Elevated Vegetable Bed

Hi Folks,

my wife has given me the task of building her an elevated vegetable bed, using bits 'n bobs out of our garage!

I found this link http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20258509,00.html via Google which looks pretty sound.

However, our 'extra' dimension is that we have wild rabbits living alongside our property & last year they decimated anything that grew in the level bed. What I need to do is erect some sort of 'structure' that can be placed over the top of the bed to keep that rabbits out but allow rain & sunshine in! It also needs to have a bit of height to it to allow plant growth, rather than lying flush across the top of the bed.

I was thinking of something along the line of a poly-tunnel but having chicken-wire instead of the polythene but here's where I would just love some expert advice from you who have walked this trail before me!!!

Please feel free to post your recommendations below & I look forward to posting some images of the completed project, whatever way it ends up!!!

MTIA

John

 

You could fit a fruit cage over the bed you would be able to get into the bed through the access door you could run some mesh around the bottom to stop them nibbling the netting.

 

I've just made a raised veg bed, and I've used old scaffold boards for the timber. Ask at your local scaffolding company if they have any cracked planks as due to health and safety...once cracked they should be thrown away. They might sell them to you for £4 or £5 each but thats far cheaper than cedar from the "this old house" link you posted. Have a look on ebay too http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/?_nkw=...70.l1313&_odkw=scaffold+planks+used&_osacat=0 to see if one of these companies is near to you.

I got my boards for nothing.

Steve...

 

Hi John
elevated bed? this may not be of use as its in mad scientist territory..but you did ask for recommendations :wink:
I`m busy designing my MKII tomato hammock as one isn`t enough.
I`ve decided to recycle the kids triple swing set which is never used these days. The bed will be 8x4, consisting of a 2x4 timber rectangle frame bolted to the 60mm dia steel A-frame legs.
The weed barrier loop as per my origonal hammock will suspend the compost in mid air :wink:
2 sheets 2.5m x 0.7m of 10mm twinwall polycarbonate will make a nice "roof" section.. something like an elongated wishing well.
Adapting the design to be rabbit proof? hmm.. maybe chicken wire over the floor beneath and wrapped up the sides level to the top of the bed, adding some fold-down mesh doors will fill the gap between the bed and the twinwall will prevent the pesky varmits from nabbing your lettuce :wink:

Polytunnel?
A 12ft trampoline frame seperated into 4 sections makes a pretty good lean-to polytunnel frame if you have a 6ft lapboard fence to use as the back wall to run timber rails on..it would also make a good fruit cage covered with mesh.

Good luck with the bunny proof veg bed

 

Just a quick update, i still haven`t converted the swing..its on the to-do list.
I have converted one section of an old 2-section aluminium ladder into a 210L hammock style elevated bed.
I just need to fit the waterproof outer loop to direct the water runoff into a container and add some willow screening or similar to cosmetically finish it off.
The old hammock is now in its 3rd year and is still holding its 200L of compost without any problems, its hanging onto the top end of the ladder bed :wink:
Added a pic of the two lowly strawberries residing in the old hammock, 4 weeks worth of growth from 8th april to 9th may. Hopefully i`ll get more than 4 strawberries off them this year.

 

Some very ingenious horticultural engineering there Hex :gnthb::gnthb:
Lateral thinking at its best!

 

Cheers Dave,
It`ll soon be full of toms which are busy outgrowing the kitchen window :wink:
I put a screen of galv wire mesh sloping up from the bed to the fence so i can train them across it. I find it much easier than canes and you can force them to grow horizontally by tying them to the mesh.
Bondage toms :wink: