Hey Edna,

Many years ago I had raised beds and made them out of cinder blocks. I had two of them that were about 4 feet wide and probably 20 feet long. They fit the space I had at the time. This time I will be making mine much smaller so I can get from side to side without having to walk all the way around each time. Live and learn!

The beds I'm going to build this year will be made of cedar and should last many many years. I'm going to connect the corners with steel L brackets on both the inside and the outside for stability.

I've looked at many different systems similar to the link you posted but I found the cost to be too prohibative personally. I would also want my beds to be at least 8 inches deep and many of the pre-made units are only 6 inches. You may not need the extra depth were you live though since you don't have deep freezes and soil heaving to deal with.

MeMo

I went back to using treated wood fence pickets. They are very inexpensive, and last a LONG time. The cedar began deteriorating for me in the first year. Cedar and humidity/moisture just don't cut it down here I guess.
I just built two more beds. I use two pickets on each side, and two cut in half for the ends. Then I use the deck "spindles" which are square and cut on an angle on each end. I cut these in half, and use them on the corners and long sides for support (and to screw into).
Now they are leaching before I plant. I plan to leave them another few weeks to continue leaching. When they begin to silver I can fill with nice soil and we should be fine.

GGG

We used 2x6 cedar and used the L-brackets. We also attached chicken wire attached to bottom to keep out moles and voles. They look great still-it's been a year and I see no sign of them breaking down.
Kat

Hey look! It's a bunch of cottagers! Go figure. :)

Edna, we used scraps of 2x8s?... 2x6s?... oh I don't know. They're much wider than your usual 2x4s... and they're pressure treated. Gene trimed them to fit and made it look nice for me. I've heard there's not too much to worry about regarding the chemicals they use for pressure treating.

Hi Edna!

We used 2x8 doug fir. They work for us and last long because we don't have a moisture issue. I like to tell folks it's dry even when it snows.

My DH mitered the corners, then used long wood screws to attach them. I think a few are coming lose, but it has been at least 5 years since he made them. Maybe we'll change the ends to straight cuts if we make the beds deeper. I'd like that - less stooping over for this aging gal. ; )

Diana

Hi Edna,
I used 2x10 boards from Home Depot. I have no idea what type of wood it is but after 4 years they are still working. A few are starting to warp but they should be easy to replace. My husband put them together with screws in anticipation of having to do more work!

There is an article in this month's Organic Gardening Magazine about raised beds. Hopefully the link I am providing will work.

Good luck,
Adriene aka SSG

Here is a link that might be useful: Raised Beds

Ooops, ours are 2x10. I spent several hours out there yesterday prepping the beds for spring plantings, so I measured them.

SSG, Good to see you posting. My DH used screws for the same reason. He knows how I like to "redo" things. lol! Now you must show a pic of your stunning potager.

Diana

Anyone use unframed beds? Mine are currently framed, but when I redo the garden, hopefully next year, I'd like less structure. Just curious how difficult it is to maintain an unframed mound.

Harper, I have one mounded bed that is about 2ft wide by oh..maybe 25ft long. I think it's a pain. In my experience it is far too much work to "remound" them all the time...back breaking work. Over time the soil settles and drifts with rain watering etc. and it's almost impossible to keep from dragging the hose through it thereby knocking down plants over and over. I tried to make this a bed for perennials like ruhbarb and strawberries etc. and it's a total loss at this point. I also had a lot of issues with keeping weeds out just as with traditional plot gardening. Mulch drifted off with the water and rain. I also had an issue after the fact that once it was planted it made it somewhat impossible to remound because it was never empty since I had planted perennials in it. Just my experience.

MeMo

Hi Diana,
Here are some pictures of my potager from last summer after we had the paths put in. BTW, thanks for the email "heads-up" about this forum. Potager gardening is my life! I have not been on GW too much lately because I am trying (underscore) to get some spring cleaning done inside the house before spring comes and before seed starting time starts. It's not going so well...I'd rather read my seed catalogs and knit!
Adriene

Hi Adriene, you're so welcome on the heads up. I hadn't seen you around so assumed you were busy, but knew you'd want to know about the forum. And thank YOU for the pics! They are so inspiring!

I hear you on the "inside" stuff. It's just not as much fun as playing in the dirt. Maybe eliminating dirt on the inside makes us want to be out in it all the more. Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! lol!

I hope you don't mind if I borrow your idea of the bed with birdhouse. I love that look and have asked DH to make me a similar set up. Hopefully we'll get it finished this month - if not, the next.

Again, thanks for the pics. I have serious tree envy. ; )

Diana

OHHH, LA LA! That is GORGEOUS!

GGG

Instead of chicken wire there is also gopher wire which is smaller holes and nothing fits though them....I had raised beds about 8 years ago but when I moved I idn't do them tis time. I loved having them and when I put the wire down inside never had any critter problems and they were so much easier to deal with. Love your pictures of yours.

MeMo, I didn't want to hear that. LOL But it makes sense. Guess I need to come up with a design I can live with and let dh build frames.

Adriene, what a lovely garden! I'm envious of those gorgeous rocks beyond the fence. Something you don't see around here. I have about a dozen from Scituate, MA that dh brought back on a visit home years ago.

southshoregardner, Your potager is fantastic. I remember seeing your photos on CG. Always such a treat to see them agian. Where did you find your vine teepee? Like Diana I also love the look of that style birdhouse but all that I have found similar are over $100 and closer to $200. Did you find a bargain on it somewhere?

MeMo

Adriene, your potager is GORGEOUS! I LOVE it!

