corrugated metal tomorrow from a local Fabral plant. I can get all the scraps I want. Tomorrow, I will be picking up 8' lengths for a lean to shade. But I can have them trim them to most any length, and a bunch cut to length would be mighty handy.
Thanks again.
Steve
Where you live you'll get an occasional light frost that will affect plants (really just dew freezing) but you don't get a hard freeze where the ground freezes solid.
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Another case of geographical location specific advice. Quite common here. All must read with a grain or more of salt to judge if such advice is appropriate for themselves.
Don't you know how to construct a sentence properly, what's with all that broken English gibberish? You express yourself with baby talk, may as well type goo goo gaa gaa. Dioclese, you should be ashamed of yourself demonstrating so poor a level of communitating skills in a public arena, ridiculous sentence fragments make you look the buffoon. If you are going continue participating with Newsgroups you will definitely benefit from a remedial writing course.
I happen to know Omelet's location and climate but it's up to her to post any particulars.
In a gardening group particularly if anyone cares to have their queries taken seriously they need to post their location, clearly and with a degree of specificity so that folks can reply in a utile manner... it's never the responsibility of posters to search for and decipher code.
snipped
keep us informed would like to see pics of the finished product.
maybe send e/mail for more chat?
With peace and brightest of blessings,
len & bev
-- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand."
Don't you know how to construct a sentence properly, what's with all that broken English gibberish? You express yourself with baby talk, may as well type goo goo gaa gaa. Dioclese, you should be ashamed of yourself demonstrating so poor a level of communitating skills in a public arena, ridiculous sentence fragments make you look the buffoon. If you are going continue participating with Newsgroups you will definitely benefit from a remedial writing course. __________________________________________
Hmmmm. Great 'communitating' skills Sheldon.
Hmmm, indeed. You might brush up on the proper use of the semi-colon; you might check out run together sentences, too, Sheldon. mle
Not overlooking the fact that this is a gardening forum and not on English grammar. Posters often take great liberties with the English language without chastisement from self important little twirps, such as you. Let's take a look at your little work of art.
"Don't you know how to construct a sentence properly (The sentence needs a period or a conjunction)(Properly should precede construct, as it is an adverb and sentence a noun. Otherwise, you sound like someone's affected maiden aunt.) You express yourself with baby talk, may as well type goo goo gaa gaa. (This is an event that took place in the past, which requires a past tense: expressed. What did you just do, if not express yourself in baby talk, and this is in reference to what element/s of Dioclese's post?) Dioclese, you should be ashamed of yourself demonstrating so poor a level of communitating skills in a public arena (This is freakin' USENET you idiot. You're lucky not to get flamed;O), ridiculous sentence fragments make you look the buffoon (You didn't build much of a case for your opinion, Shelly. Actually, it looks as if you have indicted yourself.) If you are going continue participating with Newsgroups you will definitely benefit from a remedial writing course. (We would all benefit from a writing course, but of what benefit is it, in this particular news group,except, perhaps, to keep certain self-important, "toffee-nosed" gits away from you?)
Funny. I understood him perfectly. Does that make me as stupid as you think he is?
Hmmmm. Lemmee see .......... yep, this is a gardening group, and not alt.properEnglish ......
Steve
Steve
corrugated drop remnants to make a lean to shade. These rust evenly on purpose giving them the aged look within six months. I got 22 of them for free, and tipped the man $40 to take his SO out to dinner. I told him I would like some more, so I will return there once I have the dimensions, and he will cut the remnants to length.
They even loaded them.
Steve
Now I'm confused.
'Him' meaning Sheldon or 'him' being Dioclese?
And are you addressing Sheldon or Farm1?
Does that make me as stupid as you
Everyone thinks Sheldon is slightly doolal. Dunno about Dioclese, but given s/he is posting on usent then s/he has got to be suspect too.
Yebbut my petunias use more proper English than many posters....................
One material I haven't seen recommended is stabilized rammed earth - not for the OP, but they could presumably hire out the labor. You'd build a simple, low open box (just 4 walls). The advantage you get here is the mass will help warm the bed earlier in spring, stabilize temps in the fall.
Stabilized earth is a clay mix with 5-10 percent cement added to it, compressed using simple form works (in Africa, two boards are held together with rope). Pound a "lift" of material 6-8 inches until it rings, repeat until desired height is reached.
Cement is bad, but you are not using a lot of it, and it makes it possible to create the raised beds out of normal construction site waste (subsoil). Nothing else needed, will stand up to rain/snow. If you live in a freezing clime, you will need a base of gravel to prevent frost heave.
This is a LOT more work than the other suggestions, but I was struck watching a DVD of monks who tended a garden. Their garden had some low, 1-wall beds that warmed early in the season, and they were able to shovel snow off the beds for planting early crops. Really remarkable simplicity.
Offered in the name of the radish spirit!
Taken as a grain of sand.
Below longish.
