These bricks, meanwhile, sell for around $3 each, and you need only four of them for a basic bed. “My local hardware store was sold out of the most basic garden kits, and even those were a lot more expensive than buying the Oldcastle blocks and wood.”Ī quick glance at listings from Lowe’s and Home Depot confirms that many raised-garden kits cost upwards of $100, even for small wood or galvanized steel beds. “I did a lot of research on building garden beds, and by research I mean I looked at buying a garden kit because I’m not handy,” said Wirecutter’s Alejandra Matos. Really cheap.įirst and foremost, they’re wallet-friendly and readily available at most big-box hardware stores, which is something that can’t be said for many raised-bed-in-a-box kits. Raised beds can also make gardening easier on your back, help keep some pests away from your bounty, and allow you to start planting a little earlier in the season than you could with in-ground beds.īut why go with these Oldcastle blocks rather than with other raised-bed solutions? Oh, I’m glad you asked! The Oldcastle blocks are cheap. Raised beds are our best bet here in Central Oregon, because our rocky, volcanic soil makes it nearly impossible to plant anything directly in the ground without some serious work. And you don’t have to deal with rocks, roots, and other obstacles to getting your plants seated in fertile ground. Building a raised bed allows you to create the soil mix you want from scratch. You can amend your naturally occurring dirt and get straight to planting.īut if you’re dealing with a high water table, bad soil pH, or a rocky hardpan underlayer (like me), raised-bed gardening is a great alternative. If you live in an area that has fertile soil, in-ground gardening is simple and cheap. In the end, all three of us were impressed by how cheaply and easily our gardens came together. Several hours later (yes, that same day), the beds were complete.Īs it turns out, I wasn’t the only Wirecutter staffer who was bewitched by these marvels of modern engineering: Two of my coworkers were building their own block-based beds at the same time. I rushed outside, measured our space, and texted her the dimensions.
Landscape blocks how to#
In video after video, gardeners of all experience levels gushed over the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of these concrete blocks, and they shared tips on how to put them to best use. I quickly discovered that people really love these bricks. While she browsed the tomato starts, I scoured YouTube. Instead, my partner was at our local home-improvement super-center and stumbled upon Oldcastle’s planter wall blocks. But we knew we wanted to invest in a garden, and we knew we wanted raised beds.īeing a Wirecutter writer, I’d love to tell you that I obsessively researched the subject before building my garden beds. We were tired, our bank accounts were nearly empty, and we didn’t have many tools in the garage. Two years ago, my partner and I moved into a new house-our first as homeowners. Though much of gardening is passive-simply watering, waiting, and watching-the hard work is all front-loaded: lifting bags of soil, compost, and fertilizer tilling the earth and, of course, building beds for your plants. There’s also the added confidence of knowing exactly what went into the soil that produced it all.īut before you reap, first you must sow. And home-grown produce almost always tastes better than store-bought because it’s picked when it’s perfectly ripe. Tending growing plants is a meditative, contemplative process that (for me at least) provides something beautiful to focus on when the world is hard to process. "I didn't grow up in poverty … My mum and dad were perfectly middle classed and they worked really, really hard to make sure that we had everything."Ĭelebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver took to social media to express their sadness at the news of his deatj.Gardening is a hobby that’s good for both body and mind. "I was always getting grounded for something, you know, nicking fags out of Nanna's cigarette packet and smoking them on the fly," he had recalled. He said only his mother called him "Barry". This is the first time I've felt that I was a critical part of anything … and it feels good.'" Chef 'greatly loved' in and out of the kitchen "There was this atmosphere that you were in the middle of extreme passion, and excitement, and then customers who were all dolled up, dressed up, sticking their head in the kitchen door thanking the chef for a great meal. "Obviously, I was a cheeky little bugger, but that was it. I got drafted into the kitchen and I was being taught by these two female chefs who were tough but so good at cooking.
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