Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: George the Pigman on March 27, 2017, 21:28:04
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I have a surfeit of bricks in good condition (about 50) which historically come from various stages of building on the house over many years. I'm scratching my head on what to do with them.
But I have had one mad idea!
Has anyone ever used bricks to build a raised bed?
Any more ideas!!
PS I am a lousy bricklayer!
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Bricks make great raised beds and you dont need to too tidy with laying them, just make sure you give them a good footing and they will last for years with no maintenance.
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I haven't - and I always thought they might be the solution (or breeze blocks) - however - every time I bring it up someone says that they are the worst material for harbouring slugs and snails who hide down the sides. I haven't yet found out if that's true or not.
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I made a raised asparagus bed out of breeze blocks and it worked fine... no noticeable slug issues...
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I have found that any crevice harbours 🐌 and slugs.
A built wall with mortar would be better than a dry wall of loose bricks as there would be so many holes and gaps.
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I agree - as soon as my wooden raised beds start to rot the number of slugs and snails increases as cavities appear (out of sight until you dig down the front).
It's worth getting your slug defences in place as soon as you sow, or before, or you will think the seed is bad because they will razor off all the seedlings before you even see them.
Cheers.
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We made 3 raised beds last year using a combination of breeze blocks and scaffolding boards. The breeze blocks have chipped and cracked a little, but I imagine that bricks would be ideal. I would cement them in rather than have any gaps for slugs.
I have planted up 2 of my beds this year. My OH made a 6ft tall timber frame around one of the raised beds and I have attached very fine butterfly netting around it. I have planted the purple sprouting in this one. The other bed has a metre tall frame and my broad beans are in here. I have fixed wires between the posts to give support to the beans.
I save small plastic bottles and make slug traps and always put several into my raised beds whenever I plant anything. I haven't got many slugs in these beds though but I like to be safe than sorry. I make them as shown in the link below, but when prepared, I dig a hole and put my slug traps upright so they are about 1" above ground level. I then put stones around them so the slugs can climb in easily.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqs4YHUr7Kg
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Anything solid will work, and bricks won't rot like wood.
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We have two large brick raised beds in the garden. They are perfect and don't seem to hide molluscs any more than soil beds.
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I'm not sure this will still be relevant but apart from suitability of the material you will need a lot of bricks for even a modest sized bed.
A bed with sides one foot high will need four layers. If it was 6 ft by 3 ft the perimeter will be 18 ft for each layer. That is roughly 5.4 m for each layer. As each brick is 215 mm long that means 25 per layer or 100 in all. Only approximate of course but 50 may not be enough for a bed of any size.
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I'm not sure this will still be relevant but apart from suitability of the material you will need a lot of bricks for even a modest sized bed.
A bed with sides one foot high will need four layers. If it was 6 ft by 3 ft the perimeter will be 18 ft for each layer. That is roughly 5.4 m for each layer. As each brick is 215 mm long that means 25 per layer or 100 in all. Only approximate of course but 50 may not be enough for a bed of any size.