Concrete gravel boards for raised beds £

[Safety First]

How crazy? What better alternatives?

Currently have 6"x1.5" inch wooden raised beds which after 10 years have rotten out.

This in our current 6 beds
5@ approx 9'x 3'
1@ 18'x 3'

Plan to replace using 9' concrete posts and 6' gravel boards, 12 inches high.

The 9' posts are cut into 3' lengths, each sunk 2' below ground 1' above, to take 12" high gravel boards.

At this point it is coming in at:

X32 gravel boards
X9 corner/90degree 9' concrete posts
X5 intermediate 9' concrete posts

A lot of cutting...!?

Plenty of epoxy paint over exposed steel reinforcement (where cuts exposed bare metal)

It won't look terribly pretty. But how else to get sturdy, no maintenance, long lasting raised beds?

It works out at 22m of post-hole digging!
Hoping for tamped gravel to hold posts in rather than postcrete.


And is approximately £800 excluding epoxy, gravel and diamonds 9' blades. With ChatGpt on pricing...

...and (edit) real world pricing is £1660!

 

[big-all]

normal would be brick/sleeper/block for this job as a freestanding structure on a relevant foundation like slabs or even just soil as the oblong shape in general gives sufficient support

 

[endecotp]

how else to get sturdy, no maintenance, long lasting raised beds?

This could be a good application for those recycled plastic planks that are increasingly being used for park benches and similar.

I’ve no idea how much they cost or where to buy them….

 

[Koolpc]

Sleepers would be my choice.