Raised bed garden using cinder blocks?

[The Heretic]

Has anybody done this?

Pluses and minuses?

I have an area with a packed gravel bed that is next to my driveway and is probably the best place on my property with regards to sunlight (I have a lot of trees) and that is convenient for me to get to (I have ten acres on the other side of a gully, but no access to water and I have to cross the gully or drive around to it).

I want to clear off this area and put in raised beds. Wood rots quickly here - even railroad ties soaked with creosote rot. Metal beds are expensive and tires are ugly (I am wanting to sell the property) and cumbersome. Cinder blocks seem like a nice look, and easier to maintain and can be disassembled and reused. Also, it seems it would be easier to put netting around these (I have deer, raccoons, skunks, porcupine, squirrels and birds that will and do eat anything they can find).

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[DB is Here]

My neighbor did it this way, it's a lot more expensive than wood, but it'll outlast wood by a longshot. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Provincial]

Stacked blocks are stabilized by the soil they contain, but only to resist shifting inward. They will be unstable in the outward direction. Consider stabilizing the corners with angle iron and driving rebar rods through the holes at regular intervals to resist the outward motion. It is important to overlap the blocks to provide a sort of interlocking effect.

 

[mkwerx]

Funny you bring this up - I'm planning to do the same thing at the new house when we move. Where we'll be going, venomous snakes will be a bit more of a concern than they are here so raised beds may make them easier to see, plus raised beds are easier to work than ground level stuff. One trick I read when researching this - if gophers/moles/other burrowing rodents are a concern, line the bottom with screen door material. Still allows drainage but keeps the critters out.

 

[Hop Sing]

Even if the bottom is gravel I'd put chicken wire down to keep gophers/moles from burrowing up into the bed.

 

[Provincial]

Stainless steel, if it is buried.

 

[The Heretic]

Funny you bring this up - I'm planning to do the same thing at the new house when we move. Where we'll be going, venomous snakes will be a bit more of a concern than they are here so raised beds may make them easier to see, plus raised beds are easier to work than ground level stuff. One trick I read when researching this - if gophers/moles/other burrowing rodents are a concern, line the bottom with screen door material. Still allows drainage but keeps the critters out.

I do have gophers/moles and mice. They have yet to dig up thru the 1'+ bed of gravel in this area though. The area is where a mobile home was situated before it was removed, so the gravel is tightly packed. Just the same, putting down some screen would probably be a good idea. I've had them dig up thru my slate patio, between each slab of slate (underneath the slate is sand).

 

[Devneck]

Stacked blocks are stabilized by the soil they contain, but only to resist shifting inward. They will be unstable in the outward direction. Consider stabilizing the corners with angle iron and driving rebar rods through the holes at regular intervals to resist the outward motion. It is important to overlap the blocks to provide a sort of interlocking effect.

Had cinder block raised garden at my house in Spokane. Worked fantastic. The blocks can be filled with gravel or dirt and will not shift. No worries about that.

Assuming of course you aren't trying to build it 5 feet into the air

 

[The Heretic]

I will build it maybe three blocks high, which would be about 2 feet.

I am thinking steel fence posts at each corner to support netting and hold it together.

I will do one bed this year maybe, then see how well that works before doing another.

 

[po18guy]

You could put vinyl-coated fencing around it, green is most popular but looks cheesy/fake, while black is less noticeable and shows everyone that you have a tactical garden.

Also, buy a bunch of blank price tags and put them on weeds, stickers, nettles etc. since the deer seem to eat only those plants that have a price tag.

 

[The Heretic]

I have a tactical garden gnome the kids gave me. Will that keep the deer away?

 

[308]

What about chemicals leaching out of those blocks?

 

[Vaultman]

Mine are that way. When we bought our house we had a bunch of extras laying around. We did 1 high of cinder blocks, then filled with dirt, then put a keystone top on it. Since it was all laying around this was the free way to do it.

