Introduction - Raised Bed Gardening - page 36

Figure 23. Brick or Landscape Blocks Border.
This is more of a border than a raised bed. Compost has been added, but the soil can not be
piled up more than a few inches deep. I wonder how long this nice looking border would
last if I stepped on or tripped over the brick.
Figure 24 and Figure 25 are examples raised beds built from stacked concrete blocks. The
blocks in Figure 24 are typically 16 inches long, 4 inches thick and 8 inches wide and the
diagram in Figure 25 is an example of 8x8x16 inch blocks.
Concrete blocks are heavy, so can hold our weight if we sit or step on the blocks without
causingthemtomove.Thebottomrowneedstobelevelorthenextrowwillnotstackprop-
erly.Thelarger16x8x8inchblockstypicallyhavelargeholes(notshownindiagram)which
can be filled with soil to provide more weight, but these holes can also be planted.
When stacking or mortaring blocks, make sure to overlap the gaps between the blocks on
the bottom row with the next row.