Mobile Vertical Raised Garden Bed Using Old Cases of Wine

We've been looking for a way to do our own vegetables gardening without using up a lot of space unlike convential raised garden beds.
The final idea we came up with using old cases of wine stacked up on top of each other, also got us the benefit of placing a mobile platform under the construction. This way we can easily move it out of the way, whenever we need a bit more space on our terrace.

In this instructable I'm going to explain all the steps and materials you need to make your own mobile vertical raised garden bed to enjoy all the organical grown vegetables you like..

Happy making =)

Supplies

Materials:

• 5 old cases of wine
• Burlap (approx. a roll of 15cm x 10m to 20m - depends on the size of your cases)
• 1 wooden board
• 4 transport castors
• 1-2 wood slats
• Flower soil and compost for soil layers
• Herbs and vegetables

Tools:

• Hot glue gun
• Screws
• Screwdriver
• Saw
• Wooden glue

Step 1: Building the Mobile Base Platform

Let's start by building our mobile base, where our vertical raised garden bed construction is put onto!

Grap your wooden board and screw the four transport castors into the corners of the board.

Turn it around and make sure to activate the breaks ;)

Step 2: Designing the Vertical Raised Garden Bed Construction

Now take your old cases of wine and put them onto each other.
You can try different design layouts with more or less layers, but you should choose a layout which is already pretty stable on its own.

TIP: Take a picture of your final design to remember the exact positions and rotations of the cases

Step 3: Gap Sealing of the Cases

Take each case and glue the burlap into it wherever it's got a gap. This way the soil stays inside of your cases. We double layered the burlap, which worked just fine. =)

Step 4: Stabilizing of Your Construction

The exact realization of this step depends on your specific layout of the cases

In our case, we built a wooden rack to support the backside of the case on the second layer and supported the third layer with a wooden brace, which edges were sawed in an angle of 45 degrees. We used some screws and wood glue to stick them together.

At each case we also placed braces under those corners, that extended onto other cases, which gave a nice increase of overall stability.

The top case just stands on its own on top of the case underneath.

Step 5: Soil Layers

If you look on the internet for specific soil layers used best for raised garden beds, you can find a lot of different approaches.
We decided upon a simple two layer approach due to the low case height.

The first layer is made up of old leaves and branches for a height of roundabout 10cm.
The second layer consists of flower soil for vegetables. Push it down a bit to compress the first layer inside of the cases. You should leave the top 10 cm of the cases blank to prevent the soil from washing out during rain or watering of your herbs and vegetables.

Now plant all your favorite herbs and vegetables and enjoy your new mobile vertical raised garden bed! :)

Comments

[AnnN20]

A novel idea with potential! But it seems that only a section of each box gets light. How does this work in practise? How can one make use of the parts that are underneath another box?

[gobytrie]

Yes that's correct and you only plant the box parts, that get light, but you fill up the hole box with earth. This way the plants have a lot of space to grow and still get enough soil and water.
The mobile vertical raised Garden bed combines both a raised garden bed and style, when you dont have a lot of space availabel for example on a balcony. If you are not restricted in space, i bet you can update and transform the vertical garden bed in a way that you can make use of all the boxes space :-)

[jessyratfink]

This looks fantastic! I love tall planters. :)

[seamster]

I like this - it's a good, simple, and repeatable project. The idea to glue in burlap is a great one! : )

[gobytrie]

Thanks a lot! It's also a pretty cheap opportunity to make yourself a raised garden bed if you can get your hands on used wine cases or similar boxes. "Burlap" seems to be the better word instead of "jute fibre" - I edited my instructable :)