Whether it's a wooden frame construction that surrounds the vegetable patch or a raised bed made of wood: the natural material suits every garden. Wooden beds are also very suitable if you have to deal with a plague of snails or are simply fed up with taming the grass that is growing in the bed several times a year.
A border made of wood is easy to make yourself
Ready-made kits from the hardware store
These are available in a wide variety of designs and sizes. There are even models for the balcony or terrace, so you can grow delicious vegetables here too.
The construction is child's play even if you are not a passionate hobby do-it-yourselfer. The wooden vegetable patch can be set up in just a few simple steps and filled with soil.
Make bed edging yourself out of wood
The durability of these depends on the type of wood used. Fir and spruce wood are inexpensive, but they rot quickly. It is therefore better to use larch or Douglas fir wood. Alternatively, you can use pressure-treated wood, which is also very weather-resistant.
A simple frame construction, in which two narrow sides are connected to the long sides by means of slats, is very suitable for the vegetable patch. The edging for the vegetable patch is set up as follows:
- Stretch a batter board of the desired size.
- Completely remove the turf.
- Set up the edging for the vegetable patch.
- If you want a slightly raised bed, simply fill it up with substrate.
- On the other hand, if you want a frame that is difficult for snails to get over, let the wooden structure sink a few centimeters into the ground.
To protect against snails, copper strips should be nailed to the outside of the wooden bed. This metal reacts with the slime of the reptiles and damages them. Therefore, the uninvited guests avoid crawling over this underground, no matter how tempting the young lettuce may be.
tips
If the copper tape attached to the wooden bed is not sufficient to ward off snails, you can take advantage of the so-called galvanic effect. Attach aluminum wire from a garden supply store directly over the copper. As soon as the animals cross this border, a weak current flows, forcing the pests to turn back.