As well as retaining walls timber sleepers can be used to create raised beds. A great variety of shapes can be created using these, but the shape of the sleepers only really work well with shapes based on right-angles. This though still provides great scope by interlocking the basic squares and rectangles, and varying the height of different sections.
Materials:
- New railway sleepers
- 200mm/8 inch Timberloc screws or similar
- Granular sub-base
- Battery drill/driver
- Circular saw with at least a 65mm/2½ inches max. depth of cut
- Sledge hammer
- Topsoil
Method:
- Mark out the outside edge of the raised bed
- Dig out the strip of ground the sleepers are going to sit on, making it 50mm/2 inches wider than the sleepers.
3. Level the base of the trench with a minimum of 50mm/2 inches of granular sub-base and tamp it down with the head of the sledge hammer.
4. Lay the bottom course of sleepers in place, leaving a 25mm/1 inch drainage gap between the ends.
5. Level this course by adjusting the sub-base under them and knocking them down with the sledge hammer.
6. Lay the next course on top of first making sure to overlap the joints and butting the ends up close together.
7. Secure the two courses together with the Timberloc screws, making sure all the pieces are screwed together.
8. Lay the next course on top, screw down and repeat until the desired height is reached.
9. Fill with topsoil.
