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Square Foot Gardening

Composite Deck Raised Bed Designs

14 years ago

I saw on another member post a picture of a really nice raised bed using Composite decking. It was really well made but I would like to know how this person attached the corners of it? It almost looks as though they had used a 4x4 composite. If so, what did they use for attaching the side boards? The picture was posted by: sparks5478. I am hoping this person reads the Garden Web often and will help me out.

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Comments (5)

scunningham
14 years ago
I made raised beds out of composite deck boards. I used 1x 8Âs . I bought the regular deck screws. They are not supposed to rust. If you go to Lowes or Home Depot they will cut your boards for you. They are more expensive to build, but should last much longer than wooden boards and they look nice.

Scott
sparks5478
14 years ago
Glad I decided to go past page 1!

I went back into the archives and found a photo from when we (me, Mr. Sparks and the friend who's in the pic) built the planter. I THINK you're asking about the contrasting side trim, right? It's actually not a 4x4, but a board that was ripped to two different widths and attached to the corners from the inside, so it looked like a post. (You can see the cut pieces on the left.)

We built the planter about 7 years ago and it still looks as good today as it did on day one. I've got the plans somewhere so if you're interested, let me know and I'll dig them up and scan them. They were from a Better Homes and Gardens special interest mag.

Looking back, my garden has come a long way. We were still battling the neighbors' bamboo and I was crossing my fingers that it wouldn't invade the planter because I was really, really tired of hacking up my backyard.
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To "mgeca," I plan to address the problem of the amount of soil required by a "strip" approach, dividing the entire area into separate beds that will be cultivated successively, certainly not all the first year. We have a conventional garden that will sustain us quite nicely as we bring the new one on line. The railroad ties are indeed creosote treated, but there's creosote and creosote. This is not the "old" creosote, which was far more volatile and dangerous. Moreover, these ties are 30 years old at a minimum, and though they're still quite solid, I expect no problem from any of the product they've been treated with leaching into the soil. The floor is dirt, with an admixture of some gravel. The structure has been there for around 55 years, of which we've lived here the past 17. I'm pretty confident that there's not much that's soaked into the floor during our tenure. I have given some thought to what automotive or other chemicals or their residue might be present in the dirt from the 38 years before that, but after cleaning the place out, I plan to build soil in that area without too much regard for that. We'll see what happens. Your idea of a checkerboard pattern of beds is an excellent one, and I may elect to forego the ties on the open side. However, if I do that I must do something about the problem that led to the construction of a new garage in the first place, which is the "downhill" position of the old garage. A large driveway / turnaround exists directly opposite the open side, and in a heavy rain, water would flow into the garage, in some cases to a depth of 6 inches in the back. I may resort to incorporating a drainage trench across the open side. The existing concrete footing is about 6-8 inches high on the inside, perhaps 12-14 inches on the outside. These figures are naturally not completely uniform around all three sides.
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You may want to consider using a different brand. I built a planter for my garden with LifeTime Lumber and it works great. It is VERY stiff, and it is not water soluble, so it will not decompose. Also, LifeTime Lumber is garden friendly, since it does not release toxins into the soil. http://www.ltlumber.com/ I built my planter on the balcony so that my dog would have a little grass to play on and it has a small aquarium in it to. Just Goldfish, since they are pretty tough and cheap to replace in case they die. Still sad when they die, though. :( Here is a link that might be useful: LifeTime Lumber
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Monte
14 years ago
Mmmmmm.....very nice.

Damaged composite can often be sourced at H-D very cheaply.

I got about 12 16 ft. lengths for $5 apiece (normally about $35)
nycynthias
14 years ago
Wow! Those look fantastic. I hope the ones we're building come out as nicely. We are using composite lumber as well, but not decking material; instead we're using fascia board, which comes in much wider widths. I used 7.25" widths and stacked two 4x4 boxes on top of one another, joining them with a metal 8" mending plate in the center of each span. We're now waiting for it to warm up enough outside to be able to silicone the inside joints and caulk the outside joints. We're also adding a small one-piece corner molding to the corners, mainly because we didn't want to bother cutting miters for all eight boxes. Then we will paint out the whole thing (exterior only) with white paint.
nancy916
14 years ago
HI sparks5478,
Very nice looking beds! Are these the 50/50 wood/plastic composite decking or trim? What is the height of each tier, and what board is the contrasting top flat rail? Is this a safe material for veg beds in that they wont leach toxic chemicals into the soil? Is looking for damaged boards at a discount the cheapest one can get or is there a cheaper source? Did you intentionally select this material due to its durability or did you just happen to have them from other projects?
Sorry i know too many ques, but I'd appreciate any one sharing their knowledge and experience as I am eager to make a decision and get started with the actual project.
TIA

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