing vegetables and herbs, bulk beds have a number of significant advantages:

Posted from: 5-29-2016

To increase the yield of many crops and make them easier to care for, many gardeners create raised raised beds using a variety of materials. Some people make garden bed fencing from asbestos-cement sheets, others from roofing felt on wood, and some even manage to use polycarbonate. I would like to suggest making beds from wooden boards, as we did at our dacha.

Why raise beds?

I am a supporter of raised beds made of wood and rectangular in shape - thanks to this I can unify my gardening process. My wooden beds are combined in groups of three or four. We made them one board 150 mm high.

The most convenient width for a bed is considered to be half the height of the person who will be cultivating it. My husband and I differ in height by 30 cm, so we took the arithmetic average and made beds 90 cm wide. We made the paths between the beds 40 centimeters, this is enough width to make it convenient to care for the beds - both a bucket and a basket will fit, a shovel will pass.

So our vegetable garden is located on level ground; the beds are made on the same level, but I saw my neighbors’ beds that were made with ledges. A wooden path runs along the beds, so access to them is very convenient.

How we made wooden beds

First, we marked out the area for the beds, which were a maximum of 1.5 meters long and, as I already wrote, 90 cm wide. Pegs made of 40x40 mm timber were driven into the corners to the height of a wooden board (approx. 15 cm).

The outer stakes were made higher by sawing a two-meter beam into three parts (the result was stakes approximately 70 cm long). They were buried in the ground to a depth of about 20 cm, and about 50 cm remained above the ground level. Plastic bottles were placed on the outer stakes so as not to accidentally injure yourself and to avoid damaging the hose during watering.

The boards for the walls were edged, 40 mm thick and 150 mm wide. For convenience, they were attached to the outside of the stakes with self-tapping screws (nails can cause cracking of the peg).

How to treat wooden beds?

Before assembling the beds, I soaked all the boards and stakes with special. impregnation - so that they do not rot in a few years. You can treat the wood with lime - the simplest and cheapest option. You can use Senezh impregnation to prevent moisture and rot, or cover the boards with wood varnish, as we did.

Just be sure to leave the ends without varnish so that the wood can “breathe,” otherwise a board completely covered with varnish will rot even faster than one that was completely uncoated. The most non-toxic paint for wood beds is oil paint for damaged or cut branches. You can use it to paint boards without worrying about the ecology of your plantings.

Size calculations

It is very important to correctly calculate the height of the raised bed. Sometimes gardeners, thinking that the higher the better, make the beds too high and after a few years their walls tilt. This is due to the fact that in winter the ground freezes and natural “expansion” occurs due to the moisture contained in it, which increases in volume. That is why I recommend making them no higher than 15-20 cm from the level of the track.

One bed for compost

Every summer we empty one bed of soil and use it for compost - putting organic waste there during the summer (and we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables).

When the bed is full, we fill it with soil and sow green manure plants (mustard, peas, phacelia). Next spring, this bed needs to be loosened and you can plant tomatoes or cucumbers on it, and take the neighboring one for compost.

The soil level in the bed before planting crops should be several centimeters below the height of the fence. It turns out that compared to the path, the beds are about 12-15 cm high.

By the way, the paths between raised beds can be used for preparing compost. If you sprinkle bird droppings on them and sprinkle a thick layer of sawdust on top, then by next spring you will have excellent fertilizer for your beds.

Video tip for creating a raised bed

1. Why is it worth doing?
2. Things to consider
3. Material selection
4. Wood protection
5. Designing beds
6. Frame
7. Assembly instructions
8. After installation
9. Path solution

A relatively new direction in dacha farming is the arrangement of raised beds. This method has advantages and disadvantages, but most enthusiastic gardeners, having tried installing elevated areas for planting, do not return to traditional beds. Experience shows: with the right approach to constructing elevated fences for the land and proper preparation of the soil, the harvest will be richer. Plus, it's a great way to stay clean when caring for your plants, no matter the weather!

It is not difficult to build high and original beds on the site.

Why is it worth doing?

