Culverts Converted Into Garden Beds

Culverts Converted Into Garden Beds When Rick Ratcliff heard about some highly discounted corrugated HPDE culverts he knew he would find a use for them It took a few years but today the 30-in dia pipes are being used as raised garden beds “I have three that are just under 10 ft in length in my greenhouse and plan to add more outside ” says Ratcliff Putting the culverts to use has been easier than getting them in the first place While discounted by about 60 percent from their full price the 20-ft long culverts were more than 400 miles away With the help of a mobile generator and an 8 1/4-in Skil saw Ratcliff was able to haul them home “The saw had enough blade to cut through the culvert wall ” recalls Ratcliff “I was able to rip them down the seam line on each side and stack them for the trip ” Ratcliff cut the 20-ft lengths in half to use them for the greenhouse raised beds and rested them on treated plywood cradled by 4 by 4s The plywood base sits on two layers of concrete block for height Where they bump up to each other he slipped 1 by 5-in aluminum C-channel over the neighboring edges “I screwed aluminum angle irons to the outside edges of the beds and the ends and used 5/4 decking for the top edges ” says Ratcliff “I used a cardboard template to cut half circles of plywood for the ends of the culverts and ran 4-in drain tile along the bottom to ventilate the soil I also drilled holes in the bottom of each ridge to drain excess water ” Ratcliff covered the drain tile in wood chips and then filled the beds with a soil mix that included compost made from food waste and litter from a chicken farm In retrospect he suspects the soil mix was too rich The first year’s crop was not what he hoped for “I planted tomatoes in it this spring ” says Ratcliff “I got lots of vegetation but not a lot of fruit ” He plans to add grass clippings and peat moss to leaven the mixture He also notes that the carrot variety that grew 8 to 10 in long in his outdoor garden beds was short and chubby in the indoor bed “I think the soil in the greenhouse beds may have been too warm for the carrots ” says Ratcliff “The air moves through the greenhouse but can get a bit warm ” While the first harvest might not have been up to par Ratcliff is looking forward to developing outside raised beds with the remaining culverts “I hope they’ll avoid problems I have with perennial weeds with rhizomes like quackgrass and marestail ” he says “However for use outside I likely won’t go to the expense of capping the sides ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Rick Ratcliff Box 10 Bella Coola B C Canada V0T 1C0 ph 250-982-2597; mrbikebc@hotmail com

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