Making a Raised Garden Bed from Concrete Pavers

It may not be the most beautiful garden bed but I was happy to recycle these 2x2 foot concrete pavers that were lying around. You can make a great raised vegetable bed by building a supporting timber frame. This instructable doesn't come with exact plans but hopefully can inspire the "ah yes, I can work with that concept"

A lot of my work went into separating the bed from the ground which is seething with hungry tree roots that have crippled most other attempts of growing vegetables. If you don't have that root  problem then you could probably skip the plastic lining step and simply bury the base of the pavers in the ground. Drainage is facilitated by a layer of course sand at the bottom and 3mm or so gaps between the pavers.

Step 1: Foundation

Stake out the space you're going to use and get the ground very flat using a shovel and plank of wood. It need not be level. I kept a few degrees of downhill slope to assist drainage. Flat is very important so that the timber frame sits well on the lip of the bed.
Additional steps that I added but may not be necessary was a brick and earth foundation covered with old carpet and a thick plastic liner to stop tree roots getting into the bed.

Comments

[firehorse]

what a great idea! I've been trying to figure out how to build a raise garden and I have about 40 12"x12" pavers lying around. I can totally work with idea.

[MrsDJE]

Wow! and thank you. What a great idea. I've been postponing making a raised bed for several years, and this "ible" just inspired me to start now.

[bethmwl]

great concept. I was going to try something similar with (wonderboard). Thanks for sharing and inspiring