Content
- How to build a raised bed of gabions
- Gabions offer many possibilities
- Assemble gabions
- Select location and fix underground
- Assemble and stabilize the wire mesh
- Fill the raised bed
- Fill gabions with soil
- Tips
Gabions can be used to attach slopes - and create raised beds
How to build a raised bed of gabions
Raised beds do not necessarily have to be made of wooden boards or masonry stones. Instead, there are many creative possibilities and materials that make beautiful raised beds. For example, gabions are ideal for raised beds.
Gabions offer many possibilities
Gabions are lightweight wire mesh baskets that were originally used to mount steep slopes as well as in water and landscaping. Meanwhile, the grid boxes have become a sought-after component in garden design. With them you can build single raised beds as well as entire terraced landscapes. They are usually filled with stones or round pebbles, but other materials such as pieces of wood, loose building rubble or old bricks are possible. The size of the filling pieces depends on the mesh size of the wire mesh. With gabions you can build both angular and round beds as well as those in curved form.
Assemble gabions
The wire mesh baskets are available as finished kits in every hardware store. Assembly is easy: you simply connect two related parts with a supplied spiral, which you turn the outer edges of the parts in a clockwise direction. Gabions always consist of an inner and an outer basket, which serves above all stabilization. And so you build a raised bed of gabions:
Select location and fix underground
First of all, you need a suitable location for your gabion raised bed. Choose a sunny and sheltered place, where the ground should be firm and level and not covered by thick tree roots. Carefully remove the sward and carefully remove larger stones and weeds. Now lift a pit about ten centimeters deep and level the floor thoroughly. Lay out a rodent lattice and possibly a weed fleece.
Assemble and stabilize the wire mesh
Now add the wire meshes as described. Stabilize the inner basket with steel anchors or other spacers. Finally, connect the inner and outer basket in the same way. In a rectangular raised bed, long pegs or rods that push you from the inside into the four corners of the bed in the ground, provide additional stability.
Fill the raised bed
Cover the walls of the inner basket with fleece or, if convenient, with coconut mats. Also, dressing with a film is possible, but basically not necessary - after all, the material must not be protected from moisture, but only the filling of the raised bed from falling out. Now you can fill the wire baskets yourself: field or other natural stones (especially beautiful see round stones), but also pebbles, larger pieces of wood (for example sawed pieces of trunks or thicker branches), glass chunks, building rubble or old bricks. Then the raised bed can be filled by itself, either with soil or in the classical stratification:
Make sure that the individual layers are not too thick - they compost easier if you spread them loosely and thinly in the raised bed.
Fill gabions with soil
By the way, you do not have to fill the gabions with stones or something like that - instead you just fill in soil and gain an additional planting area, which can be wonderfully used for herbs etc. So that the substrate does not fall out, you can cover the side parts from the outside, for example, with mats. This not only looks visually appealing, but is also quite cheap to buy. Reed mats are available as individually cutable yard goods in many DIY stores.In the reed stalks also like to nest little wild bees, who find here a suitable habitat.
Tips
Instead of gabions, (old) wire baskets can also be used as mini raised beds. To prevent the substrate from falling out, simply wrap the baskets with coir mats and / or mats.