Do you want to know a simple way to build a raised bed garden. In this video
I will show you how to build a very easy cinder block garden that anyone can do.
Hi this is Jeremy Starke the green thumb gardener here to give you some tips
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you so let's uh now that we get that out of the way let's get started and get
into what how to build an actual cinder block garden so one of the things
that you want to be mindful of when you're building a cinderblock garden is
is first you know where you want to actually place your garden you may say
we want to find a spot that's gonna be sunny that's gonna have plenty of Sun if
you want to grow vegetables like peppers tomatoes squash and things like that if
you're not too concerned about growing those kind of vegetables you can also
you know find a spot that is a little bit shadier here but you know most most
plants and vegetables will need will need Sun for it so you want to consider
that when you're planning out your spot so what I what I did for from my
particular spot is I did find an area in that yard that was very sunny did get
plenty of Sun it got at least six hours of Sun on in that particular spot and
you want to make sure that that you're looking at it not in December if you're
gonna be planting in the summer because obviously the Sun is it has a different
position in the sky you know you want to be mindful of that and try to look for
it you know you might need to actually wait a year to see it they have some
tools that you can get I'll put some you know in the notes section description if
you do want to pay tools that you can do for it but basically you just want to
find a spot that sunny and you know if you've been on your property for some
time you'll you'll know what that is the actual cinder block garden just to kind
of give you some pros and cons of it is it was very easy to do it basically hug
the lifting the actual concrete the concrete blocks up and into my car and
into my into my house you know that was probably the hardest part I was very
easy just to place everything down once I had my spot that I wanted I did my
measurements and things like that to get out to get situated
I found that said I didn't need to put anything that was permanent I I
particularly lay of my land actually slopes down in this particular part of
the garden so I thought it very difficult to build a wooden easy wooden
raised bed for it because you'd have to have a couple tears and you have to
measure the slope and things like that so I kind of wanted something that was
easy secure and you know I can grow with it so I can add more to it very easily
so I came upon the cinderblock garden here I'll take you around and we'll suit
and we'll show you what what it looks like and what you need to do it's very
simple - to get the measurements and part of know how many sin the box you'll
actually need for it so as you can see these these cinder blocks approximately
16 inches in length once you get your measurements for your actual garden you
want to make sure that you calculate out the the actual links the the amount of
cinder blocks that you need buy and I actually added one or two more when I
did my measurements just to make sure I had enough on there you can always
return it if you need to and the other thing the other materials that you'll
need is if you do you have some additional dirt or soil or anything I'll
show you a neat little thing that I that I do on the edges of my cinder blocks
here on some of them so once you get the layout of the actual garden itself you
want to put down the the cinder blocks and arrange them and once you get all
the measurements for your actual spot you can go ahead and place the the
descender blocks and where you want to do it now one tip before you actually do
that is what I like to do sometimes when I'm trying to lay out some some areas in
your yard where you want to put something you kind of visually want to
see where everything is is you can take your hose and actually use that as kind
of a little guide you know because usually you have a most people have 25
to 50 feet hose or you can take some kind of rope and just kind of put it
around you can stake it if you really want to get that fancy and just to see
how it is but you know as long as you know the general area that you want to
do you can do it now for my garden what I did was I actually started digging the
spots where I wanted to have the garden so I kind of edged it out a little bit
not too much but enough to know where I want to place everything once I had all
the cinder blocks the hardest part now is you got to go get them at the store
and and you got to bring them all down to your garden you know so you know
obviously get some help from some of your friends or use a wheelbarrow or
just use your muscles or you know your green thumb or something like that but
once you get them down you want to put them in place put them all around the
garden kind of move things around basically put your soil up against it
when you want to if you want to put some additional soil or amendments or compost
manure anything to get the garden started in there you
put it on once you get everything in place one of the other things that you
do want to consider is the drainage of it now on my particular plot itself the
garden itself it does sloped down so there is a corner of my my this actual
corner of it where the water does run off so I had to make sure that I
basically took a corner and I'll show you I'll show you what that looks like
on there as you can see in the corner section of my garden here I basically
just kind of left a little gap in between it if you can if you can get in
there and see this is like a little gap so the water does does run off on there
and basically it allows the water to to go out and set a pooling up in this
particular area I also kept that in mind I did plant some corn here because they
do like a lot of water so I wouldn't keep any vegetables that that do get
that don't like too much water like say peppers or something because it'll be
the obviously the water does channel off in there but it does it does drain
fairly nicely so I'm not too worried about it if I do have something on there
at this point once you get everything situated one of them one of the benefits
of doing this what I really enjoyed about it and I found that was really
unique was is that I do have these little planters that I put in here that
when you when you lay the concrete this way you just can put some soil in there
which also is recommended to do because it does give it more stability so that
it doesn't you know it's not going to wash away that these these bricks are
very very heavy but basically I you know I put I put some plants in here and
because I have some rabbits and stuff I try to put some onions and you know just
some other you know different herbs and things like that but - as I'm getting to
that point that that is is one of the cons of doing it with this with wood if
you do a wooden guard in a wooden box you you don't have to worry too much
about the heat but when you do have the cinderblock concrete part of it there it
does get it does tend to get hot in these cinder blocks so I haven't had too
much problem I live in North Carolina and it's it's fairly hot it's about 90
the only thing I have to make sure is I keep these watered but they seem to do
pretty well the I just put some herbs some scallions some Thai basil some
basil I just put whatever I have you know for
herbs and things like that in here but you just want to be aware of that that
it will dry out a little bit sooner because of the because they do get
warmer the other thing you want to keep in mind too
that if you're placing some vegetables you want to have it spaced enough away
from the actual vegetables because again the roots of the vegetables that you
don't want them get it to heat it next to the break so though those that's
really the only con that I that I can have for this is that they do get they
do get a little bit a little bit warmer in the summer to me that's that's really
not too too bad it's really there's many benefits to actually do on a garden like
this like next year I'm actually gonna expand the garden out a little bit I
want to move it up a little bit so it's very easy to do that I would just simply
move the bricks and then I add my soil in I may need to get a few more bricks
from the store to actually compensate for the additional space that I'll have
but it's really simple for me to do that to make it larger the only like I said
the only other icon of this I should say is that it does get does tend to get
warm so you just have to make sure you place your vegetables away so I actually
mind because this is the first year I actually did a cinder block ie I didn't
even think of that so hopefully this will help you out when you when you do
yours is that I did I did place my cucumber plants a little bit too close
to it so I have to water them a little bit more than I normally would it's not
it's not terribly wrong I'm not gonna lose my cucumbers but it's just
something that you have to be mindful of when you're actually doing it so there
you have it an easy way to build a raised bed with using cinder blocks as
your garden as your garden borders right here one green I want to give you guys a
green saving tip one of the things that I did one I did calculate how many
bricks I needed is that I ordered them online through Lowe's or Home Depot or
whatever and some of those stores like Lowe's and Home people they actually
have coupons where you can save like 20% off of that and you know because the
bricks there I think they run anywhere from between a dollar fifty to two
dollars somewhere around there for each brick you know when you do need is a lot
of them you you can save some money by doing that so check it out go look on me
I think on eBay or you can do a Google search and you can find coupons if I do
find something I'll link it up in the end the show notes as well but I do that
and I saved you know I saved a 20% off of what I would pay for it so hopefully
that I help you save some greens so if you like this video please subscribe
below again to to our she'll give us a green thumbs up and as always we'll see
you in the next video