Over the past few years, I have swapped over the material used for my raised beds from regular lumber to concrete blocks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This started with Covid-19, when the price of lumber started to skyrocket. Back when 2x4s were so cheap as to be disposable (plus biodegradable!), replacing them every 3 years or so was no big deal. But after the price doubled … then tripled … well … I started looking for alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I decided to go with the type of concrete blocks that have holes in them, using the big 8x8x16 blocks for the ends of the beds, and the 4x8x16 blocks along the edges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ends will stay in place just fine, because each block weighs 35 pounds, it is stable, and it has lots of ground contact. But the long edges, arranged so that the holes point up and down and balanced on the narrow 4″ edge … are not particularly stable. So I got a bunch of rebar cut at 16″ lengths, and once I had the blocks for the long edges in place, I pounded a single piece of rebar down through the center hole into the ground beneath using a 4-pound shop hammer. (And wearing safety glasses.)
So far I have been doing this for three years and it has worked well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The benefit is that it is something you do once and will never have to replace, and the blocks and rebar are inexpensive, especially when longevity is considered. It also gives you an 8″-9″ tall bed, which allows for all of the benefits of a raised bed. Also, if you ever do have to move it, you can pull out the rebar and move the blocks.
There are, however, some downsides that might make this less than ideal for some people or situations.
Concrete blocks are big and heavy. My standard 4’x16′ bed requires 6 of the 8″x8″x16″ blocks at 35 pounds apiece, and 24 of the 4″x8″x16″ blocks at 16 pounds apiece. That is a whopping 600 pounds of building materials just for a single bed. This isn’t something you can load into the back of an economy car — you need a truck, or would end up paying for delivery. And moving those blocks one or two at a time into place, and driving the rebar into place with a 4-pound hammer is seriously physically demanding work.
In practice, I have been using this to replace one bed per season. The beds having been well-maintained for years anyway, so the soil held together when I pulled off the boards and I was able to put the blocks in place pretty easily. But by doing it one bed at a time, I am spreading out the labor and cost.
Overall, I have been pretty happy with the results, but for many people, despite the increased cost of lumber, the standard 2×4 or 2×6 may be the better alternative. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the past few years, I have swapped over the material used for my raised beds from regular lumber to concrete blocks. This started with Covid-19, when the price of lumber started to skyrocket. Back when 2x4s were so cheap as to be disposable (plus biodegradable!), replacing them every 3 years or so was no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2405,"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions\/2405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markhamfarm.com\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}