[Thompson24]

Whats the best thing to make raised beds out off.  One of my plots gets a little water logged after rain, and many of the plot holders have got round this with raised beds.  Money is quite tight at present, I priced some 16ft 6x2 but was about £12 each and obviously I would need quite a few as the plot is rather large.

Can anyone suggest something cheap to use? or design ideas

[paintedlady]

about 80% of the wood on my big plot beds are what I acquired out of skips (every shape and size so it does look a bit like a scrapyard LOL)  You could also use wood from pallets, but they are not always that easy to pull apart but can be done.  There's always freecycle to look at as well 

[mumofstig]

I use pallet wood and got to the stage when i couldn't pull them apart any more!
so now i just cut them up with a jig saw, means some of the pieces are a bit smaller where i cut the corner blocks off, but they are free....so i'm not complaining

Then you can gradually replace them with better wood, or better skip finds

[JimS]

During the week, some neighbours started renovations on their cottage. Part of it was knocking down an old extension and ripping up the floors.

I have just spent the last 2 days ripping out nails on about 60 foot of 6X2's and a couple of hundred feet of 2X2, talk about sore wrists! Not too mention whacking myself on the knee with the claw hammer once or twice 

Anyways, this is what I am going to use for a couple of raised beds, as well as use for posts for my new 50m roll of chicken mesh. The surplus I shall give away to others on the allotment who want to build a bed or two.

My advice, just take a drive around your neighborhood. As paintedlady sez, you will either find loads in skips or someone working on their house. They are usually only too pleased if you take it away, saves them having to do it themselves.

A drive around your nearest commercial estate is also worthwhile. I always find stuff to use, thrown in the skips.

Dunno about you, but having to scrounge about and finding the stuff for myself, is much more fun than just walking into B&Q and ordering a length.

[Brambles]

I too have used old bits of odds and ends.   Only problem has been that the wood eventually rots and invites SLUGS   So I still use recycled wood and replace when necessary..  I have recently been replacing with old tiles, the ones I have been using are very old (off son's roof when it was re-roofed last summer)   They are very thick and a good length.  I find them better than wood.. no slugs, woodlice, wood rot or fungus either

[Yabba]

Not too mention whacking myself on the knee with the claw hammer once or twice 

That's some achievement!! My thumb always gets in the way when I try

¥

[lucywil]

see if you can make friends with a scaffolder, we don't have raised beds but there is a guy on our site that sells scaffolding boards for £2 each

[Thompson24]

ah brilliant.  I was thinking off pallets but wasnt sure if the wood would be too thin.  What do you guys use to treat the wood, stain, creosot, or fence paint etc?

Well off now to try and find some pallets, not so easy round here lol

[JimS]

That's some achievement!! My thumb always gets in the way when I try

Aah, That's probably where I was going wrong Yabba. I was focusing so much on NOT hitting my thumb this time that I forgot about the knees.....*...

[SnooziSuzi]

I've been using floorboards from a kind lady on freecycle who had all of her floors replaced due to woodworm.  The womey ones were used as kindling for fires but the one's which were OK are currently being used on one of my raised beds.

If I'm desparate I'll use gravel boards from B&Q but at £4.70 a shot it gets a bit pricey 

Also, recently I went to a glaziers in Langley Moor and a few doors down is a scaffold firm so I popped in and asked them what they did with damaged boards.  Unfortunately this particular company chop them down into smaller boards for various uses until there's only a few inches left so there's none for selling to gardeners.  Aparently they get lots of requests like mine 

Lucy; if your local guy is selling for £2 a board I'd take his hand off! that's brilliant seeing as they cost between £13 - £20 each brand new!

[Highfield]

We bought our scaffolding boards second hand from a scaffolding hire firm (they have depots all round the country) .  Some of the ends are a bit damaged so they cant use them again 'cos of health and safety or there is a partial split in them.  We got a load of 20 x 13' delivered for £50 all in and had already cadged a few for free from a local scaffolding place but they hadnt got as many as we needed!
Painted them with creosote substitute and then covered the bit in contact with the ground in heavy plastic ( bags from the new beds (sleeping sort!) we had bought when we moved in). Posts came from timber form an stud wall we'd had removed.   
 

[karlooben]

using pallets is great but they will rot though within 2 -3 years max i found that out , i have just built brand new compost bins out of them but they are only tempary .

for rasied beds i use 4"- 3.6 m long  gravel boards that i can get for £3 each but we have just found a builder who will sell us gravel boards 13 foot for £6 each so i am going for them .u will be sursprised at what u can find at your local rubbish dump as well.

[lucywil]

Lucy; if your local guy is selling for £2 a board I'd take his hand off! that's brilliant seeing as they cost between £13 - £20 each brand new!

many people have snapped his hand off but i dont want raised beds, but our site is becoming covered in them, although i dont think you can call them raised beds because most people have just wacked 4 planks into a square and as they are 13 ' long there is no way you are going to be able to reach from one side to the other without walking on it