More Planter questions

[JasonF]

Hey John,
Nice work on Nora's beds!
If you wouldn't mind, what gauge steel did you use and did you notice the steel bowing when you filled them with soil? I was in the process of drawing some up similar to yours when I saw your journal post. I'm not going to lie either, I saved a couple of your pics for references.
Jason

 

[jd]

I used just standard galvanized roofing panels, 12' long and 24" wide. They are 29 gauge, .0142 thickness. There was a little bowing on a few and I even had the middle supports blow out on two as I was filling them. I was able to get those center supports pulled back in and secured them in a different and stronger manner on those and then did all the others that stronger way as well. I think if I had to do it all over, the only thing I would change would be to use two side supports, rather than 1. It would not have added much to the price or the amount of work involved and would likely have been more beefy, but they do seem to be doing just fine.

For the end panels, I cut a 5/8" dado around 1.25" deep in the 4x4 and slipped the metal roofing into it and then put a roofing screw through the dado and metal to hold it all together.

-John

 

[timo]

To alleviate some of the weight stress on the beds in particular the seasonal veggies and flowers I suggest you fill them half way with Styrofoam packaging "peanuts" then top off with dirt.


The seasonal veggies and flowers roots will never reach the bottoms of JD's planters as they look to be about 3 feet tall. Now with the berries I don't know how deep them roots go so not sure if Styrofoam would be feasible. We do this in our planters and it saves $ on dirt and the weight of the planters as some of ours are on the walls of the house.
Nice looking planters,,, they look huge.

 

[JasonF]

I was wondering if it was the 29 gauge variety, that's what I had hoped to use as well. I like the idea of putting a dado in the 4x4, makes for a nice corner to keep the dirt in, going to have to borrow that as well.

- - - Updated - - -

To alleviate some of the weight stress on the beds in particular the seasonal veggies and flowers I suggest you fill them half way with Styrofoam packaging "peanuts" then top off with dirt.


The seasonal veggies and flowers roots will never reach the bottoms of JD's planters as they look to be about 3 feet tall. Now with the berries I don't know how deep them roots go so not sure if Styrofoam would be feasible. We do this in our planters and it saves $ on dirt and the weight of the planters as some of ours are on the walls of the house.
Nice looking planters,,, they look huge.

Great tips!