Cinderblock Raised Beds

[MorelCabin]

Yep Morel is right, we pick a soil/ag yard and have them dump away LOL. It's not even that expensive either and out here every town has atleast 10 soil and mulch yards.

Or, if you're like me who is completely ridiculously silly, you pick it up in the back of your short-bed F-150 and struggle home hoping your tail gate doesn't burst open and topsoil doesn't create a black arrow of shame upon your farm lol.

Haha..we have done that many times...it used to make me so nervous when the big scoop of the tractor dumps into the back:>) Now we have friends that run the soil yard so delivery is usually free.

 

[lupinfarm]

Oh indeed, you should see me when our hay guy loads roundbales into the back of our truck. I've almost had a heart attack multiple times. Of course now my truck is back in the shop for the 3rd time in less than a month after my car accident. I can't pick up anything right now except animal feeds And even then I'd have to walk it up the driveway because our rental (Toyota Corolla) isn't macho enough to get up our 900ft, icey, hilly, evil driveway.

 

[Beekissed]

I have a source for cinder blocks without holes and some with and was thinking of building better cold frames with them. They say if you paint them black on the outside that they will absorb heat and radiate the heat into the soil during the cool of the night.

I think cinder block raised beds would be great! And I liked the idea about putting PVC hoops over them to use them for extended growing during cold weather or to stretch netting on to keep out chickens.

 

[lupinfarm]

Yeah on one of the websites I found they use rock, sand, and gravel in the holes to keep heat in. I suppose you could paint and then plant in the holes.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

.... I shouldn't have looked.... I shouldn't have looked...

But I did and here is a question. Where do you get the soil to fill the beds? That seems to be the hardest part, for us anyway.

There is a place nearby that sells the 'mistake' cinderblocks for a low price, I'll have to see how much they cost. Who started this thread? You're in trouble!! And now you've gotten me in trouble...

I've been to NC...ya, you guys are really soil depleted huh? What do they use for gardens down there...do you have to buy it in individual bags at like a home depot or something? Here in Canada we call and have a big dump truck drop off a huge pile

We live in the sandhills, so we have, you guessed it, sand. Now some people do sell topsoil and you can get it by the dump truck loads, but when money is tight, spending money on dirt is pretty low on the priority list, you know? I think the latest advertisement on Craigslist I've seen was $100 for 6 tons. I know we think "tons" that's a lot, but I've seen tons of sand and it's not as much as you would think. Anyone care to help with how much soil is 6 tons? Or where I could find free soil? I can condition it, I just need the general mass to fill the beds..

I think the other reason we appear soil depleted, is because where I live, the sandhills meets swamp. Most people don't want swamp, so they have sand and soil brought in to level and drain their land. So I suppose the demand is high, because here you either have sand or you have swamp!

Couple of years though, we'll be going toward the NC/VA boarder and the growing up there is beautiful. The grandparents have a house in Ararat VA and the orchards and farms up there are beautiful!

ETA: I found that 1 ton of soil is roughly the equivalent of 22.2 cubic feet.

 

[Wildsky]

Does anyone know if a person can buy a mold and make their own cinderblocks?

I looked online a few months ago and couldn't find anything..

 

[Farmgirlpastandfuture]

I have several concrete block raised beds as well as wood frame ones. I've only got about 2' of natural dirt ontop of the shelf rock back side of a cliff that I live on.
I took a class with Len a couple of years ago. He is east of Springfield, MO. Learned a lot. My beds don't look near as nice as his garden but if you are interested in using blocks to build a garden it is worth it to look thru his site.

As a side note - I'd love to have a summer kitchen like he built.


http://gardeningrevolution.com/

 

[Icu4dzs]

There is a good book on the internet called "Gardening Len's Way". He has about the best plans for raised bed gardens that I have seen. He uses concrete blocks and everything is dimensioned to be able to use things that are "off the shelf" in size. Cattle panels are 16' for instance. His beds are also 16 feet.
He has a number of very nicely drawn raised bed schemes that make a fantastic gardening display, much like the gardens I saw when visitng Mount Vernon or Montecello.

There are two issues I had. One is that I live in the northeast corner of South Dakota and the temperatures get brutally cold here. I have to cover everything and that is a challenge because of the rather high wind speeds we get. The other is that he calls for materials to fill the garden that are not readily found in this area of the country. We have a very short growing season so maximizing the time you have to grow is of paramount importance. He claims that following his directions affords you at least 2 growing zone improvement so I am working on building his plans. Hopefully it will be a good season. Still cold at night here though.

 

[kcsunshine]

Yep Morel is right, we pick a soil/ag yard and have them dump away LOL. It's not even that expensive either and out here every town has atleast 10 soil and mulch yards.

Or, if you're like me who is completely ridiculously silly, you pick it up in the back of your short-bed F-150 and struggle home hoping your tail gate doesn't burst open and topsoil doesn't create a black arrow of shame upon your farm lol.

Love it! Black arrow of shame!

 

[MorelCabin]

.... I shouldn't have looked.... I shouldn't have looked...

But I did and here is a question. Where do you get the soil to fill the beds? That seems to be the hardest part, for us anyway.

There is a place nearby that sells the 'mistake' cinderblocks for a low price, I'll have to see how much they cost. Who started this thread? You're in trouble!! And now you've gotten me in trouble...

I've been to NC...ya, you guys are really soil depleted huh? What do they use for gardens down there...do you have to buy it in individual bags at like a home depot or something? Here in Canada we call and have a big dump truck drop off a huge pile

We live in the sandhills, so we have, you guessed it, sand. Now some people do sell topsoil and you can get it by the dump truck loads, but when money is tight, spending money on dirt is pretty low on the priority list, you know? I think the latest advertisement on Craigslist I've seen was $100 for 6 tons. I know we think "tons" that's a lot, but I've seen tons of sand and it's not as much as you would think. Anyone care to help with how much soil is 6 tons? Or where I could find free soil? I can condition it, I just need the general mass to fill the beds..

I think the other reason we appear soil depleted, is because where I live, the sandhills meets swamp. Most people don't want swamp, so they have sand and soil brought in to level and drain their land. So I suppose the demand is high, because here you either have sand or you have swamp!

Couple of years though, we'll be going toward the NC/VA boarder and the growing up there is beautiful. The grandparents have a house in Ararat VA and the orchards and farms up there are beautiful!

ETA: I found that 1 ton of soil is roughly the equivalent of 22.2 cubic feet.

Swamps around here are usually a great source of topsoil! The earth in them is rich and black...maybe you should try digging out the swamps before covering them in with sand:>)