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Square Foot Gardening

Cinder block raised bed & drainage

Alex Rumjancevs

9 years ago

Hi,

I am new to this forum and gardening so please excuse if I do not make sense :)

We moved into a new housing estate where the soil in the garden is nearly all clay, so drainage is a big issue. While I continue to work on the lawn I have made two cinder block raised beds, one right next to another. The first bed is 4 blocks high (around a meter high) while the second one is 3 blocks high (80 cm). I put in a concrete footing for structural support and beds are set right over the clay soil. The reason for the height is more to do with the aesthetics than anything else.

It is time now to start filling the beds with soil, however I am not sure if there is any point in filling them up all the way. I have been considering filling the bottom of the beds with concrete blocks so that the actual depth of the beds is not as deep, however not sure what kind of effect that is going to have on the drainage.

Also, should I cover the inside walls with a plastic to reduce the moisture damaging the concrete blocks? The outer walls of beds will be covered in tiles.

In general the climate here (Ireland) is generally wet as we do get a lot of rain.

What would you recommend to do in this situation?

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Hi James, I was wondering if those steps are new concrete steps and if the house was tuckpointed recently before you bought it? The reason I ask is that there appears to be some very recent work done in those areas that you are having problems with (notice the lighter color of the mortar in the joints of the brick surrounded by darker mortar joints in picture 3). Was there settling around the steps and was the footer replaced or were the stairs just re-pointed with new slabs layed for the treads? I also see a long vertical joint that looks like it was caulked near your family room. You may have some deeper settling issues that were camouflaged with some touch ups. I would like to advise you to call a bricklayer in to see if there is a problem that you may need to worry about with the foundation walls. You may have already addressed the issue permanently by diverting the water. But I would advise checking into it with a professional before you do any more work around that section of the house. An estimate will not cost you but you will have some peace of mind before you invest any more time, effort and energy into it.
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