wood for raised beds and other projects

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Moosey

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Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #15 on: February 24, 2009, 15:37 »
Scoffold boards are what I found to be the best for mine - found eight lengths just laying around outside the netting of a construction site....!!!

Thank you builders!  :D

Hmmm i'd be careful obtaining things like that.  Someone may have just forgotton to put them away,  Aaways better to ask me thinks.
We all have wings but some of us don't know why.

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RichardA

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Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #16 on: February 24, 2009, 17:13 »
must support previous posting - theft by finding carries risk of fines or imprisonment and can get you a criminal record, worse if courts decide offence was actually deliberate theft rather than lesser charge of theft by finding. Always be sure to get permission and record who gave it for your own protection.
R

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sedgie

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Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #17 on: February 24, 2009, 23:08 »
I found the local scaffold yard very helpful - quite happy to deliver scaffold boards that are no longer suitable for their purpose - so far I've built 12 16ft x 4ft beds. They also supplied the pallets I used to build my compost bins. I drop off crates of beer or similar as a thankyou.
The climate is a unpredictable beast and we are poking it with sticks...

Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #18 on: March 10, 2009, 14:13 »
I agree with the scaffolding boards. Any number of scaffolders will have them if they are burst or damaged as they can't use them due to health and safety regs. See, I knew H&S had some reason to exist. Old boards may be purchased for £5-£6 or if you're really lucky free if you're good enough to take them out of their hair!

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philskin

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Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #19 on: March 11, 2009, 18:59 »
I find that in todays market if you work out in advance what it is you need and how much ,just spend half an hour on the phone pitting builders merchants against each other  ie jewsons said this much can you beat it then use that quote and phone up another company ,you would be surprised how the price drops. but always remember to get the quote number of them or they may well deny it when you go in .
If the early bird gets the worm how come the 2nd mouse to the trap gets the cheese ??

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Stoatus

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Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #20 on: March 12, 2009, 14:19 »
Skips are good sources of timber – watch out for loft conversions in your area. Also freecycle, people are often desperate to get rid of the stuff rather than pay to have it buried.
Organic

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mad mark

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Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #21 on: March 15, 2009, 21:44 »
 When you have made your raised beds ladies and gents, what do you fill them with? Where do you get the soil from? Sound stupid but I only have a small garden and buying bags of compost soon mounts up. Any suggestions for cheap soil? I have built one from stone and another from old kitchen parts someone didn't want to put in a skip but the compost costs quite a bit. Where are the best buys??
Just planted my onions, first time I have done those. Spuds in black bags for some earlies and also some spring onions which I tried doing in my cold plastic green house over winter but they haven't grown very big. Keep trying. Still waiting for something to happen to my tomato seeds. They are in the living room now in desperation.
Mad Mark

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David.

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Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #22 on: March 17, 2009, 20:00 »
Salvage yard   ;) nice and cheap, I bought some old decking boards for mine at a silly price £1 for 8' length all treated, loads of cheap stuff in them places  ;)

Only about £1/m for brand new boards at B&Q with a 10% discount!

Many of those those decking patios constructed in the 1990's may now be reaching the end of their useful life, as I found contractors chucking the boards and supports away this morning at a house just along the road that only had them installed 8 years ago.

So I got at least 175m of decking boards, and around 100m of 50 x 100mm bearers - and all I had to do was de-nail them (and give everyone a bottle of my home made wine).

A bit messsy in the garden for a while as I'm still collecting pallets (and old gazebo poles as they're ideal for rabbit fencing posts).


« Last Edit: March 20, 2009, 21:16 by David. »

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David.

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Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #23 on: March 17, 2009, 20:08 »
When you have made your raised beds ladies and gents, what do you fill them with? Where do you get the soil from? Sound stupid but I only have a small garden and buying bags of compost soon mounts up. Any suggestions for cheap soil? I have built one from stone and another from old kitchen parts someone didn't want to put in a skip but the compost costs quite a bit. Where are the best buys??

When I asked this question, all I was told was to use compost, which would have taken eternity.

So dig out the topsoil between your newly constructed raised beds, throw that in the raised beds, and then construct /backfill the paths between your raised beds with any sub-soil, clay, etc you can get hold of, using the 'borrow pit' principle.

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GillyHen

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Re: wood for raised beds and other projects
« Reply #24 on: March 18, 2009, 21:08 »
I've been acquiring some marvellous things called pallet collars http://www.bikudo.com/photo_stock/937951.jpg . I've been picking them up for free from a local steel supplier. They use them for stacking pallets up with stock on them. Damaged or old ones get chucked in the wood pile, which they have to pay someone to clear away... Needless to say they are very happy for me to help myself! Any manufacturer or factory which uses pallets will no doubt use these collars. They are great - some of them are 14' diameter and some are a smaller 12'. The hinge pin can be removed to join two up to make for example an 8' x 6' sq bed or you can leave them as smaller individual 4' x 3' beds. They are reasonably deep too between about 12" or 8" - they can be stacked atop each other too! This is what I am going to use as a basic coldframe using perspex or some such thing on the top as a 'lid'.



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