DIY high beds: step by step instructions

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Today, many gardeners are passionate about organic or biological farming. It is at its core that it is necessary to make high beds when growing plants. With your own hands, this can be done quite easily. This is what will be discussed in the article. Raised beds provide higher yields than flat beds and are easy to care for.

Benefits

High beds with their own hands are created so that the gardener can be rewarded for his work with the products received. Their main benefits include:

• convenient processing due to a significant elevation above the soil, which helps to reduce the physical effort of a person and prevents the occurrence of various lumbar and spinal diseases;
• high beds can be filled with any soil, and therefore, they do not depend on soil fertility,located in a specific area;
• they warm up much faster than other beds, which predetermines an earlier planting date for seedlings in them;
• a vegetable garden that has raised raised beds made by hand looks aesthetically pleasing, attractive and tidy;
• drainage is performed in them, and this contributes to the fact that water does not stagnate there, and the box with which it is limited does not allow it to spill onto the track.

Flaws

In addition to positive qualities, high beds also have a number of negative qualities that must be taken into account when placing them:

• arrangement is associated with some labor costs, as well as the use of physical strength;
• due to limited space, plants require more frequent feeding compared to normal placement;
• in high beds made by hand in the country, the soil dries out much faster, so watering should be carried out much more often. In this regard, such beds are not placed on elevated areas. This problem can be solved if the soil under them is mulched or deepened by 20-30 cm.

Fencing material

Any high bed should be fenced. The selection of material depends on the capabilities of a particular person and his desires.

The following materials can be used as it:

• plastic - it is characterized by durability, moisture resistance, decorative effect;
• slate - for most summer residentsis an affordable material, but has increased fragility;
• wood is the best option in terms of ease of solution, however, to prevent decay, it must be treated with antiseptics;
• brick is a durable material that requires certain laying skills to create an aesthetic appearance.

Tool and materials for creating a high bed with your own hands

For this you will need:

• pieces of bricks, stumps, boards, branches that serve as the basis for providing drainage;
• foliage, sawdust, peeling vegetables;
• wire mesh matching the size of the bed;
• fertilized soil;
• wooden bars of the required height and width;
• roulette;
• building level;
• shovel;
• self-tapping screws;
• screwdriver;
• hammer.

Creation order

Below will be considered how to make a high bed with your own hands:

Step 1. The area is cleared of turf. It is marked according to the size of the future beds using a tape measure.

Step 2. Bars or boards are mounted according to the markup, their adjustment is carried out using a hammer. They are fastened with self-tapping screws when using a screwdriver.

Step 3. A wire mesh is laid at the bottom, which will prevent various pests from penetrating the roots of plants.

Step 4. Materials for drainage are laid out on the grid. Then lined with organic waste.

Step 5. After that, the nutrient soil is poured out, itleveled.

This is the step by step instruction. High beds, made with your own hands, can be used for their intended purpose. Next, the process of creating them from different materials and for individual cultures will be considered.

Using different materials to create raised beds

As noted above, it is best to use wood for the construction of these structures. A do-it-yourself high garden bed (photo 1) made of wooden materials is very convenient and looks quite aesthetically pleasing.

Only new raw materials can be used. It is not necessary to use sleepers as building material, which contain harmful pollutants that can cause irreparable damage to the soil.

The tree is treated with antiseptics after the summer resident is convinced of its environmental safety. When creating high beds with your own hands from boards, it is better to use hardwood, as they do not contain various resins in their composition.

Wattle is the most environmentally friendly material. However, it easily passes the wind, which leads to excessive drying of the soil. The wattle has no thermal insulation, the soil easily wakes up through it. Therefore, when using such material, it is necessary to line the inner walls with cardboard.

You can make high beds in the country with your own hands, using alfalfa stalks, wheat or oat straw as a protective material. They will not last long, but their cost tends to zero.

For plasticcharacterized by good thermal insulation properties and a long service life. It can be used not in its pure form, but in plastic bottles.

