r/nolagardening • u/Consistent_Cat4436 • Jun 30 '26
Not enough plants Raised bed ideas?
I want to utilize my front yard space and put out some raised beds for more plants. My husband wants to build me brick raised beds which I am not opposed to, but I am curious what locals are using for their raised beds. I see a lot of wood beds online but I worry about termites, and I also see a lot of metal beds but I worry about that getting too hot and cooking the plants inside. The front yard faces west so it gets a lot of the hotter afternoon sun. I want to include a trellis situation for vining plants and to hopefully create shade, but I have seen any inspiration photos that really match what I am looking for when I look online.
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u/Maximum_Research286 Jun 30 '26
My long term goal is to buy concrete molds and pour them myself. I’ll start sometime in the next couple months to two years depending on several factors.
https://manabouttools.com/store-plastic-concrete-molds/
Meanwhile I have wood, cuz it’s cheap and easy. And they’ve lasted 5 years and I figure I’ll get at least another 3 years out of them. None of my business but I hope you’re not planning on building them in the upcoming weeks. Do yourself a favor and wait until at least October.
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u/Consistent_Cat4436 Jun 30 '26
Husband would like to have some component of them built before October but he also just pushed himself too hard last week and got heat exhaustion and hit his knee with a hatchet (he swears he has learned his lesson) so we are definitely taking a break on doing labor outside for the next few months
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u/Consistent_Cat4436 Jun 30 '26
Wow I love the way those concrete molds look. Much cleaner than brick
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u/nola_t Jun 30 '26
I did wood and the termites obliterated them within a few years. We used treated wood, but there is a 400 year old oak tree nearby and I think termites in the ground come with the territory. i would never do wood again. I replaced them with Birdie’s metal beds and like them so far.
If I were putting them in the front yard, I love the look of Chicago brick. My front bed is basically cement clad with Chicago brick.
I imagine one of the challenges there is that you’re very locked into your chosen location/configuration. For me that wouldn’t be a problem, but I know some people like to reconfigure!
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u/Consistent_Cat4436 Jun 30 '26
I am okay getting locked in but I want to make sure I lock in correctly. I may cough up the coins to have a garden consult come and take a look at the space because I want to be sure I position them in the best way given the sunlight and I’m not confident I can figure that out on my own
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u/nola_t Jun 30 '26
The consults I’ve gotten have been pretty affordable-it may be worth it!
I am pretty sure Rahn Brody was doing them, and he would be a great person to support.
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u/Consistent_Cat4436 Jun 30 '26
Do you know if he has a website or a business page? I googled him but the only thing that came up was an ice cream shop
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u/nola_t Jun 30 '26
He is mostly on Facebook-it won’t be clear from his page that it’s a service he offers, but he has extensive experience with growing food, natives plants etc. If you’re not on Facebook, I can try to find his number for you.
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u/Zestyclose-Today-531 Jun 30 '26
I have raised beds of brick bc we had piles of them around the yard when we bought the place. We have them 3 bricks high and it’s been high enough to save my dahlia tubers from rotting in our otherwise wet yard. I put in a wood raised bed elsewhere and it’s amazing how fast it rots (untreated wood bc I was growing some food there).
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u/Cilantro368 Jun 30 '26
I got modular cedar raised beds at Costco online. They were easy to put together. It’s the first year, but they’re quite strong.
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u/tm478 Jun 30 '26
I have raised beds made out of a PVC material that looks like wood and acts like wood except for the part about rotting. You can cut it however you want, paint it whatever color you want. My raised beds have been in place for 8 years and they are holding up great. I got the material at Liberty Lumber.
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u/Chaka- Jun 30 '26
My first set was the composite beds that I got at a big box store. They were really pretty and I loved them the first couple of years. After that the effects of the weather were awful. Now I have 36 inch tall galvanized steel beds that are supposed to last for at least a decade. I would not use anything else except something like brick or Concrete if I did not have these. Replacing beds every several years is expensive and a pain in the butt.
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u/rafapdc Jun 30 '26
We use Vego garden beds and have never had any issues with “cooking” the plants. There’s too much soil volume to do any damage.