Wanting to make raised beds/planters

hi all,
I have a large garden, but as we rent our house we cant dig any of it out to make a veggie growing area (landlords request) so decided to use some old timber we have knocking about to make some planting beds for veg for next year. We have an idea of how to construct a basic box shape (about 2ftx4ft, & 2ft deep - based on some pics of planters someone else had made for their allotment on here). What we aren't sure about is how to construct a floor to the boxes, or if its possible to just line the boxes with heavy duty plastic with holes poked in the bottom for drainage. Has anyone else done this and how did you construct a floor? (we'd rather not have to go buying more wood if at all possible!)
thank you for any replies
sue

 

You don't usually line the bottom of a raised bed. Take out the grass ( if on grass) and roughly dig up the ground then lay raised bed on top and fill with soil, compost etc. If it is on grass and the landlord has said not to dig out then if you do put a floor in you will kill the grass anyway.

Rusty

 

Hi Rusty, the flooring for the boxes is what im not sure about ... sorry I should have said the boxes will be sat on concrete, not the grass

 

If they are sat on Concrete you can have "no floor" for the raised beds. Might mark the concrete though ... although will probably pressure-wash off - and if the concrete is current Naff then maybe no different, although it will be clear where the raised beds used to be.

If you put something porous (woven weed suppressing membrane, for example) the [muddy] water will drain through - good for plants, but will still stain the concrete - if you put solid plastic, like pond liner, the water will be retained - no mark on the concrete, but the plants won't like it.

Drainage slightly above the base, which you "pipe" would be an option ... its all becoming rather a lot of work.

Ask Landlord if you can put some raised beds on the concrete and point out that the colour of the concrete will obviously be different when you remove them (algae on the exposed concrete, not under where the raised beds were, that type of thing) - might be a bit economical with the truth, but if he agrees then you can fall back on that [confirm in writing of course] when you leave

 

Ah thanks for that Kristen, I'll use weed suppressing membrane - I had considered that but wasn't sure if it was robust enough. The area of concrete they will be sat on currently has gravel on it so I will be just 'readjusting' where the gravel is spread to accommodate the boxes! the area is also near a drain too and usually when I water my current small containers it goes straight into the drain. we have a pressure washer and its fairly decent concrete so should jet wash off ... when we leave i'll jet wash it and just recover the concrete with the gravel

thank you!