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Gary350
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Junk Refrigerators for Raised Beds

I am not a fan of raised bed but this is a great idea. A friend has old junk refrigerators lined up in rows in their garden. Bell peppers on some, tomatoes in some, lettuce, carrots, beats, beans, broccoli, it is amazing. Weeds can not come up through the bottom. They are tall and easy on the back to weed and harvest.

Lots of free junk refrigerators on Craigs List. Lots of people have no way to haul them off so you can get them free. Remove all the doors take the doors to the scrap metal yard.

Time to celebrate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raDH-CiSXUY

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rainbowgardener
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How do you get drainage? Seems quite deep for a raised bed and therefore would take a lot of soil to fill it up.

Refrigerators have lots of insulation and have coolant in the coils. Do you remove the coils first? I'd be concerned about chemicals leaching.

If you remove the door, you are left with a three sided solid box. If you put that on the ground, the raised bed has a bottom, so your soil in the "raised bed" is not in contact with the native soil. Thus no earthworms and other life of the soil can come into it and the soil in the box is all your plants have access to. You can grow things like that, I have raised beds sitting on top of my concrete patio, but if I had a choice it wouldn't be my preference. And mine are made from wooden fence posts which are breathable and have spaces between them (not mortared or anything) for air and water circulation. I don't think solid is best.

All and all finding the fridges and hauling them home seems like more work to me than just building a box open to the ground out of bricks, fence posts, or whatever materials you have available. Lots of things that would work are available for free on freecycle or elsewhere.

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Gary350
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Refrigerator companies have not built refrigerators with exposed coils in years. If you find one with exposed coils leave them along. What does it hurt to have coils touching the soil. Remove the coils if you want sell them to the scrap yard. Stand the frig upright start cutting at the top oil will stay in the compressor.

OK so maybe I should have called this GIANT flower pots. LOL. Not raised beds. Nice thing no weeds or grass will grow up into the bottom.

I did not think it was necessary to tell people, drill holes in the bottom for drainage.

valley
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Greetings, Down in Nevada I have a refrierator that I grew potatos in with sweet potatos in the freezer compartment.

Richard



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