Raised bed edging from pallets costs even less!

[PeterW]

Robin, another option is to use pallet timber for the edges of the raised beds. A scrounge around the local industrial estate or building sites, or a few phone calls, can be very productive, particulary if you explain that it’s for growing veg. Some businesses return their pallets, but many don’t and are happy for you to take them off their hands. They come apart on-site to slide into a car plank by plank if you don’t have access to a van or trailer. One of my local businesses had some pallets 2.5m long, with planks about 2cm x 10cm. It took a couple of hours to de-nail them and make a 4m x 1.35m bed. I used two rows of planks to give an edge about 20cm deep. The wood is a bit thin, but of course I won’t be digging the soil (!) so I hope they won’t crack too soon. I’ve got my eye on some pallets with heavy stringers about 5cm x 8cm which will be stronger, to make more beds (another 7 to go!) To make them last even longer you can paint them with the Osmo that Charles mentions.