adsfadsfd
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 2:12 pm

long (?) raised bed

I'm rather new to vegetable gardening. I have three 4 by 4 raised beds. I was thinking of doing a 4 by 12 raised bed. This will save wood and maybe simplify watering. I thought I should check with those with more experience. Are there any disadvantages to something as long as 4 by 12? Would the screws at the corners hold? Should I use rebars (I don't use rebars for my 4 by 4)? I'm not ready to use cedar yet. All my three raised beds are made with untreated fir boards. They are three years old and still OK. From their conditions, I think they should last about 5 years. Thanks for your advice.

PaulF
Greener Thumb
Posts: 910
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:34 pm
Location: Brownville, Ne

I love raised beds. Once had 4'X16' beds made from railroad ties. Kept hearing how that was toxic, but I never had any problem. Moved to another state and made some 4'X8' beds using 2'X12" treated lumber as the sides with 2"X2" posts at the corners held with screws. That did very well for about 8 years before my wife wanted something else in that spot. The lumber was still pretty good and got reused in another project.

User avatar
Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I made several 3' x 10' raised bed wooden frames 6" tall last year mostly to keep my plants out of the spring mud we have a lot of rain in TN. Center point of the wooden frames can bow out it is a good idea to hammer a wooden stake in the ground both sides of the boxes at the center of the frames. My boxes are made from pressure treated wood that is 20 years old. Pressure treating these days is done with copper sulfate it is much safer than the old type pressure treating. 1"x6" boards work good I only use 3 screws 2" long on each corner to hold wood boxes together. If frames are too tall soil gets very dry you will need lots of water every day especially in hot weather. I made all my frames 3 ft wide that makes it much easy to reach center. I spaced my frames wider than the tiller so I can kill weeds & grass between the wooden frames. Here is a pic of 3 frames 10' long each end to end 30' long total. These are easy for me to move by myself.

Here is a pic of two 3' wide beds side by side = 6 ft wide these are hard to reach center. Your idea of 4 ft wide is probably better than my 3 ft and 6 ft wide beds. There is nothing wrong with 12 ft long beds as long as you can move them.
Attachments
100_9891.JPG
24796722_311353519363931_4844739902112025563_n.jpg



Return to “Raised Bed Gardening”