It does last very well. It is stable (at the height I am at, which is kinda low). You can remove just a section of it (to get weeds out, redesign, etc.) which is nice. The only thing I don't care for is compared to using wood the wall is really wide. There is a lot of space taken up by an 8" wall (on both sides) vs a 2" wall of a 2x12. The 2" seems like no wasted space, but at times the 8" seems like a lot.

 

[P7M13]

I did it when I lived on Tillamook near MLK. Probably lucky since it was after I moved out that they discovered all the lead in the soil in the area. I doubt it was the Stained Glass studio.
Works well. You can also turn the cinder blocks into works of art is you do mosaics on the exterior, if you're so inclined.

 

[The Heretic]

What about chemicals leaching out of those blocks?

What chemicals?

There are chemicals in most wood, especially treated wood.

The metal bin type raised beds are usually galvanized - zinc chloride is the result.

 

[OldBroad44]

Actually, except in special circumstances, by far the best and easiest-to-handle raised bed has no sides at all. Cresote, by the way, is toxic and should not be used for a food garden. Cedar leaches out stuff that actually kills most plants.

The best sides for raised beds, except under special circumstances, are no sides at all. Just form the bed with gently sloping soil sides.

Sides of either wood or concrete blocks or rocks or anything else create multiple problems. The first is that the soil expands and contracts with soil moisture, and you will get cracks in the soil next to the blocks/wood edges, which causes the entire bed to dry out. The second is that the sides interfere with being able to use hoes. So you end up reduced to having to hand weed all the inside edges around the wood or concrete blocks by hand. These days, we have very lovely specialized hoes of many sorts that make weeding standing up with a straight back very easy. You eliminate your ability to use such tools on much of the bed the minute you put fixed sides on it. A third problem is that slugs and snails love to hide in the cracks that get created at the edge of a raised bed formed with edges of wood or blocks. Another is that when it's time to dig or hoe up the garden at the end of the season, the edges get in the way.

Then the concrete/wood edges also make it harder to tend the paths in between the beds. Without those solid bed supports, you can allow the paths to be grass, and just use a mower. Even if the paths are wide enough for a mower without the bed edges, you can't mow along the edges. So they have to be weeded or clipped by hand or separately using a weed whacker. So those with raised beds with edges also often have to mulch/tend the paths too rather than just running a mower over them occasionally to cut weeds/grass.

One situation where artificial sides are most obviously beneficial is where the gardener has a disability and needs a very raised garden so (s)he can garden from a wheelchair. (Sometimes what works best in this situation is a deep wooden box filled with soil supported on concrete blocks to bring it to the right height. Another is when the ground is on a hill that is so steep that it is necessary to have a wall or support of some sort on the downhill side to keep the soil from all washing downhill. Another is where there essentially isn't any soil, such as when gardening on land that is just a dusting of soil over bedrock. In this case, you import the soil and build very deep beds. Eighteen inches or more, for example. If your space is also limited you might find very deep raised beds with sides is the most practical style for that situation.

I earn part of my living as a plant breeder, by the way, and the rest by writing gardening books.

 

[po18guy]

I have a tactical garden gnome the kids gave me. Will that keep the deer away?

This one should help keep those pesky sales persons and fringe religions away...

 

[thorborg]

Our beds and pots are plagued by squirrels some times and drives my wife crazy. I use to trap them and take them over a mile away but after hundreds over the years, I gave up and told her she could do it herself if she wants the critters gone.
Now she wants me to build o of these: (only with a automatic trigger.

 

[powersbj]

Iv hear onions or nasturtiums in the block holes help as a pest barrier without the companion planting problems.

 

[Joe13]

Our beds and pots are plagued by squirrels some times and drives my wife crazy. I use to trap them and take them over a mile away but after hundreds over the years, I gave up and told her she could do it herself if she wants the critters gone.
Now she wants me to build o of these: (only with a automatic trigger.

Plenty of recipes for squirrel... stew, fried, slow cooked etc.

Get her used to it and you'll be filling the freezer and canning your veggies