Hardware cloth is a wire mesh sold by the foot at hardware stores or in roles at Home Depot and Lowes). THE FIX: After I had dug the bed debth I wanted I installed 1/4' hardware cloth as a barrier. I have a couple of things that will help with some of the issues surrounding the cement aka cinder blocks for raised beds that I needed to apply to my first bed and they seem to be working out very well.įirst thing is.we have moles and moles find structures like contained raised beds a delight to frolic in, usually doing in favorite plants or running right along the edges where its impossible to catch them.dirty little buggers.

I got well-drained beds, a dry pathway, and a place to store blocks and bricks. My beds vary from 8 inches high to a few inches deep when a crop will be growing in hot, dry winds.Ī few times I filled the pathways with bricks or concrete blocks. I have driven a white pipe into the ground on the center line of each 4-foot bed and I let the width of the beds be less than 4 feet when I need a wide path for some crop or to run a cart thru the path.

Now I am walking on the concrete blocks, using them as a path. The cover crops keep down the weeds and mean I do not have to work the soil until May or July because the weeds are smothered out.Īcually I did have one wall of concrete blocks 8 x 8 x 16, but profuse gifts of tree wastes and dirt filled the path and the low, wet adjacent bed. Often I sort of level the beds into the paths when I am planting cover crops such as clover, buckwheat, or small grains so that I have more organic matter growing. One problem with using walls on plant beds is injuring my hands on the walls unless I slow down. Often I throw pulled weeds, tree wastes, lawn wastes into the paths to avoid walking in the mud. I have about 100 beds and use 16 inch paths between the beds. I use beds 4 x 25 feet which gives me 100 sq ft per bed.

I find it cheaper to use no walls for my beds.

Concrete block raised bed