For many owners, a garden is not only a source of useful harvest, but also an additional decoration to the house. Cute slate beds look great in any garden. Each person can create these simple and easy-to-use products. Neat stripes will not allow the earth to crumble and will stand for a long time.
What are the benefits of slate railings?
Asbestos-cement slabs, designed to form garden paths, are good for high strength, water and fire resistance, and the ability to protect plants from rodents. Products are quickly replaced and easily transferred. Boards rot in a few seasons, and slate garden fencing is very durable. Wavy sheets give the site a well-groomed appearance. You can buy them in various hardware stores.
Place the beds in a variety of places depending on the landscape design. What form they take is up to the owner of the land. They can be square, rectangular, trapezoid or polygonal. To create a beautiful flower bed, you can use colored materials or apply unusual patterns to the slate. Suitable as a decorationcute flowerpots or planters with flowers, it is also allowed to decorate with smooth pebbles, which can be repainted in a color that is in harmony with the design of the site. This is how the original style of the garden is created.
How to make beds from wavy slate?
When creating a flower bed, you can use asbestos-cement sheets with waves. The corrugation is located along or across it. The process of making a garden bed from slate with your own hands is very simple.
- Across or along the waves (at the discretion of the garden owner) cut the plates of the required size.
- Design the boundaries of the future beds by digging a trench (depth - a little less than half the height of the product).
- Place blanks in dug holes.
- Cover them with earth and tamp down for stability.
- Reinforce the sheets with metal pegs.
When deciding how best to install corrugated asbestos-cement sheets (along or across the soil), certain subtleties should be taken into account. If some representatives of the flora are fenced off with slate with horizontally arranged waves, then the shoots can grow along the recesses. When digging the earth, there is a risk of not calculating the force and breaking the fence. Vertical stripes do not have these disadvantages, but are slightly more difficult to trim.
Creating beds from flat plates
From corrugated sheets, you can cut the required number of fences with virtually no waste, but making beds from flat slate is not sosimply. Preference should be given to slate with a size of 1.75 m. The operation algorithm is simple.
- Divide the blank into two parts: 1 meter and 75 cm.
- Make a hole in the ground (about 20 cm).
- Place sheets in prepared holes.
- Fill the products with earth, carefully tamp.
- Cut metal corners.
- Drill holes for bolts in the slate.
- Connect metal plates with asbestos cement sheets.
- To avoid corrosion, paint or prime the corners.
- When everything is dry, add organic fertilizer: brushwood, wood particles, compost and soil.
It should be remembered that when installing a slate bed, you cannot drive the fence into the ground, otherwise it will break.
Features of work
For the manufacture of strips from the material in question, a grinder is most suitable. It cuts everything: iron, stones, bricks, pipes and slates. You need to use it so that the wind carries the dust to the side. Since asbestos-cement dust is harmful to he alth, be sure to wear safety glasses and a cotton-gauze bandage. Under no circumstances should you use a saw for wood, otherwise you can cause serious injury to your hands.
Benefits of slate fencing
The material under consideration is remarkable in that it can be used for very long beds. It will not be difficult to position the sides at the same height, since the depth can be controlled by the force of indentation into the soil. Asbestos-cementplates have other advantages:
- Easily heat up in the sun and increase the soil temperature by several degrees, which speeds up the process of obtaining nutrients by the plant;
- material is durable and reliable;
- products are convenient and practical to use;
- low cost;
- asbestos cement strips are very durable;
- beds surrounded by slate look harmonious in any garden.
Slate bed strips can be painted any color to further enhance the owner's garden.
Disadvantages of slate beds
In addition to the listed advantages, asbestos-cement products have disadvantages:
- in extreme heat, the material overheats on both sides, due to which moisture from the soil evaporates faster;
- it is necessary to correct the slate often, as the rains erode the soil and the strips tilt.
Many people who want to make slate beds with their own hands ask how this material affects human he alth. In fact, only asbestos-cement dust brings harm. Since slate is a finished pressed product, it is completely harmless.
Features of the formation of beds
Those who want to understand how to make beds out of slate must follow a few simple rules.
- Plantations must be located from east to west.
- Fencing high land platforms, slate is lowered ontoa depth equal to slightly more than half the height of the sheet.
- Compost should be laid at the bottom of the future bed, and a layer of earth should be poured on top of it.
- For compaction, many people use sawdust in strict proportions.
- In between plantations, you can plant a lawn, it will look great in the garden.
These simple principles will help gardeners make a beautiful flower bed.
Features of high beds
Growers can make 50 to 70 cm high slate beds. They are ideal for areas with infertile soil, as they create a perfectly balanced soil for plants. Cultivated crops practically do not get sick and do not require treatment with chemicals. Such a positive side of high beds should not be missed, because organic products are the key to he alth.
High slate beds do not need to be dug up often, it is enough to loosen the soil in a timely manner. You should be careful about watering, because with too frequent moisture, water can stagnate. Such structures are much easier to weed, because you do not need to bend low. They are ideal for growing annuals, but perennials will not be comfortable in them.
High slate beds provide double or triple the yield of regular beds. They protect plants from sudden frosts. So that the bed does not disband and the structure does not break, it is necessary to make a screed. To do this, on opposite wallsholes are made in the middle through which the wire is pulled and fixed. Additional fastening is done in several places depending on the length of the product. For the stability of high beds, it is recommended to dig in metal pipes (2/3 of the height should be in the ground). They will become an additional support.
Observing all these simple principles, you can independently make any beds from slate and get a decent reward for your work in the form of a harvest.