The installation of such fences has a number of advantages over the traditional method of zoning a site:

• The beds take on the required shape. In this case, there is no gradual crumbling of the walls and erosion of the earth during the rainy season.
• Weeds grow little in the sides and are easier to weed. You can reduce the amount of grass by pre-preparing the soil: before falling asleep, all unnecessary roots are removed.
• A vegetable garden can be created even in a barren area with soils unsuitable for gardening.
• Paths made of tiles or bricks are laid between the beds, then there will be no dirt even after long rainy periods.
• When laying a drainage layer, prolonged heavy rainfall is not a problem.
• Convenience of caring for the area: no need to bend low, which is especially important for people suffering from back and musculoskeletal diseases.
• The structure is easily assembled from available materials, in our case from boards that can be found in any private household or purchased inexpensively.
• An original way to design a site.

Things to consider

For board beds to be truly useful, it is important to take note of several features:

• To prevent the container from flooding during periods of prolonged rainfall, it is important to equip a drainage layer that removes water.

• Timely watering in the absence of rain is a necessity, since moisture evaporates from a high fence much faster than from a low bed.
• The board construction is short-lived. It is optimal to install the sides for one season and change them annually. To equip the walls for several years, wood protection is required - impregnation and paint will help prevent the board from rotting. When installing plastic walls, this problem will not arise, but you have to weigh the pros and cons of polymers on the site.

It is better to make a bed in the spring before filling the soil and directly sowing or planting crops.

Material selection

Not every board is suitable for installing a high bed. Wood species that are resistant to rot are suitable. For example, larch, oak, ash, cedar. Hard acacia will also work. These are durable materials that cannot be damaged due to their dense structure. For construction for one or two seasons, you can take pine or spruce.

The boards must have the appropriate dimensions:

• The thickness is at least 15–20 cm. The softer the wood, the thicker the board is taken so that deformation does not occur due to soil pressure and softening from getting wet.
• The width is determined by the height of the sides.

If the household has used wooden pallets, they can be disassembled and the boards can be used as the basis for the box. This option will cost much less than buying new lumber.

Sometimes summer residents choose a beam as a base, on which they can sit while working. We do not recommend doing this - the soil practically does not receive oxygen through the walls of the fence, which is why the plants almost do not breathe with their roots (which is especially destructive for root crops). In addition, this is economically unprofitable: the tree rots from stagnant water, and this design only lasts for a couple of seasons.

The ideal solution for the manufacture of durable fencing for garden beds would be WPC decking boards made of wood-polymer composite. They do not rot due to the polymers that envelop the wood chips. In addition, the products do not require processing or protection. The only drawback of the material is its high cost.

Wood protection

Regardless of the type of wood chosen, the boards must be impregnated with protective compounds.

• Summer residents often apply used motor oil to the sides. This is an outdated method, and harmful substances penetrate into the soil and then into vegetables.

• Another method is to impregnate the wood with bitumen diluted with gasoline. To avoid using the latter, you should use a ready-made bitumen primer.
• The safest method of protecting the boards of a high bed is to soak them with antiseptics. It is important to choose solutions that are difficult to wash out “for severe conditions,” that is, for direct contact with the ground.

• For one season, the boards are coated with oil paint or wood varnish.

It doesn’t matter how you decide to protect the boards. It will still not be possible to preserve them from rotting 100%; processing will have to be done once every one or several seasons. When painting, leave the ends of the boards untreated - the wood must “breathe” to ensure access of oxygen to the roots of the plants.

Designing beds

The minimum height of beds on fertile soil is 25 cm. If the base of the garden plot is rocky and marshy, feel free to install fences of 30–70 cm, depending on the size of the root system of the plantings. It is not recommended to build them too high - this is a waste of materials (soil, boards).

The width of the bed is determined by the convenience for the summer resident.

It should be comfortable to reach its middle and even a little further for proper plant care (weeding, loosening, picking, tying, fertilizing). Average width – 40–80 cm. It is important to consider the size of plants in adulthood and the number of rows of plantings. For single-row plantings of tomatoes or cabbage, a width of 40–60 cm is sufficient; for two- and three-row plants, the size can reach 120 cm.

The length of the bed is a free value and is determined by the general layout of the site. The shape of the fence is made rectangular, square, polygonal and even round.

Frame

Fencing for garden beds consists of a frame and the sides themselves.

The first is different products and materials:

• processed timber;
• pieces of reinforcement;
• special stands with holders for boards.

The main task of the frame is to secure the fence boards. Reinforcement and special metal racks do not collapse over time; they will serve as reliable support throughout the entire life of the structure. But a well-processed timber looks aesthetically pleasing, and it is convenient to attach boards to it without the need to connect them together.

