Do you have raised beds in your garden? If you don’t, you may be missing a trick. As the name suggests, raised beds involve growing plants in an enclosed area of soil and/or compost that’s higher than the rest of the garden.

There are lots of different materials that can be used including bricks or stone, concrete and even metal. The most popular option involves the use of hardwood or softwood sleepers. At the Balcombe Estate Sawmill, we supply locally grown timber sleepers (also known as railway sleepers) that are perfect for the job. Choose from new hardwood (oak) or softwood (spruce or pine) beams supplied in 2.4 metre lengths. Contact us for details and a quote.

What are the benefits of raised beds?

Raised beds can make for an eye-catching garden feature, breaking the monotony of a single level and adding a fresh dimension. Raising even a small section of your garden will provide more visual interest and a touch of professional design to your outdoor space.

In addition, introducing raised beds into your garden also has many practical gardening benefits:

• Grow a wider variety of plants. Having raised beds allows you to use different soil to the rest of the garden. If your garden soil is alkaline, use raised beds with ericaceous compost to grow rhododendrons or hydrangeas, blueberries and raspberries.
• Benefit from a longer growing season. The soil in a raised bed warms faster in the spring, meaning you can plant earlier and enjoy a longer season. Add a cover and the soil will warm up even faster, meaning you can start even earlier!
• Control garden pests with ease. With raised beds, it’s so much easier to protect young plants and crops by covering with garden netting, horticultural fleece or plastic cloches – helping to keep birds, insects, rodents and slugs at bay.
• Enjoy easier garden maintenance. Once your raised beds are built and planted up, maintenance can be as easy as weeding and dressing with compost. And because the beds are raised, you don’t have to bend over as much – no back breaking work!

What can you grow in a raised bed?

The beauty of raised beds in your garden is that they can be used to grow anything you like – from alpines to perennials, herbs, soft fruit or vegetables. Many homeowners introduce raised beds as purely decorative features or centre pieces that have nothing to do with having a vegetable patch.

Others relish the idea of using some of the outdoor space as a ‘working garden’ where fruit and vegetables can be home grown with zero food miles. Growing your own is becoming an ever more popular hobby – and what you grow is only limited by your imagination, your gardening knowledge and a few practical considerations.

Good starter veg for raised beds include:

• Radishes and carrots
• French beans and runner beans
• Courgettes and pumpkins
• Chard, spinach and lettuce

If you’re new to vegetable gardening, it’s a good idea to seek advice from more experienced veg growers and ask for guidance about what’s easiest to grow and any tips and tricks they can share. Before you know it, you’ll have green fingers and fresh produce for the dinner table!

How to make a raised bed

Getting started with raised bed gardening isn’t hard to do. All you need is some timber sleepers cut to size, a spirit level and some basic tools (rubber mallet, electric drill and long screws).

1. From your lawn, dig out strips of turf that are wide enough to accommodate your timbers (or alternative choice of material for the surround). Lay the timbers out in position to form a square or rectangular frame and check that they’re level. Make sure the corners are at right angles by checking the diagonals.

• Tap the timbers into place with a rubber mallet, always checking that they’re perfectly level and straight against each other. Then drill through the end timbers and all the way into the adjoining pieces and secure the frame with extra-long heavy-duty screws at the top and bottom. Repeat this on all four corners.

• Arrange the next set of timbers on top of the first level, making sure they overlap the joints below for added structural strength. Check again with a spirit level before securing the top level into place with long screws. Finally, add some extra screws drilled down through the middle of the top sleeper into the bottom sleeper.

• Fill the inside of the raised beds with a bottom layer of builder’s rubble to improve drainage, then top up with good quality topsoil and compost. For added weed protection, you may wish to line the inside of your bed with a garden membrane first. Make sure you choose one that’s water permeable, so it lets rainwater through but keeps weeds out. You’re ready to start planting.

At the Balcombe Estate Sawmill, we’ve been supplying landscaping materials to residential and commercial clients in Sussex for over 40 years. Raised beds can easily be constructed with untreated and locally sourced materials including our treated softwood sleepers, railway sleepers and prime-grade sleepers. Why not get in touch with our team today to discuss your project and obtain a competitive quote?

