I ordered 150 retaining wall bricks from the closest Menards to finally shore up our grow bags. They’re starting to fall to pieces this season, and I wanted to support them with retaining wall bricks so the walls would be sturdy enough to sit on.
My husband was a saint and placed them all for me the day they arrived, and he also moved one raised bed before placing them so it would be in the permanent position we intended.
Take a look:
Yes, I know they’re placed backward. Turned out we were about 20 short of what we needed, so they are all placed backwards and interlocking (the lips/grooves on the bricks lined up) so they’ll hold their shape.
They’re in sets of three so I can access the back of the beds. There’s room to walk around them easily.
Now, I just have to get some mulch and cover up that landscape tarp! When we flooded last year, it was covered with silt, so of COURSE stuff is now growing on top of the tarps.
My husband was annoyed that they overlap the driveway a little, but I just make sure to part way over to the other side so he can get the garbage cans out.
The center one there, three bricks tall, I’ll be cutting back the grow bag. It was one of the big 200 gallon ones, and we never actually filled it all the way because we ran out of supplies. So, I’ll trim down the bag to match the bricks. That one is my herb garden, and I already have tons of mint growing back in!
What do you think? It was a lot of work, and it wasn’t cheap, but doing it this way let us spread the costs over ~4 years AND it shouldn’t need to be replaced. How do you support your garden beds? What do you have planned this year for the garden? Inquiring minds want to know!
