What did you do in the garden today?

[Smokerbill]

You know, I don't expect my pallet wood raised beds to last a lifetime. I think using untreated pine wood will normally last 3-5 years in a raised bed. I don't know if using the Hügelkultur system will cause the wood to rot out sooner than that. I have 3 hügelkultur raised beds out in my main garden with untreated wood and they are still intact for over 5 years. I have 2 hügelkultur raised beds in my backyard using pallet wood and they are going on their third summer with no signs of wood rot yet. I live in northern Minnesota, and half our year is under snow, so maybe my untreated raised beds just last longer than a raised bed in a more southern state.

I have thought about staining or sealing the pallet wood on the raised bed prior to filling it up. Another idea was to line the inside with empty "plasticy" feed bags and maybe that would add some life to the build because the barrier would keep the pallet wood separated from the soil.

However, I have just decided to leave everything as is for the pallet wood raised beds and actually see how long it lasts before it needs to be repaired, rebuilt, or replaced. A very big factor for me is knowing that I spent less than $1.00 on the hardware for the raised bed, the pallet wood was free, so I did not want to spend much time, money, or energy on trying to make it last a few years longer. It will be easier, and cheaper, for me to just rebuild if needed.

I liked your question, but I really don't know the real answer yet. Maybe someone else has had experience with this issue and could help us both?

5 years is a good life for the raised bed. Maybe when the structure eventually starts to degrade, you could just build a new bed enclosure around the original structure, and let the old one just compost into the soil.

I like your idea about using a lining of feed bags on the inside. But if you're getting 5 years might not even be necessary.

 

[WthrLady]

Maybe a ferret would be better than a falcon. Don't they crawl down into the rodent holes to hunt their prey? But I don't know if that's something that's done, I mean, using ferrets for ground squirrel control. LOL

Ya they do. We already have wild ones and mink, and they're not making a dent. Trained falcons can be trained to hunt to kill, not just for food. Our beagle did a banner job. Lordy I miss her.

 

[gtaus]

Can you come do that at my house?

No, but I'm sharing what I am doing in case someone finds it useful and maybe a good idea for them to try at their place. Glad to know you liked my composting setup. I can't tell you how much time and energy that cement mixer compost sifter has saved my old body. At the same time, I have increased my gardening more than 2X as much space because I now easily make and process my compost with the sifter instead of doing everything by hand with a 2X4 compost frame over a wheelbarrow.

 

[gtaus]

Last year I started doing hugelkultur in my raised beds. I used wood chips at first because I had 2 giant piles of them from the local tree service. But they do compost down in a year. Not a bad thing but it does cause the soil level to drop a bit. So this year I began with more logs and large sticks, then wood chips. Similar to what you are doing. Can't wait to see how it goes!

Yes, the hügelkultur wood and other organics you use to layer your raised bed will decompose and/or settle every year. I lose maybe about 2 inches on the soil level every year and top off my raised beds every spring with freshly sifted compost. I was used to doing that with my Square Foot Garden raised beds with 1/3 compost in that soil mix which had to be replaced every year because compost decomposes. That's a good thing, in my opinion, because I know I should feed the soil every year with fresh compost so the soil can feed my plants.

I don't use store bought fertilizers in my garden beds. I am having good results with fresh chicken run compost added to the beds in the spring top off.

 

[gtaus]

5 years is a good life for the raised bed. Maybe when the structure eventually starts to degrade, you could just build a new bed enclosure around the original structure, and let the old one just compost into the soil.

I was thinking of something along those lines. If you look at my new pallet wood raised bed design, the 2X4 framing is on the outside and the pallet planks are on this inside and have direct contact with the soil. One of my thoughts, if the inner planks start to rot away and fail, was to simply add on new pallet planks on the outside of the 2X4 framing if the inner boards rotted out. The 2X4's should still be strong because they have no direct contact with the soil, and the rotting planks on the inside will still hold back most of the soil.

Essentially, it would be like you say by building a new structure around the old one. In my case, however, it would be really easy to take a bunch of pallet planks and shoot them on to the 2X4 frames on the outside with my nail gun. Or, I have saved lots of used nails I pulled out of the wood in disassembling the pallets and I could hammer them in place. I'm also a big fan of using cheap drywall nails to put things together and then reusing those same screws again on a different project years later if that wood rots out.

I like your idea about using a lining of feed bags on the inside. But if you're getting 5 years might not even be necessary.

Yeah, realistically, at my age, I only hope I am still able to enjoy gardening 5 years from now. If I only get 5 years from my pallet wood raised garden beds that costs me less than $1.00 in total costs to build, I'm more than OK with that.

Another idea just came to mind while writing this response. Since I am just using pallet wood, it would be really easy to add another layer of planks on the inside of the raised beds making it 2 layers thick (or more) on the inside. That should add a number of years to the build before it all rots out. Of course, I would have to add that second layer to the raised bed once it was in place because even the empty raised bed would be pretty darn heavy at that point. I suspect an additional layer of pallet wood on the inside of the raised bed walls would last longer than a feed bag barrier/liner.

