I have finally gotten around to getting some measurements and drawing up a plan for my vegie garden area

I'm (probably) going to make the edges of the beds from my left over bricks and will probably be 3 or so bricks high and I am thinking of using some kind of stake somethingorother to secure them in the ground, maybe a tent peg type thing (suggestions welcome as I don't really want to be concreting).

The soil that I have brought in is pretty good quality but the soil underneath is pretty crap so I'm thinking that I might start them out as a no dig garden by putting newspaper down, wetting it and then put a layer of lucerne, then a thin layer of cow manure, then a layer of compost, and then repeat the layers finishing with a thick compost layer as per the fact sheet on the BAAG website (http://www.baag.com.au)

Now that I have drawn it up to scale, I am thinking I might make the pathways 60cm between the bed's instead of 50cm for a bit more space seeing as I have it but I just couldn't be bothered changing the picture!
The vegie area is at the back of the house which faces north

Thoughts and comments??

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I'd have the wider path along the fence side, not the house side. You dont want the fence to shade part of the veggie garden, also the heat from the bricks of the house will help veggies grow.

hi Lisanne

I like what your doing with the veggie garden. I've done one just recently myself.
its a similar size to the ones you're doing (1m x 2m) but i've made them raised and out of corrigated iron. I have a bad back and have found that having it raised (about 820mm) my back never complains when i spend time tending to the veggies. maybe you could look into doing one or two of them raised, its really good for things like lettuce, carrots, spinach or anything that doesn't grow to high (over 700mm).

Hrmmm not sure, I was thinking trellis type growing things would be good nearer the fence



I did consider putting in higher beds but that then involves more money and not sure how that would go with bricks but then maybe 2 instead of all of them might be a good idea

Na the paths are spot on
You only need enough space to move and step
I'd be looking at doing espaliered bloody everything later on and the lemon and especially the lime are a great idea. Have you seen the price of limes! Get some stone fruit in too as the garden and budget matures and you will be glad you did

Drop treated pine poles or better still is galv tube. Then you will need to wire run every 400mm.

As for the veggie gardens, well I don't get the whole concept of having newspaper down? I mean the plants get nothing from it. and it just might make you feel better about doing it. and in that case if it makes someone feel better then by all means do it. A no dig garden is a good idea Lisanne but using tent pegs?? chuck that idea and get some simple pegs of timber cut or star pickets, they will go much deeper in the soil and offer far better strength for a raised bed It's a new area, star pickets are everywhere

Thanks Fu!

Can you get short star pickets? Although if I got tall ones then I suppose they could be useful later on, although the reason I was thinking pegs was I was going to put them through the holes in the bricks, I'm pretty sure a star picket wouldn't fit in them

I'd love to plant some more fruit trees and espalier them along the whole fence line, I reckon that would look awesome as I think the rest of my yard (about 40m2) will be grass

I hadn't actually gotten around to thinking of how to setup the frame for the fruit tree's, so thanks for that

if you got some star pickets in and they were tall later on you might be able to us them with a bit of shade cloth over head if you had something that was getting burnt from the sun. ( some veggie etc)

Some friends of ours used all their excess bricks to build a frame work for raised veggie beds. No mortar, just the bricks. I was a bit surprised at first but it's worked well and means they can alter the beds as it suits them.

I was going to get some thing to make ours but we still have quite a few bricks over even after Dh used a good few to do a 5 m temp path so I'm now considering doing this as well.

Veggie patch will have to wait until I finish the first front garden bit though.

That's what I was thinking with the star pickets being useful

How high was your friends vegie garden and didn't the bricks fall down by not being secured?

In one corner of my block where the soul I just brought in is mounded a bit I've discovered this - so I am wondering if I need to make the bed's 4 or 5 bricks high instead of 3 and also enclose it in chicken wire or something

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Whilst I think you can avoid the cement, IMO you probably can't avoid bonding the bricks together.

However you could use construction adhesive as shown in http://www.ehow.com/how_5266272_build-g ... ement.html .

