Raised Beds in My Garden – Building With Oak and Barn Wood
Building raised beds in my garden using up wood from my barn stash. I made the HUGE mistake of using hay in my garden the year before last to help keep the weeds down. I really really really researched it too and everywhere online said that hay would work just as well as straw. Well now we all know that to be very very very wrong and you can easily find that to be true online now too! I should’ve known better! Hay is a perennial and I was growing it four feet tall in my garden last year. So, this is how my garden looked when I started lol
My new raised beds ended up about 30 inches tall and about 29 inches wide which is PLENTY. I actually had initially planned on not making them that wide but this is how it worked out and I’m happy!These are really my all time favorite wood projects. Nothing needs to be perfect, I’m using up material I have on hand that may have went to waste otherwise and its a simple cut and assemble!Oh, and I got to get really dirty!
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Sandy White on Jun 18, 2020
We used newspaper in our front garden area to keep weeds out because we read it was a good barrier. So all that work later nope it didn’t stop anything! Just so you know.
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GrandmasHouseDIY on Jun 18, 2020
Hi Sandy, yeah I never did find newspaper to ever help much. Fortunately here it didn't really matter because of the depth of new soil I brought in. Thanks!
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GrandmasHouseDIY on Jun 19, 2020
Thanks for the tip Meg!
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Frequently asked questions
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You said you built them on an old concrete pad. What did you do about drainage when you originally planted the garden there, and now that you have raised beds. I have a concrete slab that I would love to build raised beds on--but I'm concerned it wont drain water enough for plants to do ok if i just put dirt on top of the concrete. Im in Florida so lots of rain some times of year, but nematodes in the soil prevent some things from doing well (think tomatoes!) so not connecting to the ground might be an advantage.
I don’t think using the old dirt that hay grew in is a good idea. Eventually the hay will grow again despite the newspapers and weed barrier and then the new soil will be ruined. Just a thought.
What is the cost of your project?