After buildig the 2nd half of the first barrel raised bed the other day, I had decided to use the other plastic drums/barrels for more raised beds. I dragged another one to the worksite to chop in half to do the exact same thing as I had did with the last drum. I also had to drag more wood over to the site just as well. At this point I actually am running out of 4x4's and landscape timbers to use for posts. I was able to salvage enough of a 4x4 to make two 3ft lengths. The last landscape timber I had was infested with carpenter ants so they had holes eaten all through the length of the post. After cutting the timber in half for a 3ft length I found that one end was eaten up badly enough that I couldn't use it in any circumstance. If the eaten end was on the bottom it would rot away that much faster and at the top I wouldn't have any material for the wood screws to bite into to hold it to the cradle. My only other alternative was to cut a pair of 3ft long 2x4's and screw them together to make a 4x4 post. I drilled pilot holes through the first 2x4 on each of the two posts so I can just drive the wood screw through the 2nd 2x4 when I secure them. As for the drum, I had to mark the thing and chop it in half with the recip saw. I did have to clean out the drum some since there was still residue from the veggie oil that was in the drum at the time. After cleaning it out I did the same routine as before with the 2x4's making the cradle and securing the drum half to the cradle with screws and washers. Because some of this wood was sorta questionable, I had to drill an extra pilot hole and add a third screw on a couple of the posts to ensure that there was proper mounting of the posts so they won't somehow work free under the weight of the moist soil in the barrel. I continued on with the stabilizer boards, nailing them in place. With the stabilizer boards in place I finished things off with the five drainage holes in the bottom of the barrel. With the garden setup done we moved the unit into the garden, setting it up in the back next to the last barrel raised bed I built. I cut some 2x6 board pieces to use as bases to put the posts on so the bottoms of the posts aren't in direct contact with the moist ground. I added the dirt in both beds and planted two sweet potato plants in each barrel garden so they would have over 6 gallons of dirt a piece to share. I still have one more barrel half to make into a bed so I can plant the other two sweet potatoes in the flat that I have. Of course I still have one more flat of six sweet potatoes and another two flats with four tomatoes and one tomato between the two. That means I'm going to have to make five more drum raised beds for the sweet potatoes and tomatoes. As you can see, this particular model of raised bed is an easy to build, cheap, easily mass produced unit that can equip any garden with plenty of planting space for just about any kind of plant you may choose to plant in your garden. And with the use of micro irrigation systems, can be easily linked up with a water source to ensure that all the plants stay hydrated through the growing season.
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May 2023
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