If timber is chosen for the frame, it is important to carefully waterproof its buried part with bitumen impregnation or liquid rubber, since it is the part immersed in the ground that is destroyed first.

Is foundation preparation necessary?

It is not recommended to remove the turf and bury the box in the ground - the wood will quickly begin to rot. Waterproofing with roofing felt will not help - water from precipitation will accumulate in the pocket, and rotting will occur very soon. Impregnations will not save the situation, and deepening itself is not necessary.

It is recommended to lay geotextiles under the soil in the garden bed. You can install a box on it - that will be enough. Protect the wood using various stands (example in the photo). True, such a bed requires arrangement of the bottom.

The photo shows a bed protected from rotting by a brick stand.

Assembly instructions

Now let's take a step-by-step look at how to make a garden bed.

1. We cut the pre-prepared boards to length for the end and longitudinal sides.
2. We give the racks a height equal to the height of the fence + the depth of the depth. The depth of penetration of the stand into the ground is determined by the strength of the foundation. It is optimal to choose from 40 cm.
3. Now we screw the boards to metal or wooden posts. Assembly must begin from the corners. It is important to connect the boards tightly so that soil does not spill out through the cracks and nutrients are not washed out of it with water.
4. First we assemble one plane, for example, the end plane, then the second. Then we attach the longitudinal boards, checking the evenness of the corners.
5. We transfer the finished structure to its place and deepen it. It’s convenient to simply nail down metal posts, but you need to do this evenly on all sides with a partner or in small portions from each corner. We also drive wooden posts into the ground or simply dig them in, well compacting the soil around the beam for its stability.

If the beds are long, an additional stand is installed for every 1.5–2 meters, which will prevent the boards from sagging under the weight of the soil.

Step-by-step process of making a bed with metal posts in the video.

Boards can also be placed on already installed racks, but this option is suitable for completely wooden structures and is not very convenient.

For comfort, you can attach a seating board. It is attached to the corners or a fixed additional bar, which gives rigidity to the surface.

The use of special racks greatly simplifies the process of assembling the beds - just insert the boards into the grooves. This method is very convenient for building flower beds of different configurations:

And this is a visual master class on creating a multi-tiered flower bed:

After installation

If geotextiles were not laid out before final installation, we place them in a box, pour drainage (crushed stone or pebbles) on top in a 10 cm layer, then add fertile soil thoroughly cleared of roots. You can start planting.

You should not cover the walls of the fence with film - the roots of the plants will not breathe.

The outside can be decorated with drawings and appliques - here the flight of imagination is unlimited. The photo shows interesting projects of passionate landscape designers and summer residents.

Vertical slats serve as additional structural stiffening ribs.

Metal plates strengthen the corners and decorate the bed.

A raised bed can be a wooden box mounted on a base raised from the ground.

In high beds it is convenient to place greenhouse plants under a film or special covering.

Path solution

When the beds are ready, you can create paths between them. This will protect the shoes from contamination and complete the look of the composition. Options for covering paths:

• Filling with sawdust is the cheapest way to create a path. Do not use fresh wood waste, which acidifies the soil. The sawdust will absorb excess moisture, and at the end of the season it will become a good nutrient addition to the soil.

• River pebbles are an inexpensive option for designing a path. You just need to pour it in a small layer and level it well.

• Tiles and bricks laid without cement mortar are a good temporary option. To install a permanent path, it is necessary to remove the turf, lay geotextiles and drainage (crushed stone), and lay the coating on cement mortar.

• Concreting of the path is carried out on a prepared base without fertile soil using drainage made of geotextile and crushed stone.

By following simple instructions, you can create a convenient and effective garden bed for growing any garden crops. According to the given algorithm, fencing is created from other sheet materials (slate, metal, plastic).

Wood is the safest and closest material to gardening. Although short-lived, it provides comfortable conditions for growing plants better than others. In addition, the boards serve as a natural heat insulator for “warm” beds and a good foundation for a greenhouse and a small greenhouse.

Many summer residents suffer because the groundwater in the area is too high. Excessive soil moisture is not suitable for all plants; many develop poorly or even die. You can solve the problem by making high beds. With this arrangement of plantings, it is possible to control the degree of humidity. And a pleasant bonus to such a decision will be an earlier ripening period and a much larger harvest.