Do you have a garden and wish your kids would play in it more? We all know that children thrive in an outdoor play environment but, sadly, kids today tend to spend more time indoors, and much of that in front of electronic devices. And yet the benefits of playing outside are undeniable, wide-ranging and scientifically proven. They range from physical benefits such as building muscle strength and motor skills, to developing an awareness of the world around us, building social and communication skills, a sense of independence and greater learning. Most of all, playing outside is fun!

The garden, then, can be an amazing source of play and a huge opportunity for your kids to get active outside. Perhaps all you need are a few child-friendly additions to encourage your little ones to step outside for hours of outdoor fun. At Balcombe Estate Sawmill, we can certainly help with that. Why not discuss your timber supplies or woodland product requirements and contact us for a free quote?

Here are some great ideas for a kids’ play area in your garden.

Playhouse

Putting a Wendy house in your garden ensures year-round fun for the little people in your family. At Balcombe Estate Sawmill, we can supply the most suitable timber landscaping materials for any outdoor garden project. A child-sized wooden playhouse can be made to any dimensions and design specifications, painted in bright colours and even decorated inside. How about adding stairs up to a second-storey ‘bedroom’, an outdoor mud kitchen or a verandah for all those teddy bears’ picnics?

Our children’s imagination is boundless, and you can really help bring it to life with a vibrant colour scheme, a child-sized table and chairs, hanging up bunting and adding cuddly cushions and a rag rug.

Sandpit

A sandpit is one of the most versatile play areas imaginable. Just add kids, give them a bucket and spade, some sand moulds and access to water, then sit back and watch them become immersed in this most basic sensory material.

A sandpit is easy to assemble from softwood sleepers that we can supply and deliver. All that remains is to fill it with special fine-grade play sand that easy easily available. We recommend adding a lid or canopy for nighttime, to deter any passing cats from using the sandpit as a litterbox.

Treehouse

Why put your playhouse on the ground if you can site it high up in the trees? Well, maybe not very high up, but it’s the idea that counts. Treehouses are a perennial favourite with boys’ and girls’ play. From a hideaway den to a pirate ship lookout, create a versatile space that can be reached by steps or rope ladder and can stimulate your kids’ inspiration for creative play.

And while, strictly speaking, you need a sturdy tree in your garden to build your treehouse around, there are other alternatives that work just as well. How about a tower house – essentially a Wendy house on stilts? You could even add a platform, gangway and slide down for added interest.

Playground

Of course, if you have the space, you could invest in a climbing frame, swings, slide and seesaw as well, bringing all the fun of the playground into your private garden. Outdoor playsets are widely available to buy in kit form, or you can design your own and have us supply bespoke materials. At Balcombe Estate Sawmill, we have 40 years experience of working with timber in all its forms, while our sawmill equipment can produce a large variety of sawn timber materials for all sorts of outdoor building projects.

Finally, don’t forget that accidents and falls will happen, so make sure that you protect your little knees with play-grade bark chippings on the floor around the equipment. Ask us to supply the woodchips and put them down around 4 inches deep so it’s extra springy and safe underfoot.

Kids’ vegetable garden

If you grow your own vegetables in the garden, why not give your children a little patch of their own that they can tend? Help them grow things like sunflowers, runner beans or pumpkins – produce that yields maximum wow factor results with comparatively modest efforts. Give your little ones their own mini watering cans, rakes and trowels and let them discover the wonders of nature first-hand.

Raised beds are easy to construct with untreated and locally sourced materials. We offer a wide range of sleepers – including treated softwood sleepers, railway sleepers and prime-grade sleepers – that will help you achieve defined and solid planting areas that are convenient to maintain.

When it comes to playing in the garden, the only limitation is your kids’ imagination. Involve your children in the design of their play area as much as you can, making sure they know that the garden is not just for the adults, it’s for everyone in the family to enjoy. For help with timber supplies for your outdoor play area, please feel free to get in touch.

Woodburning stoves and open fires add warmth and cosiness to any home, that’s a fact. There’s nothing more relaxing and soothing than sitting by a roaring fire, enjoying the flickering light, crackling sound and distinctive smell. Little wonder, then, that solid fuel appliances in the home are more popular than ever. But do you know what to burn in them?

