Synthetic grass/turf around my vegetable garden

Question Mark, if you were building/buying beds 400mm high for climbing plants. How wide do you suggest the beds need to be? if that's all you were using the bed for? or do you suggest wider beds with the climbers at the back and other smaller plants in the front?
 
so we could save ourselves a few trips to the tip :)
That's exactly what I did... Got rid of cut up logs, sticks, generally did a tidy up of green waste, and threw it all in the bottom of 4 raised beds I was building.
 
Question Mark, if you were building/buying beds 400mm high for climbing plants. How wide do you suggest the beds need to be? if that's all you were using the bed for? or do you suggest wider beds with the climbers at the back and other smaller plants in the front?

Have you considered making your own corrugated beds?
 
You could get away with a narrow bed, say 1 foot, wide no problem at all; however, as you say it would probably be beneficial to make it at least a few feet or a metre so smaller crops can be planted in the front such as lettuce etc.

Also, consider other climbing crops such as sweet potato where a wider bed would be better growing the tubers with the vine trained up the trellis - it's a very effective way to grow them.

Have you considered making your own corrugated beds?
Yes, years ago I did trial several DIY corrugated beds - I actually made mine out of poly roofing sheeting and it worked pretty well but the post structure I initially made wasn't long lasting and I was faced with the decision to replace all the hardwood posts or ditch the beds altogether and I chose the later. This idea came about at a time when galvanised/colorbond raised beds were hardly heard of... then once these hit the market it was easier (and probably cheaper) to just buy the ready designed raised beds and assemble them rather than build them from scratch so that's why I went down the raised beds kit path.

Here's a shot down memory lane of one of my first garden bed designs :) You can see the newer raised beds (colorbond) in the background.
Synthetic grass/turf around my vegetable garden

Below is a similar DIY raised bed using poly sheeting and poly irrigation hose with bird netting to stop possums. I used star pickets and hardwood posts as the framework. The poly sheets never deteriorated and overall the it was a pretty cheap way to make a raised bed with high sides but it looked cheap too...
Synthetic grass/turf around my vegetable garden


I suppose with more cost galvanised corrugated iron could be used with H4 posts to build a really sturdy DIY raised garden bed; although, one would have to weigh the cost against buying the ready made kit beds and my guess would be overall the kit beds would probably be the cheaper and better option - but I might be wrong...
 
Well we have decided on the size and shape of our veggie patch area. Have even used spray marking paint and painted the beds etc on the grass so we could sit with it a while to see if we are happy with it. Over the winter months it will be built, just have a few things to do first, it never ends.

The layout will be two 9M long x 1.5m wide beds, one bed will be 800mm high, another 400mm high this is for climbing plants. The beds will have some dividers in them so creating separate beds with the long bed. Planning on building them out of corrugated sheets. And down the middle the of the 2 beds six round 1200mm diameter 800mm high corrugated beds. Between each row will be a 1m gap to get the wheel barrow down and room to work.

On the ground to keep weeds at bay planning on putting down synthetic grass 1m wide, and easy to lay and to blow the leaves off etc. Mark one of the places I have saved on eBay as a possible place to buy is the mob you got your synthetic grass, are you happy with the grass you got? I might just go for 10mm though as that should still do the job but want the 15mm high around a kids play area.

Question re the rubber you used, where did you get it from and what was the cost? Looking at possible using something like that in the kids play areas, where the will land when coming off slides, swings etc.
 
Mark one of the places I have saved on eBay as a possible place to buy is the mob you got your synthetic grass, are you happy with the grass you got?
Yes Kate, the grass seems to be holding up well although I am using it for different purposes now instead of pathways I've used the grass to line my compost bays and as an anti-weed cover for resting garden beds (I decided to use rubber pavers for around the beds).

The rubber I used is recycled tyres made into 1 x 1 metre sized mats - they're about 12mil thick and quite heavy which makes them really easy to lay and stay in place. I got mine from Bunnings, but unfortunately, they are terribly expensive at about $30 each.

I purchased our mats over a period of time and that helped to spread the outlay and in fact I only just finished laying the last mats around our raised beds last week because I still needed to cut keyhole access in our old big square beds. Once I finished the keyhole retrofit, I then installed the last few rubber mats and now it's done. I'm really happy with the outcome, it looks great and it will last years but it was costly!

Years ago we used softfall playground mulch in our kids area - from memory that was pretty expensive stuff as well but it might be worth considering? Also, there are companies around that actually lay the rubber (the same stuff the mats are made out of) like a liquid that then sets in place (you often see it around local playgrounds) - I'm not sure how much they charge... except to say, the DIY stuff as discussed here in this thread is way too expensive.

Your raised vegetable garden project sounds excellent and well thought through. Two 9m long beds should give you guys plenty of space for lots of organic produce - don't forget to show some pics of the build if you can! :)
 
Yep will take pics during the build :)

Think the rubber will work out too expensive, it will end up costing more than the play area.
 
Looks awesome. I always get slack and don't whipper snipper around the edges and the couch takes over. Oh well we're not living in that house anymore.
 
So as you can see from my edit in this post Synthetic grass/turf around my vegetable garden my synthetic grass that I purchased off eBay (now used for covering my compost bays) is degrading pretty badly in the weather. Whilst it is still usable for my purpose probably for years to come this cheaper stuff would not be suitable for synthetic pathways etc - buyer beware!

P.S I'm posting a composting video soon so I will mention more about the grass and how I used it in-depth there...
 
oh dear Mark! how disappointing. And what a let down for you re lightening the work load.
I heard from a guy who sells that turf that they often have remnants that are too short to use in lawns.
Perhaps there is an opportunity to buy good quality remnants at far reduced cost?
 
Unfortunately QC is not the strong point for eBay sellers. PayPal protection isn't enough for buyers to get what they paid for.
 
Back
Top Bottom