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Himself has built me a raised bed for my veg patch - which is sweet of him - he just made it under the wire before I started in with the increasingly inisistant reminders, nagging, I believe it's called in less enlightened circles. Anyway, delighted to have a raised bed but and the BUT is big, it's hideous! And it is a blight on the present landscape, being the main thing that can be seen from the kitchen. To save money, the old darling has made it out of 'gash' wood, old skirting boards to be exact and they are white and stick out like sore thumbs. Any suggestions for disguising it? Paint is the obvious answer, but will stain go on top of white, possibly satin finish, or worse, gloss? - looks a bit dull for gloss. The good news is that it's a double thickness, so the paint is on the outside, not likely to poison us, but my is it hideous.All camouflage suggestions gratefully considered:-))
Here you go, Kezsmum. the ideal solution !!!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-army-canouflage-camo-net-netting-9-X-5-feet-/200580470306?pt=UK_SportingGoods_Hunting_ShootingSports_ET&hash=item2eb3871622
;-)))))))
Feed The Birds....not the cats!!!!
I know....my spelling's crap !!
How about trying to get hold of some logs or stones to put around it? Double benefit there as it is good for wildlife too! As far as I'm aware (my dad will kill me if I'm wrong here) you will need to sand off the finish before putting the stain on because the stain won't go over paint. Or you could get some lobelia, strawberries or another trailing plant to plant around the edge and grow over the edges concealing it that way. Or you could get the long containers and put them around the raised bed with trailing plants in. Or you could get lots of meerkat garden ornaments and have them surrounding the raised bed as a meerkat army!
Millie & Fly the Border Collies
Hi Kezsmum
I would try a darker colour of paint or stain on top of the white, unless you have some small rockery plants that will grow and hide it.
Best wishes Chris
Click Here to see my photos
Satin Terracotta - is a good colour to use. I painted a few expanded polystyrene boxes with this colour and and use them a mini deep beds - good grop of carrots from them last year. Or use logs
All the best
Nick
Thank you
Growing old is inevitable - Growing up is optional !
My Photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/clan_ranald/
KatTai said:How about trying to get hold of some logs or stones to put around it? Double benefit there as it is good for wildlife too!
You could plant strawberries round the edge + let them tumble over the edge. Saves visiting kids from crushing other crops, my crew love the little wild ones, alpine strawbrries + the more they pick the more come along ;o) Mine spread all over the place, even in the gravel. Need to fill my raised beds, so a ? do I lift the turf first.
If I could post you some wee strawberrie plants if that were possible :-(( As I have masses + they seem to cost a fortune in the garden centres + catalouges!!
'In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks' John Muir.
Excuse wobbily dyslexic spelling!
In my former life many years ago, my partner and I had an Organic Garden and we had the famous raised beds that you have described in your first post. All wood, soil and no decor value whatsoever. So organic gardener or not, you could add colour and interest to your beds and plants by adding colour and wild/herbal plants are benefical to wildlife/bees/butterflies and insects too.
My OH at that time got the wooden skirting boards and plants of wood nailed together to make long narrow raised beds - and this was so we could rotate our crops on a monthly basis for a pest free crop rotation.
The good points about separate raised beds is that it stops the infestation of certain diseases such as carrot fly, influx of slugs and anything else that can infest your fruit and veggies or vulnerable plants of any type.
The bad points about separate raised beds is that they are never attractive to look at, and have a limited life of decay as the wood becomes old and wet through. We never used any type of paint or otherwise due to the though of any chemicals leaking into the soil and would not benefit our health and happiness.
So my suggestion to add interest to your raised beds is to plant herbs, for example camomile, wild flowers that cascade over the edges of the boards, and other flowering plants that are good as companion plants ie: to help keep all your plants healthy and happy and pest free at the same time.
Hope this is of help and it is loosely based on the subject of raised beds of all sorts.
Regards
Kathy and Dave
Hi Kezsmum,
I have just stained my raised beds with some green stain which will help to blend them into the garden a bit more as things grow up.
To protect the wood and make them live a bit longer I actually line the inside of mine with old polythene compost bags. This keeps the moisture away from the wood and stops it decaying so quickly.
I will go outside in a moment and take some pictures of them so you can see!!...
I know it sounds a bit left field but paint them with live yogurt & start your own mini micro-organism colony. Food chain's got to start somewhere ! (Don't let Kez lick it off though !)
higgy50 said: Hi Kezsmum, I have just stained my raised beds with some green stain which will help to blend them into the garden a bit more as things grow up. To protect the wood and make them live a bit longer I actually line the inside of mine with old polythene compost bags. This keeps the moisture away from the wood and stops it decaying so quickly. I will go outside in a moment and take some pictures of them so you can see!!...
As promised here are the pictures of said planters now green and lined with old compost bags.....
Live yoghurt sounds good also!!...