Building Your Own Raised Flower Beds

Whether you are just looking to add a bit of height to your garden, stop the dogs from digging up your begonias, or help out a relative that can no longer target down far enough to tend to the flowers a raised flower bed has a number of great perks. But how can you go about building your own?

Railway sleepers

Firstly you need to find the most appropriate wood for your project. To build the best quality raised bed, we personally recommend using railway sleepers from Stoke on Trent. 

These high-quality sleepers can withstand the weathering that they will see from being permanent;y outdoors, without needing to be treated, as other woods would need to be. They offer a rustic appearance from the offset, which means that they will hardly change over time. They are also strong, thick wood, and great for building. 

Choosing your joins

Next, you need to choose how you will join your sleepers together, both side to side and up and down. For stacking, we recommend a weathered slat of wood on the back/inside of your structure, which can be drilled through to secure with large wood screws. For joins at the end of a length, this depends on the aesthetic you are looking for. For a rustic look, you can choose to search for older looking metal plates and knuts to create an old-style join. If you would prefer to hide the fixings, you can use shorter horizontal battens fixed inside the project. 

Moving your sleepers

Railway sleepers are heavy by nature. We recommend that you have someone with you to help lift and shift the sleepers into place whenever they are being moved. This will also help when you are screwing sleepers into place as the other person can stop them from shifting out of position. 

Preparing the ground

It is entirely up to you as to whether you do anything to prepare the ground in advance. Again, this could depend on your aesthetics. If you want the build to be right to the edge of a lawn or patio, you might not want to make any preparations, but rather lay the first sleeper in place and build from there.

If you are preparing the ground, we recommend some hardcore up to just below the level of the ground around your planter. This will help to drain excess rain and moisture from around the base and help to maintain the structure of the wood for longer. 

Inside the planter

The choice you have in your planter is how far down you would like your roots to be able to grow. This could depend on how deep your planter will be, or what you plan on planting. If you are having a shallow planter, or you are looking to plant a tree, you will want to avoid a base, whereas if you are looking to just have bedding plants, to stop lower or existing weeds from breaking through, you can add a base. 

For a water-permeable base, look at a thick layer of gravel or hardcore. You could even add sand and gravel Stoke on Trent mix from D Price & sons. For a more solid base, lay a couple of slabs down. 

Filling your planter

Of course, once the structure of your planter is built, you will want to start filling it with high-quality topsoil. This topsoil will offer all the nutrients that your new plants need. To arrange your topsoil delivery in Stoke on Trent please contact the team today. 

For more information on railway sleepers in Stoke on Trent, please contact our team today, we also offer free delivery of over £100, so why not order your sleepers and topsoil together?