High beds fenced with slate

To obtain maximum economic efficiency in the construction of such structures, you should try to use the material at hand that is available on the farm. You can make high beds from slate with your own hands. Garlic, strawberries, cucumbers can be cultivated there.

In this case, slate can be used both flat and wavy. Its advantages include the following:

• it does not rot or break down when interacting with soil organic matter;
• allows you to select the optimal width, which contributes to the strength of the created high beds;
• material has strong characteristics if not subjected to excessive force.

To form such a bed, you must first dig a trench into which slate sheets are placed, sprinkling them with soil or earth.

Other ways

High beds with your own hands can be made with or without a fence.

When making a round bed, an appropriately shaped frame is used, at the bottom of which material is placed for drainage. A tunnel is made in the center where organic waste is stored. They must be fresh. After that, they are spilled with water.

A bed without a fence is created as follows:

• roots, trunks, snags, branches are placed belowhardwood;
• then lay the sod layer with grass down;
• everything ends with a fertile top layer of special soil, which contains the necessary nutrients.

You can create high beds-greenhouses. To build them, follow these steps:

• determine the exact height of the future fence;
• creating a solid structure involves using thick trees that dig a certain depth into the soil;
• boards are knocked together, pre-treated with an antiseptic;
• a mount for metal arcs is mounted above the bed, they are installed in increments of at least 75 cm;
• a fabric is placed at the bottom of the bed, the edges of which should go on the sides, on which it is fixed with a stapler;
• metal arcs are inserted into the prepared frame;
• an additional arc is placed in the middle, with the help of which the upper points of the supports are fixed in order to give additional strength;
• soil is poured onto the fabric, the layer of which after leveling should be 10 cm;
• perforated cardboard, a layer of hay or grass, mineral fertilizers mixed with sand are placed on top of it;
• polyethylene is pulled over the top of the metal frame, which is then fixed.

After planting the seedlings, the soil is mulched with black film or sawdust.

Berry growing

High beds for strawberries with your own hands can be made from tires thatpre-cleaned, washed, dried and painted. Holes are cut on the sides. The design provides for the presence of a plastic pipe, the size of which must match that of the future beds. Holes are drilled in it around the entire circumference and height.

The first of the tires is mounted, a pipe is installed in the center, which is wrapped with synthetics and covered with soil. If the flower bed provides for the creation of several tiers, then the same steps are performed with other tires. After preparing the flower bed, water is poured into the pipe. Strawberry bushes are planted in those holes that are made in the tires.

A vertical bed for this berry can be made using shelving. The latter can be purchased, as well as made independently in the form of a pyramid. Square shapes of different sizes are knocked down from the boards. The smaller one is placed in the larger one, filled with earth and strawberries are planted. You can attach cut plastic bottles to the fence in rows, while the neck with the cork and the bottom should remain intact.

You can also plant strawberries in bags. They can be made from different materials, but natural fabric bags are most preferred as the most environmentally friendly ones. To create an additional fortress, they can be repeatedly stitched. They are filled with soil, cuts are made for planting berries, a loop is sewn in the upper part, with which the bags will be attached to the support.

In stores for summer residents, you can find on sale special cylindrical containers for creatinghigh beds for berries. They have holes with small protrusions. Soil, peat, sand are poured here, strawberries are planted in the holes. The ledges provide support for the bushes as they grow and develop. With the onset of cold weather, they can be covered with agrofibre.

Photos of do-it-yourself high beds are presented in this article so that the reader can imagine and evaluate how it will look on his summer cottage.

Recommendations

It is better not to use high beds for crops that are very fond of water. These include cabbage and tomatoes. It is also better not to grow perennial grasses there, as there is a danger of their freezing.

The surface of the bed should be mulched to prevent the soil from drying out.

It is possible to water bulk beds with irrigation. To do this, small ditches are made between various structures, in which spring water accumulates. Drip irrigation can also be used.

Conclusion

A do-it-yourself high bed is quite simple to create. As a material, both purchased and the one that is available on the plot can be used. It should be borne in mind that the soil in such artificial soil reservoirs dries up quite often, which requires regular irrigation or watering. And plants grown in this way require periodic top dressing.