![concrete block raised bed concrete block raised bed](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/54/42/39/544239c7343a52439ed2e6227be15c4a.jpg)
If your hill near where you’d like your beds to be is a steep slope, it can seem daunting to get everything set into motion. Source: hardworkinghippy Reinforcing A Steep Hillside Gardening on a slope can be a bit of a challenge in the best of times, so when you have the option of leveling things out, you should take it! Your raised garden bed will perform better overall. You can end up with some rather severe erosion issues if you don’t level off your beds.įinally, it’s a lot easier to work on a level surface. Having level beds ensures the even distribution of fertilizers and other amendments you add to your soil.Īs rain hits a non-level raised bed, another thing can be unevenly distributed: your growing medium itself. Similarly, nutrients dissolved in the water will flow to the lowest point. You want your bed to have an even distribution of soil moisture, so a level bed is best for that. Applying water on a slope means the top is more likely to dry out before the bottom of the slope does. In a level garden bed, watering will be easier. Plants grow on slopes naturally, after all! But a level raised bed can help with many different things. If you've used concrete blocks for any outdoor project I'd love to here what you did or any ideas you have.Technically speaking, a raised bed does not absolutely need to be level. Next year we plan to create on more box (when we make more compost) and sometime in the future I'd like to make a concrete block bench ( pictured in this post) that would be more like a sectional couch shape that would also serve as a semi wall for our outdoor patio. Check out my post for some great concrete block ideas. Next year we'll play with concrete blocks some more. We transplanted some of our strawberries and planted mustard, kale, swiss chard, and spinach. I would assume this would help with drainage as well as help cut down costs. So basically we filled it with organic material that can turn to soil, with the least finished material closer to the bottom. We then added 12 bags of compost mixed with peat moss on top. We are currently digging some of our backyard up to make a new garden bed and plan to amend the soil with compost and peat moss, so it actually was helpful to take some soil out. We then layered with a few buckets of dirt from our yard. I then dumped our half finished compost into it (picking out the big unfinished pieces), we used almost all of our compost pile. So I started by dumping 3 bags of leaves on the bottom from last fall (on top of our black top) to fill up some of the space. I figured I only needed to fill 1 foot with actual soil since Mel Bartholomew (who created square foot gardening). We were planning on making two beds but have decided to put one on hold until next season when we will have more compost. I also did not plan for how much dirt was needed to fill it. I might try to use the holes in the blocks as planters and put sticks and dirt in it to help stabilize it. It's not extremely stable, but will do for now. x 8 in size but we already bought the 16 in. I also found out that concrete blocks are WAY cheaper at Menards than Home Depot (where we got ours) and they have half blocks for the 16 in. I later found out after I had filled the dirt into the box that you can cut concrete blocks with a chisel (ironically I just bought some).
![concrete block raised bed concrete block raised bed](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RbbuifLkdrU/maxresdefault.jpg)
Since I assumed that cutting the bricks would involve a saw, not quite what I wanted to do so I just stacked them on top of each other. I thought I could just stagger the blocks, but I found out I had to cut some of the blocks in half. Our concrete raised bed could have turned out better, but it will do for this season. What We Learned From Making Our Concrete Raised Bed I've learned after I usually make something (this project was no exception) I usually have ideas about how I could have made it better. That way if you think of a better way to use your blocks later on you still can change it. I also loved the idea that it's not permanent. I loved the idea that with concrete I would not have to worry bout any of this. I could leave it out all winter, but was worried that having snow sitting on it all winter would rot out the wood. I was originally planning on building a bunch of cedar boxes like the one I made last fall, but after trying to put the one away I made last fall, I realized what a pain in the but that would be to put away a few of them it into storage every fall. I did a posting of my favorite ideas using concrete blocks outdoors which has gone on to be our most popular posting of all time. I originally got the ideal to use concrete blocks as a raised bed from searching on pinterest during the winter dreaming up ideas for the garden. We finally finished building our concrete block raised beds and planting our main garden about a week ago.