The pipe hanger strap is a perforated galvanised strap which you can get from Bunnies in the plumbing section (lots of people use it for tieing inflow pipes to water tanks). The simple purpose of the hanging strap is to create an even gap between the bricks, and because it's non-compressible, stops the building adhesive from extruding out from between the brick and there not being enough goop between the bricks for bonding.

So materials are pretty cheap...some gravel etc to level out the base, construction adhesive for bricks, perforated straps, and an adhesive gun.

If you have a spider phobia you may want to cap the bricks...spiders will love the holes in the top of the bricks...

As far as star pickets go, you can get different sizes from Bunnies from about 300 mm up in 300 mm increments...a piece of advice based on bitter experience, by the star picket caps whilst you are there...

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Two reasons...the ends of the pickets get bashed around a bit and the jagged bits of metal can grab your lower legs...and the caps will protect you from picket ends at eye level.

Serving suggestion only...

Cheers, Mike

Hrmmmmm

any idea on how difficult/expensive would it be to make it out of timber, so say a 1.2x1.9m bed that's 50-60cm high? keeping in mind that my brother is an apprentice chippy it wouldn't take him long to knock them up

I've only seen the veggie garden once but i think its 4 or 5 bricks high. no bonding.

Don't like the look of that hole. Seems the bunnies are busy doing some serious digging. If you laid chicken wire as a base before adding the soil to your raised veggie garden it might deter them but then of course after a while the wire would rust/ deteriorate. But at least it would maybe stop the bunnies digging up into your patch.

I'm hoping that once I make my backyard more secure the rabbits wont be able to get in - by secure I mean finishing all the pathways etc up to the fence so that there are no longer any gaps for them to get in through and also maybe putting some wood up under the fence from the outside

Keep it to 300 mm increments to get standard size timbers...so 1.2 x 1.8...chippy will be able to knock it pretty quickly. As an idea:

Redgum Sleepers...1.8 m x 200 mm high x 50 mm about $15 per length
Redgum Sleepers...1.8 m x 200 mm high x 75 mm about $21 per length
Treated Pine Sleeper...1.8 m x 200 mm high x 50 mm about $11 per length
Treated Pine Sleeper...1.8 m x 200 mm high x 50 mm about $16 per length

Add 10% for wastage...probably $50 - $75 for hardware, screws, gal brackets.

You can work on the per metre price based on that...I'm sure people can give you prices local to home.

Oh and be prepared now for the philosophical debate of treated pine versus non-treated....

Thought of one of these...
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Metal-Raised-Gar ... 45f0071389

they look relaly good TDL. I have swung between them, doing temp straw bale walls and maybe brick walls. can't decide. We also have some other friends who have those metal ones and asked them what they thought of them and they think they are terrific. it all comes down to cost, gardens space and whether you want the flexibility of changing the bed size.

Are they sharp along the top edge?

No they aren't . Can't think why but I ahve actually seen them on display. the reason why they aren't sharp escapes me atm. I think they have a rolled over edge or something. Maybe just blunted so they aren't razor sharp. if it worries you then you can buy cheap hosing slice it open and fit it over the top edge. as a capping. We used to have a raised veggie bed done with half pine (treated) logs. Was fine until the buffalo lawn and some some Kikuyu started invading at the corners.


If you plan on very raised beds then don't make them wider than you can reach. Unless you fancy always having to climb up into them to get your veggies.

With regard to the bricks, just take one out. You can do that by using a big screw driver and a hammer and in the middle of the chosen brick, smack it and it will crack, then you can crack it a few more times and flick out the broken bits. Pop some gravel in those spots if you want. Cut the pickets in half. You would need a grinder for that, but they are fun I reckon

As for kex's idea of the pickets to be used to hold shade cloth, fantastic thinking
You can use PVC irrigation pipe and cable ties to construct a make shift or semi permanent shade structure and get a better quality crop

I would love to get 4 or 5 of them! I've seen them before but I am trying to do this on the cheap side of things although that cost on that ebay auction is similar to what wood would probably cost I think



If was putting a star picket in each set of bricks I don't think I would be able to get into the garden bed!

Could I use liquid nails or anything else to make the bricks stick together? Maybe I should just use cement lol!!

This is starting to give me a headache now... too much but it's good to get it right before I start

Nope...rolled edge.