Taking down my raised beds…

I’m new here but another thread here today about constructing new raised beds stuck a chord. We made raised beds to precisely the dimensions mentioned, 2 years ago - first thing I did when we moved in to a new house. We used a mix of bags of manure and compost and they’ve been pretty good: we’ve grown a range of salad and veggies in rotation in one: a bit old load of herbs in another and tomatoes then strawberries in the last.

We’re about to deconstruct the beds in a big old reorg. I’ll use the old filling to mulch a load of new flower beds in a new experiment of no dig (cardboard; old raised bed mix; thick layer of seaweed). And it sounds as though I should be selling the old wood if prices are that high! Am thinking of using some preserver on them and then using them for a new path…. Any thoughts on any of that?

And then last question: I took cuttings from a friends Echium shrub - blue perennial. It’s grown in well in a pot (I had about 5 and have given away the others). Any thoughts on where I should now plant it permanently? Ie light/shade nutrients etc?

 

I've had some success with using timber on edge - to edge my paths and then filling with 10mm limestone chippings. The timber contains the stone and stops it falling into adjacent beds. If you put down a thick enough layer of stones there is no need for weed membrane.

I used pressure treated timber for the edging - which I also painted with waterproof bitumen paint - it's as solid as the day it was installed.

If you are thinking of using bitumen paint - I would avoid the water based ones - the spirit based ones are more robust.

 

It’s thick sleeper type wood

I was wondering about how slippery it might be but then also though there are solutions to that like the loop nails for eg which get used on boardwalks sometimes…. I’m loathe to spend on something new when I’ll have a stack of timber and no other obvious use for it at this time…

 

Funny you should mention: I was wondering about using some left over granite chippings to bed them in and surround them…but good point about needing to contain. Hmmm

 

From my experience - 10mm is the size of chipping to go for. Doesn't stick in shoes and is small enough to block light and stop weeds but still allow plenty of drainage.

 

One solution is, anti-slip strips that you screw into the timber.

Anti Slip Decking Strip 1000mm x 50mm Various Colours (Fixings Included) (edecks.co.uk)

 

Yes - exactly! I was thinking that's the right size. I've got some left over from putting a patio in some years back - used them as hard core. Hired a little bob cat for a day to dig out the foundations, and every man and his dog and child came round to have a go. Wit the result that we ended up with a much bigger hole than we needed and a lot of top soil where we didn't Nervous about how the subsequent compacting might work out if i just put it back in with York stone on top, I got the local builders yard to drop me a tonne of chippings over. We've got some left.

Irritatingly though they now only sell them in plastic 25kg bags at stupid money so I'll have to make do with what I've got...

 

Yeah - that looks effective but I lose the view of the wood which I'd prefer to keep: I'd make everything from wood if I could...love the textures and natural feel it brings, specially in a garden. (Hence the new green house which a mate, tongue in cheek, called L'Orangerie the other day... I don't think so. They do get called Vine Houses here a bit if they are a bit posher then the standard but that's also a bit too pretentious really).