Bill feeling Blake like.
Am sorry to hear of your low comprehension level regarding sentences not constructed to your specifications. Perhaps, if you were genuinely interested in the attempt at communication (purpose), someone else with better sentence construction could pipe in with such a translation. But, its doubtful from where I sit that you are truly interested in that...
I did succeed in the communication as per your subsequent weak reply to the essence (commnication substance). That was buried at the bottom of your previous reply. "I happen to know Omelet's location and climate but it's up to her to post any particulars." Again, read my previous reply. If you don't understand it, maybe someone can translate.
Pointing out grammatical and spelling errors is quite common when the replier was placed in a position that he/she may be incorrect, and may want to respond in a hateful manner as a result.. So, guess I'll overlook the majority of your response. Have a nice day.
Steve, since you are just beginning, you might want to start your raised beds lower the first year and then build onto them in later years. I have some which are seasoned 2x12 lumber, seasoned as in pre-used. For now, it is only that depth. However, I can add another 2x12 on top of the first later as I add more compost, etc. I hold them in place with metal electrical conduit tubing pieces driven on each side. Not fancy, but they work very well. I have left the conduit higher than the edges and placed ceramic garden-related bric-a-brac on them. One has a baby chick, one has a dinosaur hatching from an egg, another has a turtle, etc. These are picked up at garage sales, etc., for 50 cents or a dollar each and add that visual interest. If you are not going to cover the conduit ends with something, then you want to keep them below the top of the boards so as not to cause injury.
The other beds are made from recycled concrete blocks which I can easily add to as I prefer the beds be higher. The concrete blocks always give a good place to sit while I work on the beds.
I will NOT use treated lumber, either pre-used or new, because of the chemicals used in processing. I am in the last half of my life and whatever might leach likely won't hurt me but I have young granddaughters whose little bodies could be greatly affected by any leached chemicals. It just is not worth the risk.
The first raised bed I made was four feet across; this is too wide to easily reach from either side, so I have gone to three feet across. My goal is to have my raised beds easily accessible from a wheelchair should that ever become necessary which is why I have chosen methods allowing me to add height over the years. I also have them far enough apart to use a wheelchair or walker between them.
I read that someone said there isn't that much bending involved in gardening. Well, maybe not, but if, like me, there are certain angles you cannot bend your back without great discomfort, even a little bending is better avoided. Of course, as we get older, bending and discomfort becomes more of an issue.
Another advantage of raised beds is stability of the walking area between the veggies. In a garden, the footing can be uneven due to tilling, but with raised beds, the walking area is never disturbed. I became very aware of this when my grandmother visited the first time.
I like my own raised beds so well that as I am able to do so, my "main" garden will be converted to raised beds as well. Of course, the added advantage of being able to hoop them as mini-greenhouses is very attractive. In the main garden, I can plant such things as tomato plants on the edges (two across) and the plants have the full advantage of the soil under the pathways so I really don't lose much in square footage and have great advantages gained by doing this.
As for temperature making a difference regarding materials, I don't see either lumber or concrete blocks being dependent on weather unless the blocks are mortared. Stacked blocks allow water to drain from the beds so freezing water is not an issue.
For one raised bed, I used 5-ft pieces of conduit at each corner to hold the boards in place. Those extended conduit pieces make good storage for my liter pop bottles used for hot-houses when that purpose is done. I use both the 2-liter and 3-liter sizes; the 3-liter fits nicely over the
2-liter giving 2-for-1 storage area.Just my thoughts.
Glenna
g;day steve,
our plan is to use corrugated to raise our beds even more as we get older, probably initially we will get the lengths cut into 1/2 width, and use 6' galvanised star pickets as supports these pickets then can be used to support tomato's or trellises for beans etc.,.
for us those ready made frames mentioned in a link in another post are too expensive.
On Wed, 5 Nov 2008 19:11:27 -0800, "SteveB" wrote: snipped With peace and brightest of blessings,
len & bev
-- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand."
You can do that because you live in a semi tropical climate. But thin sheet metal cannot endure the heaving of freezing earth.
After unloading the sheets for my shade cover, I have decided that it will do just fine to get about 3' (1 meter in your town) lengths, and then bury them about a foot with dirt tamped around the bottom. 2 x 4 (sorry, don't know the metric for that) tops to protect from the sharp edges, and some brackets to hold the wood together. Easy, cheap, and fast. If they rust out, I'll just do them again, or maybe even do a double layer to start.
Steve
steve,
for the top edge so no body gets cut you could rune some cheap 1/2" or
3/4" garden hose around and tied with cable ties the hose needs to be cut along the length so it will fit over the edge of the metal.snipped With peace and brightest of blessings,
len & bev
-- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand."
Have someone do it for you. You can also get cable covers from radio shack that are essentially the same thing. I had to put them over electrical cords in my house to keep the cockatoo from chewing them, until I built her her aviary. ;-)
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