period raised beds

[plasticpigeon]

I am going to be working with our local village in bloom team. They are a wonderful group of people who do a lot to bring colour to the otherwise rather ordinary area of Birmingham that I live in. They wish to build a large 10 foot diameter circular raised bed, with a 2ft wall round it. I think the wall will be brick as we can get bricks from a supportive local builders merchant. However coping stones or capstones a re a bit tricky as there is not much range. The other problem is that deep overhanging coping stones are going to have very wedge shaped joints unless specially cut to cope with the 5ft radius of the wall. I have offered to help with the building, and all involved would quite like the look to be traditional, maybe like a Victorian cottage garden as beetroots will be grown as ornamental plants as well as perennials and annuals. I am happy enough building the wall with old look new bricks, but I'm a bit stuck for coping or capstones. Does anyone know what was traditional in this circumstance, or is a circular raised flower bed something not done in the past? The builders yard can supply half round or saddleback capping, so these are bricks that do not overhang the wall. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

[88v8]

Good for you giving your time.

Done in the past - I'm sure, but with plenty of money behind it. As you say, the coping bricks or stones need to be cut like the voussoirs in an arch.
A stome saw and lots of dust.

Or, I'm sure there are commercial options. Suppliers of stoneware.
Look, someone made this
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=circular+raised+bed+brick+coping+detail&dcr=0&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwih8oiQt4TZAhWO66QKHVjMCZEQ7AkIOQ&biw=1247&bih=769#imgrc=e6m0s2mTrhYJnM:&spf=1517478317311

And here
https://www.cranbornestone.co.uk/products/coping-stones/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq6zh8LeE2QIVowrTCh0JsgH9EAAYAyAAEgKgDfD_BwE

And here
https://www.thorvertonstone.co.uk/coping-stones

Bespoke stuff may be £££. Better to find something off the peg, which in the last 15 minutes I haven't.

Or, there's this mockstone, which is shown in a curve
https://simplypaving.com/bradstone-countrystone-walling-buff-block-215-l-x-90-w-x-63-h-288-per-pack.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq6zh8LeE2QIVowrTCh0JsgH9EAYYAiABEgKXYvD_BwE
Perhaps an all-stone wall would look out of place.

Another consideration with bespoke is if it gets vandalised in the future and replacements are NLA, so if you go that route have a goodly number of extras made. I imagine most of the cost would be the set-up, and extras may only marginally add to the price.

Definitely an idea to find your curved coping before you start, that will determine the possible radius / diameter of the bed.

Leave some weep holes in the vertical joints to allow drainage or it could become a bog garden.

Ivor

 

[Feltwell]

Good for you for getting involved.

For your coping stones, how about having a look at the various circular patio kits that are available, seeing if you can use the outer ring of slabs from one of those? Even if they need cutting down to make them narrower and you have a straight, stepped inside edge to the ring as a result it would make life a lot easier.

Here's an example, they do one that is just under 11' in diameter, 3300mm.

https://www.bradstone.com/products/circle-patio-kits-and-features/natural-sandstone-feature-paving/

Something a bit more traditional looking? I'd suggest a half round coping such as CP.1.2 on the link below, or a saddleback coping such as CP2.2, just laid with wedge shaped mortar joints - which I presume is what your friendly merchant is thinking of, or was he thinking of longer coping stones rather than these narrow brick-type ones ?

http://www.ketley-brick.co.uk/copings_and_cappings.html

I'd also suggest that a half round coping or, even more so, saddleback coping would be less desirable for your wall becoming a seat and gathering point for the local bored youths / drinkers compared to a flat topped wall. Coping bricks laid flush to the wall edge would also be more vandal resistant - no edge to get fingers underneath and pull them up, and the mortar between them would make them harder to pull up than a slab top. Not nice that we have to think of such things, but.......

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thankyou. The mock stone can be quite nice, I had sills made which aren't waethering as nicely as stone, but still look the part. I think I will end up with some kind of brick though rather than anything bespoke. The yard near us has exactly the bricks Feltwell has linked to. I really wanted saddleback coping but they only have the capping, along with half round. They also sell a chamfered brick, which I thought could overhang by a 1/4 brick length with a half round on top to make a shape with slight overhang that might be nicer than just cappings but I'm not sure.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thanks for the tip about the weep holes Ivor I didn't think of that!!!

 

[plasticpigeon]

This project is progressing, and I am wondering about the weep holes as described by Ivor. I've been looking at this in a bit more detail, and since I am building a circular wall all is not clear as the info I can find is for straight walls. However from what I have read I believe I should have weep holes along the base of the wall with a ring of gravel built up against the inside of the wall to encourage drainage and some kind of filter membrane between gravel and soil so that the soil does not filter through the gravel and block the holes. Does this sound sensible? I am also not sure what form the weep holes should take. Copper pipe perhaps, and how large?? Can anyone help advise please? The wall is only 10ft across but there will be a large mass of soil inside and I don't want it falling over!

 

[88v8]

Yes, like the bottom of a plantpot really, so the holes don't block.

Only 2 feet deep, not a lot of water.
22mm pipe would be fine. Say every two feet.
Or just leave some of the perpends unmortared.

Yes to the coarse gravel and filter membrane. Weed membrane, ground membrane.

Ivor