 

[gtaus]

Red worms like manure. Also called manure worms and sometimes sold as trout worms. Earth worms most likely. Also called angle worms up north.

Yeah, I kept looking at the worms in that pile but I could not turn them into red worms no matter how long I looked at them. From what I understand, normal earth worms would not be good for a worm bin. But they sure were a nice treat for my chickens.

 

[Smokerbill]

I was thinking of something along those lines. If you look at my new pallet wood raised bed design, the 2X4 framing is on the outside and the pallet planks are on this inside and have direct contact with the soil. One of my thoughts, if the inner planks start to rot away and fail, was to simply add on new pallet planks on the outside of the 2X4 framing if the inner boards rotted out. The 2X4's should still be strong because they have no direct contact with the soil, and the rotting planks on the inside will still hold back most of the soil.

Essentially, it would be like you say by building a new structure around the old one. In my case, however, it would be really easy to take a bunch of pallet planks and shoot them on to the 2X4 frames on the outside with my nail gun. Or, I have saved lots of used nails I pulled out of the wood in disassembling the pallets and I could hammer them in place. I'm also a big fan of using cheap drywall nails to put things together and then reusing those same screws again on a different project years later if that wood rots out.



Yeah, realistically, at my age, I only hope I am still able to enjoy gardening 5 years from now. If I only get 5 years from my pallet wood raised garden beds that costs me less than $1.00 in total costs to build, I'm more than OK with that.

Another idea just came to mind while writing this response. Since I am just using pallet wood, it would be really easy to add another layer of planks on the inside of the raised beds making it 2 layers thick (or more) on the inside. That should add a number of years to the build before it all rots out. Of course, I would have to add that second layer to the raised bed once it was in place because even the empty raised bed would be pretty darn heavy at that point. I suspect an additional layer of pallet wood on the inside of the raised bed walls would last longer than a feed bag barrier/liner.

The raised beds I have were already here when I bought the place a year ago. They're made of old sections of steel mobile home frames, welded together at the corners. They won't rot, but they'll eventually rust away, long after I'm gone.

I remember sitting with my grandpa in the cellar, each of us with a hammer, straightening old, rusty nails he saved up in an old coffee can. He knew how to pinch a penny, and taught me some good lessons!

 

[gtaus]

The raised beds I have were already here when I bought the place a year ago. They're made of old sections of steel mobile home frames, welded together at the corners. They won't rot, but they'll eventually rust away, long after I'm gone.

I'm pretty good with wood, but I don't have much experience with using metal and welding. A couple of years ago I purchased an inexpensive Flux Core Welder on sale from Harbor Freight, and have used it a few times, but I'm far short of even considering myself a novice.

I remember sitting with my grandpa in the cellar, each of us with a hammer, straightening old, rusty nails he saved up in an old coffee can. He knew how to pinch a penny, and taught me some good lessons!

My grandpa grew up during the Great Depression and he never threw out anything of any potential value. I don't remember going into town to buy new nails unless our bucket of old rusty nails was empty. It was just "normal" for me to straighten a nail and reuse it. We built lots of stuff with hammers, nails, and hand saws - and - no electricity at our lake cabin.

I can hardly imagine what grandpa and I could have built if we had all the power tools I have available today in my garage alone. Well, I guess it was just more quality time together working on those projects with our hand tools. Good lessons, better memories.

 

[gtaus]

The raised beds I have were already here when I bought the place a year ago. They're made of old sections of steel mobile home frames, welded together at the corners. They won't rot, but they'll eventually rust away, long after I'm gone.

I'm pretty good with wood, but I don't have much experience with using metal and welding. A couple of years ago I purchased an inexpensive Flux Core Welder on sale from Harbor Freight, and have used it a few times, but I'm far short of even considering myself a novice.

I remember sitting with my grandpa in the cellar, each of us with a hammer, straightening old, rusty nails he saved up in an old coffee can. He knew how to pinch a penny, and taught me some good lessons!

My grandpa grew up during the Great Depression and he never threw out anything of any potential value. I don't remember going into town to buy new nails unless our bucket of old rusty nails was empty. It was just "normal" for me to straighten a nail and reuse it. We built lots of stuff with hammers, nails, and hand saws - and - no electricity at our lake cabin.

I can hardly imagine what grandpa and I could have built if we had all the power tools I have available today in my garage alone. Well, I guess it was just more quality time together working on those projects with our hand tools. Good lessons, better memories.

 

[jerryse]

I will share some squash info. You can plant 1 each of 4 species and get pure open pollinated seed if you have no close neighbors to contaminate your crops with pollen. I am planting Dickinson pumpkin ( C. Moschata ), Cushaw ( C, mixta I think ), pink banana ( C. Maxima ) and summer squash ( C. pepo ). With no other gardens close I can save pure seed. Now I once tried hand pollinating 2 different species and got squash but the seeds were blank or empty.