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Re: building raised beds & filling them

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>Hi All,
>I'm about to put together my raised beds. Had to hand pick out each board.
>It's getting hard to find good boards. My questions is this; I'm thinking of
>using galvanised angle irons to hold the 2'x12' boards together at the
>corners
>instead of wood. I thought they might be able to help keep the boards from
>splitting as they will be screwed in from the top to the bottom of the
>boards and they wouldn't rot. Any other suggestions? I'm thinking that I'll
>need to sink in a 4x4 post at about the middle of the 12' span to keep the
>boards from bowing. I really don't want to put them on the outside because
>of the look but I think that that really might be the better way to do it as
>far as strength. Again any suggestions as to other materials I could use for
>this?
>Thanks,
>Melody

It happens that we just built 8 boxes in the past couple of weekends, so I
have a few tips on things NOT to do:)  The first 4 we built were made of
cedar to go in a front yard area.  The last 4 were pine for a side yard and
we wanted to keep the cost down.  I would definately in hindsight use the
more expensive cedar for all the boxes.  It was amazing how warped the pine
boards were, even though we handpicked them and tried to get only straight
ones.  For the cedar boxes we assembled with wooden stakes in the corner
(about 4" going below the frame to anchor into the ground.  Used the same
method with the pine boxes, but for some reason it worked beatifully the
first time, and lousy with the pine.  Maybe we got unlucky.

I would guess that a post sunk on the inside would work just fine as long
as you anchor it tightly with screws to pull the board in.  I was amazed at
how much I coulf "fix" with a handy Makita power screwdriver.  Many of the
slight warpages shaped right up under the power tool.

We're filling ours no-till/lasagna style with a layer of newspaper on the
bottom, and then whatever mulching layers are available for free from
municipal composting and a local barn (bunny and goat manure!) with a
topping of nicely shredded leaves that some misguided person tossed onto
the municipal pile.  Imagine shredding your leaves, and then just tossing
them away?

Regards, Laurie
Wappingers Falls, NY


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