How To Build A Raised Bed With Concrete Blocks

I built my first raised bed from concrete blocks (aka cinder blocks) a few years ago, though my garden wasn’t too successful because our yard had become much shadier. But now that we moved, I have a big empty yard that gets lots of sun!

You might be wondering about the blocks, since chances are most raised beds you’ve seen were made of wood. I didn’t like the wood idea for a variety of reasons.

  1. treated lumber has poison in it, and I don’t care how safe or how little gets into the food. I don’t want poison around my vegetables. Better safe than sorry.
  2. lumber rots.
  3. lumber has to be nailed/bolted/etc. together.
  4. lumber has to be cut to size.
  5. once you make your garden box, that’s the size of your box.

So I thought about suitable alternatives. Some people do freeform beds without any supports. Just pile up the dirt and organic matter and start planting. Some use old tires. Some go fancy and get landscaping rocks or bricks. I decided to go cheap and ugly with regular cement blocks. Standard 8″x8″x16″ masonry blocks, which I got at Menards for about $1 a piece.

The advantages:

  1. no chemical leaching.
  2. no nails, no cutting.
  3. they last forever.
  4. even cooler, if I decide to expand beds, change their shape, move them, or make them smaller, I just move the bricks one by one.

Did I mention they’re cheap?

But hey, you can use whatever you want to make your raised beds. Just adapt these instructions to fit your needs!

Here’s a quick photo of the back yard, in it’s not-quite-spring-yet, grey and scraggly state:

how_to_cinderblock_raised_beds

Now let’s start building!Read more…