Wooden "brick" raised beds?

[theartfulbodger]

I had a crazy plan to make a raised bed in the garden out of wooden "bricks"..

I know there's a fair few other crazy geniuses out there so I first turned to google and found that my idea had been copied and then the copier had traveled back in time and pretended to invent it. Honest.

hmm. I will have to keep trying. I hear cheese works? :idea:

Anyway! here's the link

http://www.woodblocx.co.uk/ Brilliant idea, and so simple and easy. They deserve success.

Any top tips for me? I seek to create something similar, but a lot cheaper..

woodblocx bricks are 3" by 4" by up to 30" long.. I might make my version out of 2x4 as it's pretty cheap. I've yet to compare the cost of pressure treated planks to the cost of cuprinol (or similar)

Anyone else done anything similar?

 

[marcros]

a jig will be your friend i think. or a compressor, palm nailer and big nails

i would question how long softwood, pressure treated or cuprinolled would last in direct contact with soil. fence posts, in my experience have rotted off after a few years. Oak would be better but expensive. Old jarrah railway sleepers would be ideal if somebody would cut them for you- not a job i would fancy doing, and I couldnt find anybody that would do anything other than cross cut them near here.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you've any jarrah sleepers, I can think of better things to do with them than put them in the garden. Make sure whatever preservative you use doesn't kill plants - some do.

 

[orchard]

I used untreated oak sleepers from uk sleepers iirc; they were around 30 quid each, but delivery was around 100quid flat

 

[theartfulbodger]

Thanks both!

I wonder what the woodblocx people use to treat the wood, economies dictate pine but they guarantee for 20 years... I've heard of the bottoms of fence posts being soaked in used engine oil...but I won't be going down that route.

I'll give it some more thought and then (hopefully!) post up some pics. It seems a good way of making non rectangular beds.

 

[theartfulbodger]

Thanks Orchard, I'll have a google for prices.

 

[carlb40]

You can get oak sleepers ( new ) from a tenner on ebay

 

[marcros]

If you've any jarrah sleepers, I can think of better things to do with them than put them in the garden. Make sure whatever preservative you use doesn't kill plants - some do.

i had plenty a few months ago, all at a fiver a piece IIRC! he even dropped them off for me. I need to try and catch the bloke again to see if he can get me some more. Most were very sound, a couple were not quite as good.

 

[DMF]

Hi,

done plenty of landscaping in my time and my preference would always be new hardwood untreated sleepers, the product above is not for me thanks.

but seems as like me your keen on cutting costs and crazy plans combined here's mine :lol:

Is it one raised bed your building? Then use pallets and clad them! No end to how you could do it but i'd make sandwiches trench them in and fill with gravel for weight / strength and act drain for most of it to protect it all from being soaked all the time. If your ok with cladding then any skip raids will find timber to suit, you won't see the back of it anyway.

Dean