To contain the soil and keep it from spilling into the pathway without the effort and expense of building raised beds. I have designed this build to be as simple as possible and that goes for the tools needed, we will be using the most basic tools we can here. Put two of your cut down prices are right angles from one another to make a corner and hammer into the ground. 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. I love the idea of using a waste product that the world is seemingly drowning in (plastic) to create building materials instead of traditional materials that aren’t necessarily sustainable. The problem is the solution!

Natural Sealing Oil: Linseed or tung oil will protect the wood from moisture, extending the life of the pallet collars. Now that we have made our first side (or width) we can start creating the front (or length) side of our raised bed. Here’s a pretty way to edge a garden. Partially bury old glass bottles or jars upside down at the garden edge. For visual interest, use an assortment of colors. This could be a beautiful and colorful edging for a small garden or flower bed. And, it makes use of used glass bottles that might otherwise get thrown away, particularly in areas where glass recycling is difficult Conclusion Use metal intended for outdoor use, such as galvanized steel or aluminum. You can use reclaimed corrugated or standing seam metal roofing or siding material. Wood Edging IdeasThey’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). Maybe some of the ideas in this post will help you find the best garden edging or raised bed solution for you and your garden. For instance strawberries grow really well in containers, and are less likely to get eaten by slugs than if they were planted in the ground. Most herbs can be grown in pots, and many vegetables too. Almost anything that holds potting mix can be used as a plant pot, but make sure it has good drainage holes in the bottom – drill some if it hasn’t. That’s really important, because excess moisture needs to drain away freely so that roots can stay healthy. Seeds are the cheapest way to get started growing vegetables

You’re working with a limited budget and don’t want to spend money on materials for edging or raised beds. Organic Potting Mix: A balanced mixture of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite ensures optimal plant health. Interestingly, you will see pallet collars in almost every vegetable garden in Sweden, they’re really popular over there. Here’s a great example of how pallet collars can be used to grow vegetables (video in Swedish with English subtitles):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 true for pressure-treated wood in the UK. If you are from the USA, I would advise doing your own research as I’m not sure about the laws. The categories of edging and raised beds overlap to a degree, but I’ve divided the ideas based on whether they seem more like edging or raised beds to me. Here are some more garden containment ideas that appear more like raised beds than simple edging. Wood Raised Beds 1. Dimension Lumber Raised Bed 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? This is a cheap bed and it is only made from pallet wood so it is not going to last forever no matter what you do, so I just choose to accept that and let the wood rot down naturally. Snails in raised bed lining

These rustic looking pallet collars came directly from Universal Pallets for this beautiful Italian-style garden:This is the wood we will be using to make our corners. The length you cut them down to will depend on what height you want to build your raised bed up to. I am going to go for two strips of pallet wood high, so I cut down to this height plus 15cm or so to hammer into the ground. Sawn Down Wood For Corners Step Two – Hammer your corner pieces into the ground These are a lot thinner than dimension lumber but a fraction of the price, and rot-resistant. Being thinner at about 5/8″, they might not last quite as long as 1.5″ cedar boards do. 4. Scrap Wood Raised Bed We can now create our second corner piece using two pieces of our cut down wood, and the best news is we don’t need to do any measuring as the wood will already be in the right place.

You want to look for a treatment stamp on the side of the pallet, this will be present on any pallet. The ones you want to avoid are: 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

If you choose to go with staggered then you will need to add more vertical supports to screw into as your pallet boards will end if different positions. If you screw straight in then your wood will already be in the right place. The bags that bulk compost, sand, gravel etc., is delivered in can make an excellent and free raised bed. 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: All I can do now is to wait! If the weather stays mild, then it won't take long before I can see the first little leaves above the ground. It usually takes around three months from planting to harvest. But there are variations of course, with later and earlier varieties. 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.