Flower Bed Ideas: Alternative Garden Suggestions

Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 7:32 am

: Image by upturnedface via Flickr

Do you have troublesome soil, inadequate drainage, or merely not enough room for everything you would like to grow in your yard? Then why not solve all your problems with the elementary add-on of a raised flower bed. Landscape gardeners love raised flower beds, since they can be whatever style you prefer, and they can subtly attract the eye to the splendor of an region, or aside from a less appealing aspect of the landscaping.

They make an outstanding site to plant your herbs and veggies as well. They are named raised flower beds, merely because that is what the beginning ones were utilized as. The materials you select to create it out of may confine your style and flexibility for design, and consequently you need to hold that in mind as well as durability, functionality and cost.

The style of your raised flower bed can be elegant, simple or anywhere in between. Certain material types can restrict your design options due to their specific characteristics. However, it is possible that you could walk around your property, or that of someone you know who has acreage in the country, and find many materials suitable to build your raised flower bed with. A lot of you can benefit from the fact that, it is even possible to blend your own material to use rather than dirt in flower beds – the material is called Hypertufa.

A very long-term material for building your raised flower bed that is fetching, durable and widely obtainable, is cedar. It is available at most building centers. The woods appeal and beauty helps compensate for the fact that it is a very pricy material Railroad ties and treated lumber make up the materials in a great number of raised flower beds. Many people have concerns with the chemicals used in the treatment of the wood, they fear the chemicals could leach into the earth and then into the plants.

There are all sort of materials that will work just as well and might be available at very lower price. These include, but are not limited to, bricks, blocks, decorative stone, slate or just plain old rock. A few of of these might require complementary material to make with them, such as mortar, while others might work fine with merely the stacking method.

The latest in outside material is PVC. Since its composition is plastic, it won’t break down as fast as wood. It’s length of service is outstanding, nevertheless there are troubles to its use. One such drawback is the restricted availability of colors. Another would be the demand of specialized tools for sawing and uniting it. You would do best to check out the colors and required instruments if thinking about PVC for your outdoor construction plans.

While it is a normally recognized practice to restrict the height of a raised flower bed to no more than 18 inches, it is workable, with an amount of additional attention given to base and stability, to make one of a greater height.

The first thing you need to do is design your bed, then do some research and obtain your building materials. Now you’re ready to build your raised flower bed. The place to start is with guaranteeing your bed might be fastened to the earth. This is most commonly done with a ditch having a depth that provides for a couple inches of material to be immersed. Then you simply continue with the layers.

Extensive assistance and inspiration about garden work and Hypertufa garden art in specific are availiable at my site. On the site you will be educated about Hypertufa containers and countless different inventive gardening hints.