Cinder blocks (1 Viewer)

Being a horrible wannabe gardener myself, I've got to reply with something a little more productive. I've tried starting raised beds before with a little success. After looking into purchasing kits and seeing the ridiculous prices I, like you, decided to try my hand at DIY instead. I wanted pressure treated, but after doing a little research saw that the chemicals may leech into the soil. I thought about the cinder blocks, but the best place for a vegetable garden in my yard is pretty exposed, so I wanted something a little more aesthetically pleasing. So, I opted for cedar. Only, I went really cheap and did cedar fence boards. They did well for a season, but even with reinforcing, they just didn't hold the weight of the soil and just didn't age well so I dismantled the whole thing. Right now I've gone much smaller and repurposed a bunch of cedar from the kids old swing set to make a planter. So far, so good, but I don't really expect that to last more than a couple of seasons either. What I want eventually is to build raised beds from landscaping blocks, but that's money and I want to make sure what I put in & where is going to be a long term investment. One thing I will say about raised beds... they are expensive to fill. Whatever you gain not dealing with weeds, soil quality etc, it's going to cost you in fill. Get your compost started asap and research some methods in saving you on fill dirt. Otherwise, you're going to be gardening just for the fun and not getting any financial value out of it at all.
My first garden when I moved back to NO I got my fill dirt at a place way deep in the westbank (borrowed a friends truck)
i then lined my Honda Element in tarp and went to the local horse stables and filled the element up with the good stuff (obviously did not tell the wife what I was doing)

we‘ll only be in this place another year or so And I’m not trying to go all out - this will be a project for me and the kids if/when we get the stay at home orders
 
My first garden when I moved back to NO I got my fill dirt at a place way deep in the westbank (borrowed a friends truck)
i then lined my Honda Element in tarp and went to the local horse stables and filled the element up with the good stuff (obviously did not tell the wife what I was doing)

we‘ll only be in this place another year or so And I’m not trying to go all out - this will be a project for me and the kids if/when we get the stay at home orders
:ROFLMAO: A Honda Element full of horse sheet. OMG, that's too funny!
 
My first garden when I moved back to NO I got my fill dirt at a place way deep in the westbank (borrowed a friends truck)
i then lined my Honda Element in tarp and went to the local horse stables and filled the element up with the good stuff (obviously did not tell the wife what I was doing)

we‘ll only be in this place another year or so And I’m not trying to go all out - this will be a project for me and the kids if/when we get the stay at home orders

Straight manure isn't good. It's loaded with bacteria and seeds that will take over a garden. Cover it with visqueen for a few days and let
the sun kill them off
 
Being a horrible wannabe gardener myself, I've got to reply with something a little more productive. I've tried starting raised beds before with a little success. After looking into purchasing kits and seeing the ridiculous prices I, like you, decided to try my hand at DIY instead. I wanted pressure treated, but after doing a little research saw that the chemicals may leech into the soil. I thought about the cinder blocks, but the best place for a vegetable garden in my yard is pretty exposed, so I wanted something a little more aesthetically pleasing. So, I opted for cedar. Only, I went really cheap and did cedar fence boards. They did well for a season, but even with reinforcing, they just didn't hold the weight of the soil and just didn't age well so I dismantled the whole thing. Right now I've gone much smaller and repurposed a bunch of cedar from the kids old swing set to make a planter. So far, so good, but I don't really expect that to last more than a couple of seasons either. What I want eventually is to build raised beds from landscaping blocks, but that's money and I want to make sure what I put in & where is going to be a long term investment. One thing I will say about raised beds... they are expensive to fill. Whatever you gain not dealing with weeds, soil quality etc, it's going to cost you in fill. Get your compost started asap and research some methods in saving you on fill dirt. Otherwise, you're going to be gardening just for the fun and not getting any financial value out of it at all.
I finally went to raised garden beds because all I really like is tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper plants & green onions. I have a cheaper solution over cinder blocks and solution to the pressure treated problem if using wood. A possibility to think of is to buy 6 ft cedar dog ear wood fence picket board for about $2.52 depending on location, this is what I did. You can stack 2 -3 high just depending on how much dirt you want to use. You will need to buy cedar board to tie them together so they will stay stacked.

On fill dirt, a cheap solution to keep from having to use so much expensive dirt, is to use pine straw or leaves for a bottom layer, not only will this be utilizing space but will also become compost-dirt in the future. With a good compost, you can now keep adding to your raised garden in the future.
 