This is where the Balcombe Estate Sawmill can help. As a renowned supplier of logs in Sussex, we think we know a thing or two about firewood. Over the last 60+ years, we’ve been managing our 1,250 acres of mixed woodland, comprised of ancient semi-natural woodland, plantations on ancient woodland sites and plantation woodlands.

Our logs are cut from hardwood cordwood, typically a mixture of ash, oak, silver birch, beech or alder, seasoned for at least a year. We supply our logs cut to 10” as a standard size, but custom sizes are available to order. We offer a collection or local delivery service and you can place your order by emailing sawmill@balcombeestate.co.uk or by calling the Balcombe Estate Sawmill on 01444 811 446.

If you are considering a real fire or log burner for your home, or you have an underused fireplace and are thinking of using it more, here are a few basics you need to know when it comes to firewood logs.

Hardwood or softwood

Both softwood and hardwood can be used as firewood but they have different properties. Softwood logs such as pine, fir or larch burn quickly. They are easy to light and ideal for use as kindling. Once your fire is established, you should add hardwood logs.

Hardwood, such as oak, ash or beech, has a much denser structure than softwood. This gives the logs a higher heat output and longer burn time. Hardwood logs are heavier and produce more energy than softwood logs, meaning you need less to produce the same heat output and refuel at longer intervals.

Firewood comparison

While logs can be cut from all kinds of trees, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to find out that they don’t all burn in the same way. Before you place your order of logs, it’s a good idea to understand a bit about their differences. Here are the main types of firewood you’re likely to come across:

Ash

Long considered to be the king of the firewoods, ash produces a bright flame, a high heat output, good burn duration and consistent performance, all at a good price point. Ash is a particularly good choice for wood burners.

Beech

Beech logs must be properly seasoned (on account of their high water content) but when they are dry, they display similar properties to ash. Its non-flaking bark makes for less mess in the log basket. Beech briquettes retain heat for hours.

Beech

Birch    Birch logs burn fiercely and more quickly than other hardwood logs. They also have a lovely aroma. For fine-tuneable modern stoves, birch provides an excellent fuel choice as well as a great value – no wonder the Scandinavians swear by it.

Oak

Oak is the traditional choice of logs and everyone’s favourite. Oak logs are dense and heavy and burn for hours, though the flame is perhaps less dramatic than for other woods. In terms of burn duration, it’s hard to top oak.

Apple

Applewood logs must be seasoned well. They burn slowly with a small-ish flame and good heat output while producing a lovely smell. The same goes for other fruitwood logs such as pear, plum and cherry.

Pine 

Pine is a fast-burning softwood that lights easily and burns with a bright flame, which makes it an excellent fire starter. Its relatively high sap and resin content make it more practical for outdoor use, as the moisture can lead to spitting.

Why ‘seasoning’ is key for firewood

Living trees have a moisture content that is too high for burning. Beech, for example, has a moisture content of 90%, the green moisture content of oak is about 75%, and 50% for ash. Once cut into logs, firewood has to ‘season’ or dry out sufficiently for the moisture content to reduce to less than 20%.

It can take anywhere from 6 months to 3 years for the logs to achieve that level of moisture, and it’s only then that they are ready for the fire. The longer the seasoning time, the drier the logs are, and the hotter they will burn.

You can check if your logs are ready for burning by knocking two together. If you hear a satisfying ‘thwack’, they’re dry enough. Logs that spit and crackle in the fire are not ready – it’s the moisture being released in the fire that makes the noise.

What are kiln-dried logs?

Leaving hardwood to season naturally is an inexact science. Due to environmental variations, you can’t be completely sure that the logs are ready even after 2 years of seasoning.

Enter kiln drying – a drying process in a controlled environment that removes these uncertainties, delivering logs with a moisture content of around 15%. Kiln-dried logs are cleaner, meaning less mess in your house and less build-up in your flue. They burn easily, with a high heat output and without leaving much ash at all. These logs may be more expensive but given the fact that less is needed to produce the same heat, they are excellent value for money.

Find out more

The Balcombe Estate Sawmill should be your first port of call for all your firewood needs, timber supplies and bespoke sawn timber products. Get in touch with our knowledgeable team who are always happy to share their expert knowledge and assist you in any way possible.