A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 free raised beds

I just made a great discovery. I saw a shipping container behind an autoglass repair shop, and stopped to ask about it. It was a 4 sided frame with no top or bottom, about 4 or 5 feet by 8 feet, made of 2 by 12 lumber, and reinforced at the corners. It's for shipping large sheets of glass. They get them in occasionally, and throw them away when they're through with them. Instant raised bed border!

Great idea! I'm going to start searching around here.

Wow! When I ran by to nab that frame today, it was even better than I thought! it was more like 5' by 12', almost perfect for a raised bed! And, I hadn't noticed before but there were 1 by 6's framing the bottom, 2 running the length and 3 or 4 crossing the width! Woohoo!

I have occasionally gotten free pallets before, newpaper printing shops have tons of them, but they're hard to get apart for the lumber. I use them to stack stuff on and I build compost bins with them, but I discovered that you can get really big ones at John Deere and other mower and tractor dealers, and even nice, big packing crates at the big tractor dealers. They're big enough to salvage lumber from, if you have a way to haul them.

Wow How lucky is that!! Hey I just realized your in Norman.. Not that far from here really. you must have a large bed truck sometimes I really wished I had one but the gas for the car is killing me already!LOL

I also go to the wiring places that sell
wiring when you build a home...
And they have those wooden spools, constantly....
Ours up here throw them away,
and they make great little tables..
From potting benches to plant stands..
And they come in quite the range of sizes too...

Yes those spools are great we have one of the larger ones, it has been painted and is our outside table.

I am going to start watching the body shop in town as they do glass work also for those wooden frames, What a great find!

oh yes- those spool tables. we had one too in our backyard when we were growing up. ahh memories...

great find Dave!!

Angelbossom,
I have a couple of questions regarding your photobucket photos. The first one with the buckets, what is that about? I have a curious mind.


And the second one, what kind of plant is that? Most intriguing!


Great pictures and plants, by the way! Your garden is so neat!

ru...upside-down tomatoe plants and dutchman's pipe.

Those dutchman's pipes are really weird looking. I live in an area that was settled by the Dutch. Have never seen anything like that here. Only tulips. Where do you get them?

Thanks, Joclyn!

i'm not quite sure...

for the past couple of years, i've seen special planters for the upside down tomatoes (in catalogs and an infomercial on tv)...they go on the bottom and you can put something else up top (flowers or another vegy). they're good if you're short on space.

also, with the tomatoe growing upside down, they don't lean over and lay on the ground - which can cause the fruit to spoil.

when i grow tomato, i do roma's and they don't tend to be heavy, so the plant doesn't bend from the weight. the upside down pots would work really well with big boys or the like!

yes, those dutchman's pipes ARE pretty odd-looking, aren't they??

i was reading a post (on here) about them a couple of days ago...there seem to be a few varieties. the post that i was reading was about one that gets really really big (as in: tall enough that it grows to the ceiling and the person has it attached because it grows so long...

i googled it and came up with what was being discussed in that thread as well as the one that's in this thread...they're a little different - guess they're different varieties.

the beauty of upside down tomatos is the lack of bugs on the plants. and if you put marigolds on top, that makes it even better.

So, how do you rig this thing? YOu poke a hole in the bottom and hang the bucket and then plant the tomato in the hole? But, doesn't the gravity push the plant out? This is fascinating!

Do tell...inquiring minds want to know!

Ummm... the second picture isn't a dutchmans pipe its a pitcher plant.

You may want to reinforce the bucket where the handles grab it. I tried this method last year and lost every bucket because by mid season the handles ripped through the plastic.

Kim

Oh, that's a shame, Kim!