Transform Your Garden With Smart Raised Sleeper Beds!

Tip for filling raised beds cheaply. Fill the bottom with logs and branches from the garden and then smaller sticks and twigs. Then top off with your soil or compost. Us gardner's call it hugelkultur beds . As the logs and branches rot they feed the plants. And it holds moisture for longer so you don't need to water as much. You may have to top up soil after a few years. Fantastic video Stuart. Thank you for taking the time to film and edit the videos. Best wishes from Ireland 🇮🇪

I'm impressed with the easy to understand presentation,and the lack of Rock music in the background is an extra bonus

Start your cuts on the narrow edge first. Gives more of the rafter square to run off. Then on all the wide sides you have the cut already started and gain more square to run off

Love the bevel on the edge of the sleepers, it gives it a really neat finish. It's the small details that make all the difference. Great job.

I always place my sleepers on a trench slightly wider than the sleeper and filled with a few inches of gravel.This stops damp rising up into the sleepers from the surrounding ground and also allows drainage from water/rain falling inside the sleeper bed. Much less work than laying on blocks, cheaper and the sleepers will last much longer.

When I did mine, I painted the in sides with bitumen plus all the joining faces, taking care not to get any on any of the visible faces, after 10+ years it's holding up really well, not visible signs of rot, and the plants have done really well.

Lovely job! 👍🏿 Multi skilled tradesman here (20+yrs 😁) and avid DIYer all my life (57+ yrs 😔). I watch many of this type of video and can wholeheartedly endorse everything communicated in this video. The little things like checking the accuracy of your circular saw blade to plate tutorial before even attempting to make a cut are often overlooked in tutorials and it's these little things that separate the "men from the boys", as they say. Just found your channel, subscribed and intend to go through your other videos with interest as no matter how many years you've been doing this work, "every days a school day ". Finally, and fabulous production quality (impact driver synced with music, cool 😎). Keep up the top notch work brother! 👍🏿

Nothing but praise for this video, you have crammed a huge amount of excellent advise into the one project! The sleeper cutting description was spot on and I'm impressed by the tidy DPC lining!

Video has come at the perfect time for me, Mrs has been asking for raised beds for a while now. I’ve no excuse after watching this 😆

Ah Stuart I absolutely love those raised beds. And when planted they look even more spectacular. Well done. Great idea about turning the wood 90 degrees for a cleaner cut.

Very smart indeed. I made one 25 years ago (not as posh as this one), it has finally fell apart through rot. Just give an idea of how long it will last. If i make another one now it should see me out.

Those torx headed screws are excellent.. Used them in my garden - sleepers have been in 3 years with those and there is absolutely no corrosion or movement

I really enjoy all the little tips and tricks you show, like placing a sheet on each side of the trench when backfilling 👍👍

Love the fact that you line them with dpm and lay it longer at the bottom to push the water away from the bottom edge, plus stainless steel staples. I've just built all my beds and done exactly the same method which I did several years ago and missed lining one bed. When I moved and took them apart the unlined one had completely rotted and I had to replace the timbers and that only took 2 seasons! Lining is essential and so glad you did it. Good job that. Well done.

Perfect timing because a sleeper raised bed is my next project and I have thought of cutting the thick wood as you first described which was so wrong. Thanks for the tip.👍

I used basement tanking membrane (with 8mm dimples) to protect my oak sleepers from the soil. It also forms an air gap between the soil and the sleepers. I used composite wood (80x80) for my internal battens as I didn’t want visible fixings on the outside. When using solid oak then always use stainless screws as even the coated ones will eventually be eroded by the oak. My sleeper beds costs a small fortune but they should last many years 🤞🤞😅

one thing worth pointing out with your fixings you used 200mm which is great example. reason being, the shank clears the first sleeper entirely, so only the threads are and small portion of the shank are in the adjacent sleeper. great method, since the shank being completely through the first sleeper will allow for the two sleepers to be pulled into each other when you go to tighten the fixings. very nicely done

Super stuff Stuart. Loving the channel it has helped me do jobs round the house and garden so much. I think I'll give this a go iver the summer. It's just what the patio needs. Thanks for taking the time and effort to make these videos. All the best sir.

Has anyone else has the screen blackout at 17:26 ? Great video, coming from someone who built a raised 4m x 4m veggie bed, it is expensive to buy the compost needed to fill it. Great produce has come from it over the years though 😊

Really enjoy watching your videos Stuart. Great tips and always useful - I’m an engineer too, and have a perfectionists brain! Love to transfer engineering thinking to working on DIY, my chippie always says I would never get a job on site - but at least I know my joints are always tight, square, and perfect, even though no one can see them sometimes 😂