Raised beds

[wendy b]

Where is the best and cheapest place to buy rough sawn timber with which to make raised beds. I live in West Sussex, if there is anywhere that any of you could recommend i'd be grateful

[Kleftiwallah]

Use paving slabs, or better still look on freecycle for a concrete sectional garage being dismantled.

Cheers, Tony.

[Scarlet]

I used scaffoling planks - often scaffolding companies will give or sell cheaply their old tired ones.

[crichmond]

I used scaffold planks, a local scaffold firm sells off the ones they can no longer use legally for £2 per board or £3 delivered to the allotments.

[redser]

And one more for scaffold planks, they'll last for ages and cheap as chips. Standard ones are 8 foot long, so cut one in half and you can make an 8 x 4 which is a good size in no time at all.

[crichmond]

And one more for scaffold planks, they'll last for ages and cheap as chips. Standard ones are 8 foot long, so cut one in half and you can make an 8 x 4 which is a good size in no time at all.

Mine were all 13 foot long

[Two_Sheds]

Scaffold boards: we once got a lorry load for £100 (that was about £1 a plank, delivered). Brilliant.

Otherwise, B&Q do decking boards for £2.49 each several times a year (half price).

[redser]

Actually mine are doing the deck boards at a rediculous price right now. Was thinking of making up some planters with them.

[Lando]

Have a look on e-bay there should be somone near you selling old scffolding planks or used timer.
Are you growing vegetables? I have heard that treated timber is treated with chemicals which can leach into the crop.

[Mikey]

You can use anything you can get your hands on readily, I built quite a few in the garden using 6 x 1 rough sawn timber from the local builders merchant. I think what is more important is what you line it with, I used plastic sheets to line mine, 5 years on I've just moved 2 of them, and the wood is as good now as it was when I built them.

[Terryr]

Hi there
I have made a bit of a mess of my raised beds in that I have six constructed from decking board. They look good butare too low and my neighbour's cats continually scrape soil on to the paths. I need the same height again but buying extra decking is a bit expensive. Any ideas?

Terryr

[veggiechicken]

Do you want to increase the height to contain more soil or to stop the cats?

[Terryr]

Both would be goodVC.

Terryr

[veggiechicken]

If the cats are getting onto the soil it probably makes no difference whatever height you make the beds as the cats will still jump up! So to stop cats you'd need to net or fence off the bed.

[bearded bloke]

The cats around here no longer "visit" mine since using chicken poo pellets,the smell seems to put them off