I finally went to raised garden beds because all I really like is tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper plants & green onions.
My latest gardening project . The Carolina reaper aka the tail of satan. 2.5 million scoville units. I can't wait to try this next week the tail of satan.jpg
 
this thread has me wanting to replace the backyard lattice with blocks.

i hate lattice. forking hate lattice.
 
I’m thinking of doing a cinder block garden
are cinder blocks something you can find just laying about (like a construction site doesn’t need them anymore) or are they something you have to get at a store?

(now that I wrote it out it seems like a very dumb question, but wth it’s Friday night - I think)
Use the NextDoor app........it is folks in your neighborhood helping each other out. It is all over the USA & it is awesome 👏!
Ours constantly has free stuff that people need to get rid of:
Clean dirt
Fire wood
Cinder blocks
Furniture
Lots of plants
Bricks
Packing & Moving boxes
Etc etc etc
Also, it is a great way to get to know your neighbors. I recently got involved in 3 compassionate projects. It was fun & a great way to declutter & help out others in need.

Not to mention the fact that neighbors are alerting each other about missing dogs/cats, pics of car break-in offenders etc

Good luck.....projects during this challenging time can be rewarding 👍🇺🇸🍻
 
ugh. i hate guido. unfortunately he has given me a great idea to replace the valence piece of work sheet around my house with cinder. valence is worth as much, lol probably 1k more, than any piece of work in power.
 
Being a horrible wannabe gardener myself, I've got to reply with something a little more productive. I've tried starting raised beds before with a little success. After looking into purchasing kits and seeing the ridiculous prices I, like you, decided to try my hand at DIY instead. I wanted pressure treated, but after doing a little research saw that the chemicals may leech into the soil. I thought about the cinder blocks, but the best place for a vegetable garden in my yard is pretty exposed, so I wanted something a little more aesthetically pleasing. So, I opted for cedar. Only, I went really cheap and did cedar fence boards. They did well for a season, but even with reinforcing, they just didn't hold the weight of the soil and just didn't age well so I dismantled the whole thing. Right now I've gone much smaller and repurposed a bunch of cedar from the kids old swing set to make a planter. So far, so good, but I don't really expect that to last more than a couple of seasons either. What I want eventually is to build raised beds from landscaping blocks, but that's money and I want to make sure what I put in & where is going to be a long term investment. One thing I will say about raised beds... they are expensive to fill. Whatever you gain not dealing with weeds, soil quality etc, it's going to cost you in fill. Get your compost started asap and research some methods in saving you on fill dirt. Otherwise, you're going to be gardening just for the fun and not getting any financial value out of it at all.


I have pressure treated - but i have a liner to protect the soil from any leeching of chemicals. And you only need about 14-16 inches high to get great results. I went 24" so it cost me more to fill up.

I used a mix of Black Kow manure, top soil/ organic garden soil. 1 to 4 ratio followed by chicken droppings early winter ( before planting )

I had posted on another thread, chicken droppings. You mix that with whatever soil, wait a week before planting and you wont have to do any fertilizing for the season. ( Just dont apply AFTER planting - the ammonia burn off in the first few days will scorch all your plants )

what i have found that grows REALLY well ( and time frame )

Feb to June- onions ( vidalia/georgia sweet ) and my kids clip the shoots for chives during the growing season. Cauliflower and Broccoli.
March to July- Cucumbers, cherry/grape tomatoes, creole tomatoes. ( once direct sun/heat starts getting to be around 90-95, they will start to struggle producing )
Now- watermelon and eggplant.

I found that bell peppers ( green/red ) and banana peppers will grow year round if you protect in winter.
 
ugh. i hate guido. unfortunately he has given me a great idea to replace the valence piece of work sheet around my house with cinder. valence is worth as much, lol probably 1k more, than any piece of work in power.
Since BHM doesn’t post anymore, maybe you can take up the mantle of guy who shows the progress of diy projects
 
Use the NextDoor app........it is folks in your neighborhood helping each other out. It is all over the USA & it is awesome 👏!
Ours constantly has free stuff that people need to get rid of:
Clean dirt
Fire wood
Cinder blocks
Furniture
Lots of plants
Bricks
Packing & Moving boxes
Etc etc etc
Also, it is a great way to get to know your neighbors. I recently got involved in 3 compassionate projects. It was fun & a great way to declutter & help out others in need.

Not to mention the fact that neighbors are alerting each other about missing dogs/cats, pics of car break-in offenders etc

Good luck.....projects during this challenging time can be rewarding 👍🇺🇸🍻
fantastic app for reading about people griping and moaning over stupid sheet. all. day. long.
 

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