Growing vegetables in your own garden is trendy. To ensure that pumpkins and courgettes do not become independent and you have to cut the lawn edge again and again, it is advisable to limit the beds with an edging. Wooden borders fit particularly well into the overall picture of the garden.

Wood is a popular material for edging beds

What are the advantages of a bed edging?

Wooden borders are not only easy to produce yourself in any size, they also offer many practical advantages:

  • Vegetables can be protected more effectively from the cold because a warming air cushion is created by a cover made of foil or fleece attached to the edging.
  • When watering, no soil is washed out of the vegetable patch.
  • Care is easier because beds and paths are clearly defined.
  • You can divide the area into many small individual beds, which makes planning the crop rotation easier.

Build your own wooden frame

Square timber, which you can obtain inexpensively as offcuts in hardware stores or timber shops, is well suited. Old pallets or formwork are a good alternative. Be sure to smooth the wood with sandpaper beforehand. Coating with a weather-resistant glaze is also recommended.

  • Cut the boards to the desired length with a jigsaw or circular saw.
  • Dig a spade-deep trench, slightly wider than the boards, along the planned bed.
  • Fill the pit with a layer of gravel about 10 centimeters thick.
  • Posts are driven into the ground at the corners.
  • Place boards in the gravel bed and straighten them with a rubber mallet.
  • Screw to the corner posts.
  • Pour in earth from both sides and tread down.

The edging gets a little more stability if you fill it with quick-set concrete instead of earth. Ready mixes from the hardware store are easy to use because they only have to be mixed with water.

Which types of wood are suitable for the edging?

Tropical wood should no longer be used for ecological reasons. Central European types of wood cope well with our weather conditions. Larch wood, a very hard coniferous wood, is recommended, even if it is not exactly cheap. It doesn't need a protective coat of paint, as weathering gives it a very beautiful, velvety gray patina.

tips

If you don't want to build the borders yourself, you can use ready-made bed frames, palisades or woven willow elements from garden retailers.

Category:

Vegetable garden