I've tried just about every kind of raised bed wall and have finally decided to bite the bullet and build some out of stone. I've used unwalled beds (wide rows really), metal and every kind of wood you can think of. All those things take more work than I want to do. And the metal is dangerous and ugly, and the boards rot after a couple years. So DH decided that he would finally give me the stone beds I've been wanting forever. YAY!!!!!

Like Memo said, unwalled are a pain to take care of. We just removed the boards from the beds in the old garden ~ they were just too rotten to deal with anymore. That was the third time we've replaced them in eight years. So this year I'll be using unwalled beds just one more time and I'm NOT looking forward to it. I can't WAIT 'til we have enough beds built in the new garden so I can use those. They'll be atleast a foot tall, hopefully 18", and made of either that square white limestone or round natural limestone from the creeks out here. I can't WAIT!!!

Hi All,
Thank you for the kind comments. Let's see if I can answer your questions.
Diana, I wish that I could say that the birdhouse in the center is an original idea but it's not! I'm good at copying. My potager was inspired by some of the gardens in Williamsburg and after doing some research, I found that most potagers had a central focal point. They weren't necessariy birdhouses, but I liked the look! So please "borrow" and post pictures when you finished it.

Harper, I love the rock walls in this area too. We are originally from Virginia so this was a novelty when we moved here. I just HAD to have a house with rock walls! We live next to Scituate in Norwell.

MeMo, I found the birdhouse on line four years ago because I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg either. I think it was less than $100 at the time, but I don't know the name of the site. Sorry. I have really enjoyed having it and every year we get babies. The mom and dad are always squawking at me when I am working in the garden but after a few times they get over it!

When I lived where the soil was heavy, I had raised beds both to improve drainage and keep the soil from compacting from being walked on. I don't like enclosures because they harbor slugs (and there were a lot of big ones-- that was when I lived in the maritime NW). My beds were wider-- 3 to 4 feet, which is a good size to work wiht, and they will retain their shape. I gardened this way for decades.

Now I live where the soil drains readily, and while I still have 3 to 4 foot wide beds, they are not raised. I like to plant them so that low-growing plants spill out and soften the path edges. It is a nice contrast with the taller or trellised plants.

One thing I am keeping in mind though, is that as I get older (probably sooner than I am ready for), at some point I may need to have taller beds to make tending easier. So am designing my garden to accommodate them if need be.

Dayle Ann

AWESOME GARDEN Southshoregardnr!! I am envious! How big is the fenced-in area? I have my vegetable garden (soon to be Potager garden) in my front yard and want to make it look more appealing. I am so excited to find this forum, I always wanted to make my veggie garden into a Potager garden, but didn't now where I was going with it until now.

Hi newgrdenrmn,
The enclosed area is 42x36. It ended up being bigger that my original plan and now I am finding that I could use even more room! I have a tough time not growing particular things! Good luck with yours.
Adriene

Thanks for the info Adriene, now I just have to convince my husband that this is what we want. I think I will start with the "less lawn to mow" angle and go from there. Maybe I will start a new thread on how to convince the hubby that potager gardens are the way to go.

Donna

I just learned of a new material. It's a pressure treated lumber that is non toxic and new this year. Possibly too late for planting season in some parts of the country, but you can find it at timbersil.com.
We're making new raised beds this year and were planning to use composite fake wood until this came along. Now I'm not sure whether we'll be able to get it, or be able to wait.

Drats, wish I'd known sooner.

I just learned Home Depot refuses to cut pressure treated wood because of the chemicals within the wood. I had no idea it held toxins. Imagine the toxins being aborbed into the fruits and vegetables? egads!

I ended up using redwood. DH built two raised beds this weekend. I can hardly wait to get started. I have them placed along a row of roses.

Linda, thanks for the heads up on TimberSIL. I'll be on the lookout for it around here. Hopefully by the time I'm ready to get started on the new garden it'll be more widely available.

Harper

Adriene, I've been playing with a garden layout tool I found on another forum and trying to determine the best distance between beds. Right now I only have about 16 inches. Barely room for me to manuever.

I'm wondering if 2 feet between some and 3 feet between others would be adequate. How wide are yours?

Harper

The way my garden is laid out at the moment I have three feet between beds going one way and two feet the other way. Two feet is ok but three is much better. When the plants begin to fill in and hang over edges they way they tend to do the two foot spaces can get a little tight. Three feet is a must if you want to get a wheelbarrow in there.

mrsgalihad, funny you mentioned the wheelbarrow. I just measured mine and was hoping it could fit down the 2 foot paths, although I was afraid that might be pushing my luck. Do you think I could get away with it as long as I have 3-foot access on at least one side of each bed?

Harper

I think you can. That's what I did. I had the three foot paths going along the long side of the beds and the two foot paths were mostly for getting from one three foot path to the other.
You can get the wheelbarrow through two foot paths before the plants get big. You could also get away with them if you planned carefully every year so there were no plants that the wheelbarrow might damage along the edges of your beds.

I only have the two for vegetables. I used 1 x 12 lumber and tucked them in against a retaining wall.

Harper,
Most of my paths are 3feet wide and in some areas they are a little wider. The thought was to add pots here and there for more interest. That way I still have room to manuver. I think that 2 ft would work if you have an alternate way to get a wheelbarrow to the site.
Adriene

When I first laid out my beds they were unframed mounded beds in three different shapes. We then purchased 2x10 treated lumber and framed each shape. Over time the boards warped. Now I have framed the 6 beds that are 4'x16' with dry stacked sunflower brick we had laying around. The other 8 beds are framed in wattle. At first I tried using wood stakes for the uprights and then quickly changed to rebar cut in 2' lenghts hammered in the ground. For the weaving of the wattle I used pretty much what I had on hand, like branches from shrub that I cut back or tree saplings. I have been real pleased with them so far and each year I just add to the wattle with whatever I have on hand. Looks good.