Advantages and disadvantages

In addition to solving problems with waterlogging, high beds in the garden allow you to sow or plant plants 2-3 weeks earlier: raised above the ground, they warm up more actively due to the fact that the sun warms the walls. This is also facilitated by the decomposition processes occurring in plant waste, which constitute a significant part of the backfill. That is why such beds are also called warm. If you place arcs on such a bed and cover them with spunbond or other similar material, then the harvest can be harvested even earlier.

The device is more problematic in regions with hot climates. The task in this case is not to better heat the earth, but to keep it from overheating. But this can also be solved: use materials with poor thermal conductivity, for example, wood, to fence high beds. For a better effect, you can make double walls, between which you can fill, for example, sawdust, lay polystyrene foam, or you can leave an air gap - better thermal insulation. In hot climates, it is better to paint the outer wall with white paint or whitewash it. It is known that light-colored surfaces heat up less. In this case, it will be possible to keep the root system from overheating: in the south the earth sometimes gets very hot and the higher the plant is, the cooler it will be. You can also stretch the same covering material over the beds. It not only retains heat, but also protects against overheating.

Raised beds can also be a good option on infertile lands. It is more convenient to lay out the imported soil in beds rather than distribute it over the entire site. The compost layer, which is located under the soil layer, contributes to maintaining fertility.

The problem of arid regions is also being solved. In this case, the inside of the fence for a high bed is coated with bitumen mastic or covered with film, and a roll of waterproofing material is placed on the bottom (on the mesh) (roofing felt will quickly rot, so it’s better to use one of the modern types of waterproofing). It will not be possible to achieve complete waterproofing, but it will be possible to retain moisture inside in sufficient quantities - yes.

Carrots - one to one. The best one is in a high bed, although the same variety was planted in a regular bed

As you can see, with a balanced approach, almost any problem can be solved. Raised beds have few disadvantages, but they are not without them:

• In most cases, you have to make a fence, and this costs money.
• The complexity of the process. Again, it takes time to make fences, and there is also a fair amount of earth and plant debris to move around, which is hard work.
• Mole crickets and other similar animals thrive in rotting leaves, branches, and bark. We have to fight them.
• Fertility has to be maintained by updating or completely replacing the “filling”.

That's all the shortcomings. If you decide to arrange raised beds, be prepared for a considerable amount of work. But the harvest will be many times greater. You can make one or two beds for testing. And then decide whether you need them or not.

Dimensions

On one site there are very high beds and not very...

So, the dimensions of the raised beds are:

• Height - from 20 cm to 50-60 cm. Look here what a difficult task it turns out to be. The higher the bed is raised, the easier it is to process - less bending. But more land and all the other “fillings” will be required. One more point: if a small bed may be covered with snow and will be covered from severe frosts, then a tall one will freeze through: the sides will also be open. For those beds where annuals are sown, this does not play any role, but for perennial strawberries, let’s say, this is a problem. Therefore, the height is chosen based on these considerations. According to the experience of many summer residents, the optimal height for strawberries is 20 cm. Then you can hope that it will not freeze.
• Width - from 60 cm to 1.2 m. Choose a distance so that it is convenient for you to cultivate the bed. A distance of 60-70 cm is chosen if the approach to the bed is only from one side. If you can reach it from both sides, you can make it a meter or more. It is important that the middle is processed without much stress.
• Length. Here everyone chooses based on the configuration of the site or their desire. There are no recommendations at all.

To prevent the bed from being too high, part of it can be buried: bury it 20-30 cm, and then put walls on top. The removed soil will be used for backfilling (there is often simply not enough soil), and the substrate from the lower coarse layers can be made thicker. And to minimize the cost of maintaining such a bed, you can.

How can you fence high beds?

You can use anything that can hold the soil. The most durable curbs are made from brick, stone and concrete.

But brick costs a lot, and it takes a long time to work with concrete. A concrete fence is made according to all the rules: first, formwork in which the reinforcement is laid, then it is poured with concrete and they wait until it sets. But the service life is impressive - decades.

Fencing for garden beds made of concrete is the most durable and will never “float”

Brick and stone fencing is also built according to all the rules: with mortar and bandaging. To reduce brick consumption, the walls are laid in half a brick. And so that the earth does not move it, the rows are reinforced with mesh.

