At Permacultuerd Life, I’m all about using the materials on hand and making do with what we have. It’s less destructive to the environment and saves money too. I’m hoping these lists of edging and raised bed ideas will help you do the same. What Happened to Saving Money by Gardening? The good news is, that you can make a great garden without spending a lot of money on raised beds or edging materials. I’ve collected lots of conventional and not-so-conventional ideas that will work for no-dig gardens and traditional gardening methods alike. Unfortunately, gardening can become more of an expense than a way to save, especially if you want to start out with new raised beds or edging to keep the beds contained and looking neat. To avoid chemically-treated wood, use only heat-treated pallets, which will be marked with the letters “HT.” Heat-treated pallets are safe to use in the garden. Okay, without further delay, here are my conventional and not-so-conventional ideas for garden edging and raised bed materials. Raised Bed Ideas

That’s it, our raised bed is built. You have one decision left though and that is: do you choose to line your beds? A Raised Bed Alternatively, you can sow directly into your salad container by scattering the seeds very thinly over the surface. Cover them over with a little more potting mix and then give them a gentle watering. With wooden pallet collars, any pallet edges that you are not using can easily be folded so that you save space and therefore costs during return transport or when they are put into storage. Wooden pallet collars provide good product protection and are ideal for stabilizing products on your pallets during transport and storage. This is where you would hammer your stake in, if you were using stakes rather than pallet wood, to make the corners of your raised bed. Corner Piece Step 3 – Screw Your Width Board To Your Corner Piece The newer pressure-treated boards are much safer now after a change in EU law which still applies after Brexit.They’re inexpensive for one thing, in comparison to tailor-made wooden planters (although garden centres and homeware stores are cottoning on to this trend now, selling pallet collars at elevated prices and calling them ‘rustic wooden raised beds’ and such). Also a wood material, pallets are another option for raised beds. The’re often available for free from businesses that receive a lot of shipments.

With the price of wood at the moment raised beds can suddenly be very expensive to build. So what can you do? Well, one way is to use pallet wood to build your raised beds. Pallet wood can be acquired for free or bought already cut down at a low price. How to make raised beds with pallet wood Make Sure Your Wood Is Safe A few ceramic edging ideas include ceramic pipes, old plates, terracotta pots, and broken pottery. Maybe this is a good use for that collection of pieces from your beginning pottery classes. Metal Edging Ideas 18. Cor Ten Steel Edging Continue and repeat the process to join all your length pieces together and then add the other side when you have reached the length you want. Step 8 – Height

Planting potatoes

These pallets are quite rare now as they have been banned in most countries for around 15 years but can still be found on some international pallets. SF – Sulphuryl Fluoride.This is a fumigation method safer than methyl bromide but should still be avoided for garden projects. Since you’re still reading, I’m guessing you do want something to contain your garden beds. If you haven’t decided between edging and raised beds yet, then here are some thoughts to help you decide. Reasons you might want to use a raised bed:

Gardening can be a great way to save money, by growing your own food, particularly high-cost items like herbs. It's actually really difficult to assess how many potatoes you get from each plant. This can vary too, depending on what type of potato you choose. Some of them grow very large, but maybe only a few tubers per plant. Other potatoes are small, but you get so many of them. You can count on getting 1-2 lbs (around 0.5-1 kg) per seed potato. When I grow potatoes in a raised bed, I get 10-20 lbs (around 5-10 kg.) My goal is to keep myself from harvesting way too soon, and instead just let the tubers grow large. Put two of your cut down prices are right angles from one another to make a corner and hammer into the ground. You might also want to join the whole structure together with some screws here. If we don’t do this the sides are not connected to the front, this isn’t a massive problem but I like to join it all together for some extra strength. Screw Into The Side Step 6 – Use The Cut Down Pieces To Join Boards

A raised bed is actually the perfect choice for early potato varieties. You can usually start harvesting them already in early summer, if you plant them in April. That's the time frame we have here in zone 3 at least. Just make sure that the temperature is above freezing, because the potatoes can rot if you plant them in very cold soil. Here are a few reasons why you might choose not to use raised beds or edging in your garden. Reasons you might not want to use edging or raised beds: