So you have lousy soil or limited space, but you still want to garden?
Got cinder blocks?
Build a raised bed garden!
The advantages to raised bed gardening are many:
- easier to weed
- no tilling required (no soil compaction from stepping on the soil)
- easier to work (no bending over)
- build your own soil
- warms earlier in the spring and stays warmer in the fall
The disadvantages are that they require extra labor and cost to construct, and they tend to require more watering. People build their raised bed gardens in a variety of ways. The super rich posh people may use red cedar or stone. Some use pressure treated lumber while others refuse. It’s largely a personal choice. The lowest cost option to build raised beds is actually free, you just pile the dirt into mounds. For flower gardens you can use railroad ties (if you like chemical shit leaching into the soil). Ranger Man uses concrete blocks.
Why concrete block raised bed gardening?
- Blocks are surprisingly easy to salvage from random places: vacant lots, behind barns, and wherever else.
- They provide a nice, wide platform that you can sit on to plant, weed and water.
- No drilling or screwing required, just drop into place.
- Easily adaptable to form hoop houses, screen plants, etc.
- I think they look kinda cool.
I began construction of the first bed late last summer so it’d be ready for spring action. Take a gander:
What may not be apparent in the photo is that I actually dug out dirt for the first row of concrete blocks so they’d sit in the ground. I thought this would help stabilize the bed. If I was making this bed over again I wouldn’t do that. I’m not sure it was necessary, it took more time, effort, and concrete blocks. You could also build it just one block high if you’re looking for something closer to the ground.
In the background you’ll see 4 piles of dirt. The one on the far left is aged horse shit. In the center at the far back is screened loam. The smaller, darker pile to the right of that is home made compost sweetness. And the pile in at the right, with the shovel sticking out of it, is the total CRAP I dug out.
To make soil of the Gods I mixed the aged horse manure, screened loam and compost together in the wheelbarrow (1/3 of each). Check the action:
You’ll see I had to fence the thing, because it’d be at perfect munching height for the damn deer. Know that you don’t have to cap the walls with additional blocks if you don’t want to. I just like the look (and I had some on hand). They also provide convenient sitting. I also find myself walking on it for various tasks. Some people fill the holes with soil and plant strawberries (or whatever) there. I’ve read people have mixed success with this. Call me lazy, but I prefer seating.
Here are some additional ideas you may want to consider if you’re building a concrete block raised bed:
- Concrete blocks may wick some of your water. You can line the inside walls with plastic if you want to prevent this. Hold the plastic down by the resting the top under the flat, seating capstones. Cut the plastic off at the wall’s base. Never run plastic under the bottom of the bed. You need the drainage.
- For super duper stability, you can drive rebar inside the block holes and back fill it with gravel. That was my original intent, but then the “can you say ‘overkill’” voice was ringing in my head. Besides, if blocks do move, they’re easily re-aligned. Because the soil doesn’t compact, it’s simple to shovel dirt away from the wall and fix any blocks. The soil stays fluffy.
- If you want to get raging cool, you can insert pieces of PVC tubing into the block holes every several feet then backfill around it with sand. I did this. Then you can buy pex tubing at your local Lowe’s or Home Cheapo and bend it across the bed and into PVC tubes on each side. Then run a PVC pipe with a small diameter lengthwise down the center of the bed, attached to the pex, for stability. This will create the frame for a mini-hoop house. You can cover it with plastic in the Spring and Fall, and substitute netting when the bugs are flying. It’s raging sexy. I had actually taken a picture the set up in action, but now I can’t find it.
Here are a few pics taken about 3 weeks ago:
C’mon, frontal view!
Food - it’s what’s for dinner. Pictured in that action is some eggplant lovin’, pepper insanity, broccoli action, and yo momma. Already harvested from the raised bed was radishes, carrots, 2 types of lettuce, spinach, and yo momma. The plants are all much bigger now. I planted the broccoli too close together. They’re freakin’ huge. Inside the bed you’ll see strips of scrap lumber I zipped off to measure square feet. Oh yes, I coupled the raised bed with the Square Foot Gardening technique of the garden ninjas. It’s a technique that’s similar to the long used “French intensive” approach.
- Ranger Man
BTW: You can even make money off your square foot garden.
And, speaking of money, thanks to “WS” for the Paypal contribution.
Anybody else find this post useful? Will blog for bling!
22 responses so far ↓
1 Riverwalker // Jul 7, 2008 at 1:02 am
Nice set-up. You can also use SBC (surface bonding cement) on the concrete tiles to help hold them together.
RW
2 Steph // Jul 19, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Yours are much neater than ours. LOL! We also planted in the blocks. Our soil mix was 1 part compost, 1 part sand, 1 part peat moss.
I grew more out of the 2 concrete block beds than I have in my 40X80 ft. regular dirt gardens. You can also plant much closer in the concrete beds, and they warm up faster in the spring. Have fun!
Just found your site today. Have enjoyed reading your posts.
Steph
3 Rowena Philbeck // Jul 23, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Love your info on raised bed gardens. I am in the process of collecting my cinder blocks so I can start one. I moved into town and really miss my garden. Thanks for the tips. Rowena
4 Tom Searcy // Jul 25, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Thanks for taking the time to explain and demonstrate this gardening idea. It answered some questions for me without the cost and time of my own experimentation.
5 Tony in Delaware // Aug 15, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Thanks for the great information! I am off to Lowe’s tomorrow.
6 Kevin Chavis // Aug 17, 2008 at 5:46 pm
We are considering gardening on top of some concrete in our neighborhood. Are there any issues with regards to heavy metals or other contaminants in the concrete? Food security is important, but long-term health costs are also necessary to consider. Thanks!
7 Ranger Man // Aug 17, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Kevin, no known contaminants in the concrete. I talked with staff at MOFGA (www.mofga.org) before constructing, because I had similar questions.
If it’s on top of concrete, though - how are you going to resolve the drainage issue?
8 Crawdad // Sep 1, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Nice– Thanks for the hoop house idea
9 My Backyard Potato Harvest Story // Sep 16, 2008 at 6:44 pm
[…] built my concrete block raised bed garden last fall with the intent of building another this spring and planting all kinds of stuff. As […]
10 Judy DeHart // Jan 22, 2009 at 10:15 am
Thank you so much. I’m 62 and have back problems(from digging in garden’s for 40 years), my son is going to build a raised bed for me and we’ve labored over the materials to use. This is perfect! There is an old foundation (the house burned in 1947) on our land and now he’s talking about trying to take apart the foundation and not damage the blocks.They are much bigger than the ones you buy now and will take less. It’s January and we hope to have it done by Feb.We thought of railroad crossties but have read too much damaging chemicals could leach into the soil. Your raised bed is a life saver. Thanks so much!
11 Kyle // Jan 23, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Thanks for the info!
12 Don’t Neglect Your Victory Garden… // Feb 19, 2009 at 11:49 am
[…] your spot, and thinking ahead to how much food you’d like it to yield. Take a look at the how-to post from last year - and be sure to send in pictures of your own Victory […]
13 Trakehner // Mar 4, 2009 at 8:42 am
All of this is great to read! One question, how did you get the loam? Did you make it or buy it? I know that is the best type of soil, so that’d be good to use. Is this a different soil recipe than SFG? I know that uses all this perlite and fancy other things in it that I just never thought fully necessary, and you have just proven my point! Thank you for that. ~Karen
14 aneffie // Mar 29, 2009 at 1:44 am
Thank you so much for the very informative site. Not sure I understand on the PVC and how it’s used. . .also the caping blocks don’t look the same are they different material?
15 Brooke // Apr 9, 2009 at 10:45 am
Do you think it might be necessary to start the walls with a layer of stone to prevent uneven settling?
16 oldmanriver // Apr 26, 2009 at 9:17 am
my god, that garden isnt going to raise enough food for a family for a year! The whole raised bed gardening thing is really over done. We raised all our own food when i was a kid. Its going to take more room than what you have there even with increased yield from from the better drainage etc. The garden we had which would feed us all year was about 60′ x 120′ or thereabouts. We didnt water it at all (water is going to be scarce in the SHTF senerio) The thing that i look for in a garden would be rows wide enough to walk through to make hoeing easier and this lowers the amount of water you need to supliment. plant lots of potatos, they store easy, beans can be dried and have a lot of protein. Forget about exotic plants learn to grow calories. yeah your diet is going to be boring but thats not the point. Get some chickens to go along with your garden. Grow stuff that has high yield, stores well and gives you your basic dietary needs with a little variety. potatos, beans, peas, carrots, cabbage, onions, corn, etc etc. Fruit is nice but alot of that grows wild as does asparagus and herbs. Figure out where different nut trees grow in your area those are key as well, concentrated calories high in fat and protien. Get a bee hive, sugar is going to be scarce. The key to a successful garden during a SHTF senerio is going to be low inputs, ease of storage of food, and seasonality. Dont worry about green houses and that sort of thing you wont be able to maintain them and that will just draw others. Buy one spade, one hoe, one paring knife, a small hand garden shovel, a couple 5 gallon buckets and you are in business.
17 Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg // May 5, 2009 at 10:29 pm
That’s a damn fine plan; I’d never thought of concrete blocks. I just built one myself: out of 6×6x12′ timbers. Sweet Jesus are those bitches H-E-A-V-Y!!! Damn near killed the guy it was supposed to feed!
Next time I’ll consider concrete…
18 Maui Organics // May 23, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Wonderful. Stumbled onto this researching concrete contaminants in blocks for gardening use! I’d already built my own version of this bed and was checking after the fact. My beds are just one block high and sit on the soil (no ‘foundation’). I reinforced with occasional 2′ rebars driven vertically into the clay down through the cavities and 10′ rebars longitudinally. I filled the block cavites with concrete to stop shit growing in it (hawaiian weeds are unbelievably tenacious). Each bed is 5′x20′ (typical biointensive layout). I didn’t put end walls in as they don’t seem necessary since I’m not raising the soil level very much (our soil is basically good once amended). I used the corner blocks/concrete pour to mount 1” galvanized pipe vertically which is the structural element for a simple bamboo/PVC pipe lattice for netting support. The corner pipes allow me to wrap a 2′ high chicken wire ‘wall’ around the bed to keep neighbors’ hens out when I don’t want them in the bed (they can be very destructive at the wrong time in a plant’s life). The chicken wire is easily removed for work in the bed. The end ‘walls’ are just covered by the chicken wire and are otherwise open. As you might guess, the structure is freakin bomb proof (the wet season wind & rain here will destroy anything even slightly flimsy are half assed). I now have a bed that I can work in without compressing the soil, can weed whack the boundary of without damaging the veggies, that keeps animals out and allows for a degree of climate control/shelter as necessary. I iterated my into this design after many other attempts and lots of frustration. Regards to all you veggie bed warriors out there!
19 Lorna Brown // Jul 24, 2009 at 11:14 pm
We live in a hot climate with water restrictions. We already have concrete block raised beds that are several years old. Does the concrete wick water away from plants? Would it be advisable to go to the work of digging out and using a heavy mil plastic to line the sides? We must conserve water and hope to continue the garden.
20 Just Portia // Aug 7, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I am a 64 year old blessed woman with great health. I am going to build myself and an 85 year old lady friend friend one of these. She is so excited and your blog gave me all the ammunition I needed to spark the desire. Starting in 2 weeks. Thanks
21 Anne // Aug 16, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I like the concrete block idea. I’m wondering what happens when you go to turn the soil or add nutrients between seasons - do the blocks blow out ?
22 Todd // Aug 19, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Our raised bed (made of wood we had around) did much better than our plants on the deck in pots… next year we plan to add a couple more raised beds
This may be an idea for a LONG term bed that’s for sure.
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