Garden boxes

Tue Feb 15, 2011 2:42 am

Can any one give me a few hints on building garden boxes?
Can i use any material (ie plywood) or will the chemicals from the plywood soak into the soil and thus the vegies? :?:

Tue Feb 15, 2011 4:01 am

yooper,

How large of boxes are we talking? Small ones could be made from free pallets. We use Douglas fir for large client boxes.

I'm thinking OSB and plywood would not last long. Some use pressure treated (new formula) I will not.

Eric

Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:35 am

Agree with Eric, plywood boxes won't last very long. The last place I lived, I built raised beds out of 2"x12" boards (not plywood), braced the corners and the sides. They still were rotting and falling apart in just a few years.

Here's what I have now:

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... eds#105961

They are stacked 4"x4" pine fence posts, held together with steel rebar (drill a hole all the way down the stack once it's assembled and pound the rebar in). They are about 9 yrs old now and doing great. The fence posts are less expensive than boards.

Otherwise you can use concrete blocks or anything else you have available.

Tue Feb 15, 2011 1:39 pm

DoubleDogFarm wrote:Small ones could be made from free pallets. Some use pressure treated (new formula) I will not. Eric

Do you have some examples of making them out of "free pallets". Do they use hardwood for that?

Tue Feb 15, 2011 2:07 pm

They use all kinds of wood for pallets. I can tell you from experience though that flooring places have LOTS of extra pallets. And would be happy to give you some to get them out of the way.

Tue Feb 15, 2011 4:53 pm

Well those lovely raised beds put mine to shame!

My hubby built my boxes out of free wood

The construction guys will cut 2" off a 2x4 for the 2" and chuck the rest out; because it costs more money to move the wood to a new site then to just buy more (at the customer's expense) they usually burn it. They were more then happy to give us a couple truck-loads.

That's also how I got my potato box (it had pipe-fittings)

My compost bin is made from pallets.

Where I got my information on pressure-treated lumber in garden beds:
http://borntofarm.com/gyg-016-is-pressure-treated-wood-ok-for-raised-beds-slugs-and-some-cautions-about-the-web/
Where he got his:
http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/pressure-treated-wood-in-beds.aspx

In that past you really couldn't, but now they use different chemicals in the pressure treating.

Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:24 pm

I appericiate all the help thank you, I am knew to gardening so I have to learn it all. Can anyone tell me what the best compost type or poting soil i should use?

Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:34 pm

lakngulf,

Here is a youtube video on one and looks like there are many more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4S0O5JU ... re=related.

Check out your lumber yards. They usually have a pile of free pallets. Also look to see if they have metal roofing crates. These are usually 2 to 3 feet wide and 12 feet long. Also free at our lumber yard.

Eric

Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:13 pm

If you've got a saw-mill nearby I heard you can get the log-side of cuts for dirt cheap/free.

Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:18 pm

My son is making a planter so he can do his gardening merit badge for boy scouts. He will be stapling old fence posts cut to about 18" long each to long 2X4's he will make 2 at 8 foot and 2 at 4 foot and then put them together to make a bed that's 4'X8'. I am hoping that he will think to put the fence posts to the inside and the 2x4's to the outside so that the soil will push against the boards towards the 2x4's and not end up pushing the fence posts out if he does it with the fence posts facing out. I know that this may not last more than a couple of years but he only needs it to last the one season. He also needs his garden to be separate from mine. Of course he also needs to make a compost bin and maintain it for 3 months.

Thu Feb 17, 2011 6:53 pm

Anna,

That sounds good to me. Two layers of 2x4 is only 7" tall, so I'm assuming the other 11" will be in the ground.

Eric

Thu Feb 17, 2011 7:20 pm

no it will be sitting on the ground, we can't dig into the ground it's too hard where he wants his box. His planter will be 18" tall.

Thu Feb 17, 2011 7:47 pm

Sorry, I misunderstood. (2) 4ft sides and (2) 8ft sides, 18" tall.

I like it.

Eric

Thu Feb 17, 2011 9:03 pm

DoubleDogFarm wrote:lakngulf, Here is a youtube video on one and looks like there are many more.
Check out your lumber yards. They usually have a pile of free pallets. Also look to see if they have metal roofing crates. These are usually 2 to 3 feet wide and 12 feet long. Also free at our lumber yard. Eric

Thanks for the video. I have a good source for pallets, just wanted to understand ways to use them. I like it and will give it a try.

Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:36 pm

DoubleDogFarm wrote:yooper,

How large of boxes are we talking? Small ones could be made from free pallets. We use Douglas fir for large client boxes.

I'm thinking OSB and plywood would not last long. Some use pressure treated (new formula) I will not.

Eric

What did you coat the Douglas fir in to deter animals, rotting, etc? I've heard soy oil or linseed oil, but I don't think that deters insects. I don't care that it only lasts a few years, I'm more concerned about bugs.

Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:57 pm

No coating. Raw, straight from the lumber yard.

This client is in her 80's and she felt that 5 years would be long enough for these raised boxes.

Eventually they may get carpenter ants or termites, I don't see a problem with this.

Eric

Garden boxes

Garden boxes

Thank you for the help