But even in this option, you will need to install support pillars every meter. If your soil is viscous, heavy, and often waterlogged, such walls can be squeezed out. Therefore, install wooden or metal supports that will support long walls or make small beds, as for

Fence for high beds made of expanded clay concrete blocks

They also make fences for high beds from galvanized metal and slate. You can use used slate, you can buy new, wave or smooth - it doesn’t matter. Cut the sheets into strips of the required width. There is no need to fear that it is harmful. Slate contains asbestos in a bound state, and it does not dissolve with water. It is harmful when it is sawed: dust rises and enters the body through the respiratory tract. To reduce the risk, wear a respirator and wet the incision area.

They make fences for the garden beds from plastic. Have you changed the siding? Use it. There are old plastic panels - they are used. But plastic requires a rigid base. It is made from a metal mesh made of thick wire.

The grids can become the basis for pebbles or pellets. Only in this case will you need a double frame, inside of which stones or some other material is poured. This technique is called “gabion” and it is used to make not only fences for garden beds and gardens, but also fences. But to prevent water from seeping through the walls from the gabion beds, the inside of the box is lined with a thick film.

The most popular fencing is made of wood. You can use boards, timber, logs. Wood is good for everything, except that it rots.

And since all the conditions have been created in high beds to activate this process, destruction occurs quite quickly. You can slow down the process somewhat by painting the boards or impregnating them with a bioprotective composition. But there is still no guarantee against destruction.

But you can use cheap, and sometimes even waste, material: leftovers from construction, slabs, old logs, pallets, etc. If desired, you can even make a fence from branches. It is only advisable to remove the bark: it is under it that there are many larvae and woodworms. Although...they will also process the wood debris that you place at the bottom of the backfill. But you don’t need too many of them either, so it’s probably better to remove the bark.

From the same branches, only freshly cut, you can make a wicker fence. And it will also need to be lined with film from the inside: to keep water and earth inside.

You can even use straw. It is tied into small bundles, which are connected to each other using wire. It simply couldn’t be cheaper, and it holds water and temperature well. The only disadvantage of this option is that such a fence will last for a maximum of two seasons, but rather one. But it can then be used as one of the layers.

There are high beds without a fence: the so-called bulk beds. The soil in them is poured in the form of hills.

To improve drainage, branches are placed inside such a ridge. To reduce the height of the bed (for example, for tomatoes), it is deepened a little, throwing the soil to the side. After laying the branches, it is filled on top; there is often a need for additionally imported soil. If you cannot choose row spacing deeply.

The disadvantage of this kind of garden: when watering and during rains, the top layer of soil is washed away. That’s why they started making boxes - to avoid washing out the soil.

Layers of raised beds

Framing is only a small part of the job. The resulting box still needs to be filled. It must be said right away that the thickness of the layers depends on the height of the bed that you have chosen, so if any values ​​are given, then they are purely approximate. In addition to the size of the bed, the thickness of the layer, for example, fertile, is influenced by the choice of plants: for some, 5 cm is enough, but for others, much more is needed.

So, what to pour into a high bed - layers from bottom to top:

1. A metal mesh with a fine mesh or layer is placed on the bottom. You can put cardboard. Mesh and geotextiles - protection against rodents and moles. Cardboard plays approximately the same role, but it is less effective.
2. Large woody debris: thick branches, twigs, even logs and bars. This layer serves, firstly, for drainage, and secondly, moisture accumulates in the wood. The drier the climate in your region, the more wood you need. Moreover, the following wood layers too.
3. Chopped small branches, bark. Other coarse plant debris will work: corn stalks, straw. Their task is also twofold. They store water and, when decomposed, release heat and nutrients. But when using corn trunks and straw, keep in mind that the bed will soon sink: these remains will rot quickly, but the yield will be high, and you can sprinkle fertile soil on top.
4. Paper, thin cardboard. It is usually lined with a thin layer. Packaging cardboard is used more often, because glossy paper is not suitable, just like newspapers: lead paint is not at all what you need to fertilize plants with. If you have old unnecessary burlap (natural), you can lay it down.
5. Layer of plant residues: foliage, grass, semi-decomposed sawdust. Be careful with sawdust: they strongly acidify the soil. So sprinkle them under plants that like acidic soil, or neutralize the acidity by covering them with a good layer of ash.
6. Fertile land.

You can add a good portion of mature compost to the last two layers, as well as sprinkle it into the deeper layers. This will speed up the “readiness” of the raised bed for planting.

When is the best time to do it and what to plant?

