What did you do in the garden today?

[gtaus]

I think your pallet beds are really cute! Our 4x4s are cedar kits from HD. We got them the following spring after we moved into this house, spring 2020. Greened Fences brand I believe. So far they’ve held up ok. There’s a little bit of warping so they’re not fully flush which is kind of annoying. I did notice earlier this spring that one of the panels is starting to breakdown. I suspect I could probably get another two years out of them, but they’re going to have to be replaced. I don’t think I’ll get another kit, probably just build our own out of thicker wood. DH built a few this year, as well as our compost bins. It’ll be a pain, but less of a pain compared to moving the beds and soil! Yeah, we did that early spring 2023 when building the chicken coop. Never want to do that again.

Thank you for the compliment on the pallet wood raised bed.

Is this the kit you bought from Home Depot?

I have seen some of those and they always look like they are super easy to assemble. Just slip in the boards and basically you are done. They look great.

I considered that type of design as well. I really like the concept of just slipping in the boards into the 4X4 posts and call it done. But I have also seen some of the disadvantages of that design on YouTube. Like you mentioned, the boards tend to warp out because there is nothing holding it in place. I have seen some of these raised beds where the side boards pop out of the 4X4 post altogether after a few years. The fix to that problem is to add cross bracing going both ways in the middle of the side boards. That will help keep everything together and add more strength to the side walls. If you experience a side wall blowout, that might be a good fix for your raised bed(s).

Years ago, I built some raised beds that did not have good bracing and the sidewalls warped out. I also built some raised beds where the vertical side boards blew out from the outward pressure of the heavy soil. Live and learn. I fixed them the best I could and learned from the weak points in the design.

Well, compare the HD kit to my latest pallet wood raised beds v2.0. You can see I use 2X4 framing on the outside, and all the pallet wood pieces are inside the 2X4 framing. The soil will exert an outward force on the pallet wood pieces but into the much stronger 2X4 framing. Since the beds are only 4X4 feet, there is no give in those 2X4 on that short of a distance. I know my pallet wood design looks more bulky and maybe less refined, but I can guarantee you it is much stronger than other designs I tried.

I think these new pallet wood raised beds will last a long time, but right now, my oldest type of this design is about 3 years old. It's holding up fine, but 3 years is not very long to test out the expected life of the raised bed.

Another big consideration for me was that I use the hügelkultur method in all my 16-inch tall raised beds. I have 8-10 inches of hügelkultur wood in the bottom, and then 6-8 inches of topsoil/compost on top of the wood for growing the plants.

IIRC, those raised bed kits at HD are only 11 inches tall. It would be more difficult to use the hügelkultur method in those beds. I went with 16 inches tall because that is about the perfect size for the pallet wood I can cut out from a pallet breakdown. Also, the additional height means less bending over to maintain the beds.

Although I could reuse nails and screws from my pallet wood salvaging, I chose to use new screws and nails for my nail gun to assemble my pallet wood raised bed. I estimated I spend less than $2.00 on new screws and brad nails for the build. For the time and effort it saves me, it's worth it to me.

I do have a couple of buckets full of pallet wood nails that could be reused. I can't get myself to throw them out. I guess I'm turning into my grandfather who lived through the Great Depression. I don't think he every tossed out a nail if it could be hammered back into shape and reused. God bless him. It was a rare occasion that we ever made a trip into town to buy new nails at the hardware store. You can bet we used up all the old nails first!

Anyways, I keep the old pallet nails hoping I will use them someday, on some project, and make my grandfather proud of me. So far, however, I have been taking the easy way out using brad nails and a nail gun.

 

[gtaus]

My raised beds are just mounded dirt. I bolstered the sides with rocks. Those are in endless supply here, free for the taking.

I usually chose to use whatever free resources I have first. That includes any salvaged material I might have behind the garage.

I know that the hügelkultur method is originally a mound system, but has wood as the base and soil on top of the wood. The wood acts as a giant sponge.

If you are just mounding soil up for a raised bed, do you find that the soil dries out faster than level, in-ground soil? That was my experience with my first raised beds where I did not use the hügelkultur method for the build. For me, it worked much better to add that wood in the bottom of the raised beds.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We had dug up all our lilies to thin and replant. We got 23 of them back in the ground today. Only about 2300 left to plant, lol.
Feeling all of my 70 years and a few more, maybe.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

I also know the huegelculture as a mound, and never tried it here, way to sandy and dry, the water would just run off the bed, but with pallets, it might be worth a shot, in a year, when I hopefully can be my old self again

 

[chickengr]

Raised beds are a death sentence to things here, at least if they do not have constant, quality irrigation. Our soil and climate is brutal.

the same here. we need sunken beds.

 

[Dadanga]

Well today has been sucky. Lost my keys, gonna cost around 500 to replace I think. Just got my dog back from dental surgery that was 750. Leaking like a siv. The only bright side to today was a little bit of rain. Oh, neighbors dog got out again and attacked Lacy. She's okay, just traumatized. Every once in a while there's a flight of fancy of giving it all up and just march off to the mines like everyone else. Do the grind and get out.

Kratkies are going good. Tomato one broke a bit so I had to patch it up and fix it. The volunteer tomato is reddening up but I worry if the rain is going to ruin things. Who knows. I'm just looking at those big juicy cucumber leaves thinking yep, here comes the PM.

 

[gtaus]

Well today has been sucky...

Hope tomorrow is better. Best wishes.

 

[Dadanga]

Hope tomorrow is better. Best wishes.

Ugh, doubt it. Thanks anyways though!

 

[FrannyNZooey]

Is this the kit you bought from Home Depot?

Yes, that’s it. Looks so pretty unwarped and all. Very easy to assemble. Although this spring we also got the “critter guards” from the same company. We had topped off the beds with some compost and our dog was sneaking bites at every opportunity.
Turns out the critter guards didn’t exactly fit like the picture showed them to. You had to remove the decorative post tops. . Oh well, they’ll be going up again in the spring.

 

[Sueby]

Not much happening here - very cold out there, low 20s. The ground was actually frozen walking on it..

Caught one of of my new reds plucking feathers from anyone who came near so she's separated for now. I probably won't be able to break her, but I'll give it a shot.