I want to put a path down the centre of my allotment and contain it within a wooden framework.
I am thinking of using long lengths of gravel boards, on either side of the path, that are 6" x 1" and screwing these onto 2ft 6" stakes that I will hammer into the ground. Is this a good way to go?
The stakes are 2" x 2" and I am thinking of cutting the ends to a 45 degree angle so as to ease them into the ground when I hammer them in. Is this good or would a shallower angle be better?
Ed
I used to have a problem under a high wooden deck, where nothing would grow and the rain would splash red mud against the siding. It was a mess. I used an idea from a state park. Used 6x6 PT timbers and drilled 2 or 3 1/2" holes in each timber to drive rebar sections. The rebar sections were driven into the ground at 90 degrees. I used a penetrating stain matching the deck. I laid down landscaping fabric and filled it with crushed limestone. It has been there for over 14 years and still looks great and no more mud splashing. Critters don't like walking on the gravel either. Driving wooden stakes into the ground won't last long as rebar.
What is a rebar section?
Ed
Hi Ed, rebar is a concrete reinforcement bar, the metal rods they use to reinforce large pours of concrete in wall and bridges and the like. I picked up lots of pieces of rebar trimmings around construction sites for use in my gardens.
There are some people in this group who strongly feel that unless you do everything in your garden precisely engineered to last the next 200 years and require a carting service to freight your materials you aren't doing it properly. I disagree. I had a neighbor who used his empty beer bottles pushed willy nilly into the dirt to line paths, whatever, it worked for him. There were days when I'd see him on the ground resetting the beer bottles....while he drank another cold one. I realize there's plenty of people who think he should have mortared them in using all sorts of formulas and exact techniques, set up elaborate alignment and holding mechanisms or wouldn't even consider the bottles in their gardens at all.
Yes, your original idea will work.....for awhile anyway. Yes, you can pound those stakes into the ground and screw the side boards to them. It probably won't last more than a few years but it will work. I used rebar as the stakes to hold 1x6 boards on path edging, one bar in the middle and one on each end on the opposite side of the up ended board. Instead of landscape cloth I used thick layers of wet newspaper and discarded carpet scraps putting them down backside up and covering with wood chips. The frame contained the wood chips just fine. They didn't float anywhere and we get buckets of rain in Seattle. I happened to use this method and materials because it's what I had at the time. It worked fine just as yours will work just fine. As my garden evolved so did I and the construction projects.
And Ed, if it doesn't work out quite as you expected, who cares! Stand back, see what went wrong, what you have handy to fix it so it works for you. There really aren't any garden police you know ;)
Val
I bet he lived in a trailer park in Texas. LOL
Doesn't really pay to make your own... it's plenty cheap enough at Loews/HomeDepot, and much better quality concrete than what you can prepare yourself. Only difficult part is to haul it home, but still way less laborious than preparing your own.
Bottles pushed into the soil as an edging are very traditional in cottage gardens. I'm delighted to hear that this historic and frugal practice is still in use. Bottles are also an extremely tough and environmentally friendly edging.
You can purchase rebar lengths at Home Depo or Lowes in the building materials section. I used the 2-foot lengths, very inexpensive. You can buy longer lengths and cut with a hack saw.
Won't work where the ground freezes, they'll heave up.
We laid a path down the centre of ours, rabbit fences make side paths a pain, and used old (London type) paving slabs which we got cheap from a reclamation place. Very heavy but movable with two doing the job, a sack trolley helps too. Wear strong gloves. The firm we used delivered them to the allotment free.
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