It is better to fill a high bed in the fall. During this period, there will be enough “material” and over the winter the processes inside will gain momentum. In this case, you can plant plants in the spring and hope for a high harvest. It can be done in the spring, but there are unlikely to be any significant differences in yield: the processes have just begun and will not have a noticeable effect on the fertility of the backfill. Although you will definitely feel the difference in the amount of water for irrigation: much less water is required.

One of the options for a high bed: metal mesh and reinforced polyethylene film

Plant rotation

In the year a high bed is installed, plants that require high fertility can be planted on it: cucumbers, zucchini, zucchini, pumpkin, any type of cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, sweet peppers. The next year you can plant greens - spicy-aromatic and leafy. Root vegetables feel good in the second year.

After the second harvest, fertility must be restored. If the contents of the bed have sagged, in the fall they add good soil mixed with mature compost. If there is nowhere to add more, remove part of the top layer (to a compost heap or into another box as part of the backfill) and replace it with fresh soil with fertilizers.

High bed for strawberries

It differs only in that covering material is spread over the finished “pie”. Holes are made in it into which plants are planted. This option leads to the fact that moisture evaporates in minimal quantities, and weeds do not grow in the aisles. The second option - mulching the soil also works well, but evaporation is more intense.

The peculiarity of strawberries is that their roots are located mainly on the surface. Therefore, the fertile layer may be small. But this same feature leads to the fact that in severe frosts it can die. Although a decomposition process is taking place inside the high bed, warming the soil, if the bed is without snow and not covered for the winter, the root system may freeze.

High bed for cucumbers and tomatoes

In terms of its structure, it is no different. Is it just because poles and crossbars or stretched wire are needed at the edges so that you can tie up tomato bushes or cucumber vines.

DIY raised beds

Most often, questions arise not when laying layers in high beds, but when making the box. Since women are often involved in gardening, including making fences for garden beds, many aspects may not be clear to them. To clarify the most difficult ones, we present photo reports of making boxes from boards and slate - the most common fencing.

From boards

Several options for how to make high beds from boards were in the photo above. The main problem is usually the connection in the corners. The easiest way is to overlap them: just put one to the other at 90° and nail them all the way through. But there are aesthetes who strive to do everything right. The correct way is to cut two boards at an angle of 45° and connect them that way. This is exactly the option that will be demonstrated in the photo.

To make it convenient to fix the fence on the ground, vertical bars or pieces of board are nailed in increments of 1.2-1.5 m, the length of which is approximately 20 cm greater than the selected height of the bed.

The lower end of the block or board needs to be sharpened - this will make it easier to hammer the fence into the ground. Then take a miter box or circular saw and cut the edges at an angle of 45°. By placing two boards together we get a perfect 90° angle.

For a strong connection, we install a block on the inside of the corner, to which we nail the boards.

This is what happened. It just lies with its “burdens” up. They are driven into the ground

It doesn’t take long to make a fence for high beds made of wood, but it’s even easier to join the boards end-to-end and nail metal corners for strength (pictured below).

From logs

It is no more difficult to make a similar box from hewn logs. For example, this option: two long sides are made of logs, and short sides are made of pieces of boards.

Whitewash the finished fence: both protection from pests and a more attractive appearance.

From slate

When making beds from flat or wave slate, questions also arise about how to secure it. The easiest way is to dig it in. But this is not economical: you will have to make the stripes at least 10 cm wider and there is still no guarantee that the slate will not “float” in the spring. In the muddy ground it will simply be squeezed out en masse. It can be fixed, but it will take extra time and effort.

Therefore, most often, corners or pipes are driven in on one or both sides of the sheet, which clamp the slate and prevent it from deviating much. In the photo, the corners are driven in only from the outside: from the inside there will be pressure from the mass of layers of the high bed, so that the fence will not fall inward.

The junction of two sheets is secured with a special welded plate. For reliability, they can be bolted to a wooden block attached to that side.

A piece of reinforcement with a welded plate - to insure the joint of two sheets of flat slate

Another option is to make a frame. Attach a beam or corner to similar racks with welded plates - whichever is cheaper. And attach slate cut into strips to this frame (it holds well with nails, but it’s easier with self-tapping screws).

Frame made of timber in a fence for a high bed

Using the same principle - with guides - beds are made from plastic panels and other similar materials. As you understand, there is no need for particularly virtuoso skill here. The main thing is that it holds up well.