making the sides of a raised bed with pallets

  • 13 Replies
  • 8486 Views
*

Floody

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Location: Notts, East Midlands
  • 65
    • Sensible Mole
making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« on: November 03, 2015, 21:02 »
Hi, I'm thinking of converting my allotment to a series of raised beds but as it's 200 square yards, that's an awful lot of edging!  I've searched online for used scaffold boards, but they aren't cheap and there's the problem of delivery too...
I found a video on Youtube where a guy takes pallets apart and uses those as edging for raised beds.

Has anyone on here used pallets for such a purpose?  And if so, how long did they last before they rotted?

Thanks in advance for the advice!  :)

*

mumofstig

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Kent
  • 57877
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2015, 21:17 »
Mine were rotted through by the 3rd summer  :(

*

BigPaddy

  • Experienced Member
  • ***
  • Location: Hull
  • 372
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2015, 15:37 »
Yes have used and still use Pallets for raised beds. Not very raised (4 inches) and do need maintenance, but cheap a good cheap supply of edging and 3 years sounds good value for money.

Paddy
Patrick
Hull, East yorkshire

*

Tenhens

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: North Derbyshire
  • 1259
  • freedom lodge for tenhens ex battery 1 year on
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2015, 12:52 »
Mine were rotted through by the 3rd summer  :(
We built some  using pallet wood, I was able to get hold of some 10ft pallets. They've lasted 2 years. Were planning to build more but didn't get round to it. On a personal level I've yet to be convinced that the time and effort and cost is worth it.

Have seen videos of plots that have them and they do look good , one was a retired doctor from Liverpool.
we also rescue rabbits and guinea pigs, grow own veg

*

Headgardener22

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Nottingham
  • 1071
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2015, 18:11 »
Any wood rots after only a few years pallets quicker than most. I've converted my allotment to raised beds but I don't have any edges I've just piled the soil up. The thing I found I needed to do was to make the paths between the beds with weed suppressant so that the soil could just be scraped back onto the beds when it drifted onto the paths.

*

shedmeister

  • Experienced Member
  • ***
  • Location: Herne Bay Kent
  • 186
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2015, 16:13 »
My raised beds are now well into their 5th year and showing no sign of rot. Made entirely of pallets I took the pallets apart and soaked the timber for a week in an old large tin bath using a solution of 75% creocoat 15% white spirit substitute and 10% waste engine oil. Left to dry for a week before construction.
Nothing drown has shown any form of disease or polution and they should be fine for the next 5 years.
May the fork be with you

*

Beekissed

  • Senior Member
  • ****
  • Location: West Virginia, USA
  • 592
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2016, 14:25 »
Here's a neat idea for raised beds that will last for as long as you need it....currently using this idea to build up mulch around my fruit trees. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVaFsORKhl8

*

Snoop

  • Guest
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2016, 15:56 »
I do the something similar to Headgardener: long, narrow beds with just earth raked up at the sides to form a lip. Cheap, virtually no maintenance, no nasty chemicals and nothing to catch on my Mantis either. I don't even bother with weed suppressant, though the weeds on the paths can be a nuisance, but not an insuperable one.

I have 12 beds of about 14 metres long plus some others in a more sheltered spot. Building walls around them using any kind of material isn't really feasible.

*

mjg000

  • Winner, Prettiest Pumpkin - 2015
  • Senior Member
  • ****
  • Location: West London
  • 749
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2016, 18:11 »
I do a mixture of HG22 and Snoop,  In general my beds are about 4ft wide.  Some I use old wood propped up to keep the soil in situ with tent pegs or wooden stakes each side of the upright to keep it straight.  However I don't have enough wood to do this on all beds so some are just built up soil but this tends to end up sloping and thus wastes some space on each side.  In the last 18 months I have cleared and covered all side paths with heavy duty membrane which is still looking good and not breaking up. I am so pleased that I took time and effort to do it.  They aren't covered in wood chips though my main path is.  I think some pictures are called for, though I don't have any to hand right now!

*

snowdrops

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Burbage,Leics
  • 19511
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2016, 19:54 »
I agree raised beds can look great, & if conditions require are a great way of adding extra drainage on wet soggy ground,clay etc. But I do feel that they are hard work when as others have said narrow beds etc work just as well. In my old garden I used some old joists to construct raised beds but now I have the allotment just have long narrow beds with slab bed paths inbetween. I aim never to stand on the soil & use a scaffold board to stand on when planting etc, my balance has improved over the years too😊

Here you can see hubby rotovating one of the beds on Friday
« Last Edit: April 10, 2016, 20:02 by snowdrops »
A woman's place is in her garden.

See my diary pages here
and add a comment here

*

snow white

  • Guest
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2016, 20:49 »
I took apart numerous pallets to build four large beds 5 x 6 metres, and within these beds subdivided up with tough permeable membrane 40cm wide.  I put it all together in 2012 and four years later it still looks ok.

*

Headgardener22

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Nottingham
  • 1071
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #11 on: April 12, 2016, 09:30 »
I do the something similar to Headgardener: long, narrow beds with just earth raked up at the sides to form a lip. Cheap, virtually no maintenance, no nasty chemicals and nothing to catch on my Mantis either. I don't even bother with weed suppressant, though the weeds on the paths can be a nuisance, but not an insuperable one.

I have 12 beds of about 14 metres long plus some others in a more sheltered spot. Building walls around them using any kind of material isn't really feasible.

14 meters - that's a long way to walk around. I read somewhere that somebody had done a study (don't they love stupid studies) about the ideal length for raised beds and found it was about 5 meters (I think). At that length people would walk around the bed, rather than across it. I must admit with my 7m beds (caused by the width of the plot not any science) I walk around the bed rather than across them.

*

mumofstig

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Location: Kent
  • 57877
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #12 on: April 12, 2016, 09:36 »
It's easy enough to put a board across if you do find you are walking across beds, or for use when planting in the middle of the bed.

*

Snoop

  • Guest
Re: making the sides of a raised bed with pallets
« Reply #13 on: April 12, 2016, 11:49 »
I have 12 beds of about 14 metres long plus some others in a more sheltered spot. Building walls around them using any kind of material isn't really feasible.

14 meters - that's a long way to walk around. I read somewhere that somebody had done a study (don't they love stupid studies) about the ideal length for raised beds and found it was about 5 meters (I think). At that length people would walk around the bed, rather than across it. I must admit with my 7m beds (caused by the width of the plot not any science) I walk around the bed rather than across them.

They're very narrow - 70 cm or so, so can easily be jumped/stepped over - and all run in the same direction east to west. My watering methods (butts at each end of each bed) and rotation (3 beds per rotation group) mean that there is very rarely a need to cross them.



xx
Making Raised Beds

Started by GardenShed on Design and Construction

7 Replies
3376 Views
Last post June 14, 2013, 23:58
by wil4025
clip
Blocks for making raised beds?

Started by Subversive_plot on Design and Construction

19 Replies
10005 Views
Last post March 23, 2023, 01:22
by Subversive_plot
xx
Making a raised bed- suitable timber?

Started by 1jim on Design and Construction

17 Replies
15002 Views
Last post March 31, 2010, 22:30
by Trillium
xx
Trailer sides?

Started by Goldfinger on Design and Construction

13 Replies
5224 Views
Last post June 27, 2012, 20:55
by smud6ie
 

Page created in 0.135 seconds with 35 queries.

Powered by SMFPacks Social Login Mod
Powered by SMFPacks SEO Pro Mod |