A Permanent Flower 'bed' for My Backyard

Jim Cox
by Jim Cox
4 Materials
$12
45 Minutes
Easy

A quick concrete technique that's easy to do for lightweight stuff

Here's a brass-look bed headboard/bed frame I got on Facebook for $5. I brought it home and removed all the extraneous bolts, caps, etc. The wrought Iron style I was hoping to find were going for $200 icon locally, so I passed and went with this.

I found a spot along the fence where it would fit and measured the width of the posts. I threw a bit of black bbq grill paint on it to see what would happen. I wasn't happy with the results, but the look is still ok. The dark paint will help the flowers pop.

I dug two shallow holes for the legs 8" or so, and then cut away the sod in front of it. My goal is to have varying heights of flowers front-to-back (foot to head?) and so I started in the 'back'.

I dropped the headboard frame into my holes. I had a leftover bag of $7 mortar from another project, so I poured dry mortar into the hole, only filling about 1" or so. I always wear gloves around this stuff.

Add water slowly until it's completely wet. Repeat with 1" of dry mortar and water, again and again until you reach the level you want. You could use concrete, mix, or concrete/sand blend, or whatever you have around.

I sturdied the headboard frame overnight with a scrap 2x4 so it would remain vertical/plumb until the mortar hardened.

Here's the left side hardened the next day. This isn't fence-strong by any means, but will hold my ornamental display for years to come, and should I ever sell the place it will be easy to remove.


I got some seeds off ebay cheap, and thought I'd try growing from scratch. I threw down some topsoil, a handful of seeds, more topsoil, and a bit of red mulch to keep the rain from disturbing the seeds.icon

Here's the flower bed along side my chainlink fence. Eight weeks later the Celosia are about 30" tall, and just starting to bloom. I placed a few bedding plants along the side. I hope you approve icon icon icon icon

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  • Ruth McAlpin Ruth McAlpin on Jun 07, 2019

    Do you worry about the legs rusting in the ground? I love the idea . I want to do the same if I can find a cheap but beautiful gate.

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  • Elaine Lewis Elaine Lewis on Apr 16, 2021

    This is a great idea but could be improved a little. I have done this before at my sisters house. She lived on the side of a busy highway on a hillside. WE placed the

    headboard between some tall shrubs, and cemented it in. We cleaned out the area all around the head board put 2X6 down both sides and foot of the bed, the timber was pressure treated so will last a long time and filled it with good dirt and fertilizer up to almost to the top of the boards. Then the planting started, she picked Dahlias, gladiolus. and other tall plants at the head then worked her way down with a lot of different colors and textures...........beautiful and all the neighbors and people traveling HWY 95 in Idaho loved her Flower Bed!!

    • Tricia Tricia on Aug 09, 2022

      I bet this looks amazing. If you don’t mind….I’m gonna take some of your suggestions to add to my front flower garden. Thanx

  • Tricia Tricia on Aug 09, 2022

    Not a question…..what a phenomenal idea. I‘ve started a perennial garden along side the new privacy fence my husband installed. I was planning on using trellises for my “tall girls” but bed frame is a more unique addition to what I’m hoping is gonna be a long time dream flower garden

    Thank you.

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