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delia creates

gardening, home, tutorial, video · June 15, 2021

DIY Cement Garden Beds

These are actually concrete block garden beds covered in surface bonding cement, but that was too much of a mouthful for a title. Ha!

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com

I wanted to plant some berry plants along our fence line, parallel to our septic lines, but I didn’t want well….poop berries or a ruined septic system, so I needed to come up with a way to contain the berries and keep them the requisite 10 feet away.

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com

Concrete block beds seemed like a good choice, but I didn’t want them to look like concrete blocks. I found this QuikWall product from Quikrete that not only pretties up the blocks a bit but also literally cements them together into a sturdy, permanent structure. It was all a bit of an experiment because the only tutorials I could find when I started this project last year, were for small walls. It made sense though that if this stuff can make walls sturdy then it could handle a foot tall garden bed…And it did!

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com

MATERIALS

  • concrete blocks*
  • concrete block caps*
  • QuikWall surface bonding cement made by Quikrete*
  • finishing trowel
  • drill and drill mixer attachment
  • garden hose
  • gravel plus minus**
  • hand tamper
  • level (preferably a long level that’s at least 2 feet)
  • shovel/pick axe
  • optional: patio paint or garage flooring epoxy paint and heavy duty rough texture paint brush

Material Notes:

*I used 19 concrete blocks, 19 caps, and about 1.5 bags of surface bonding cement per bed. I found my concrete blocks from Home Depot for $1.45 a piece.

*I wasn’t able to find QuikWall at my local big box store, although I think some locations carry it, so I ordered it through my local tile shop.

**You want to use a gravel that can be compacted like what is used in driveways. I used granite gravel with “minus” or gravel dust that gets in between the rocks and helps it compact so that when you walk on it, you don’t sink. Do not use pebble gravel or any gravel that has smooth rocks. This will not compact and will create an unsteady base for your blocks.

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com

VIDEO TUTORIAL

I put together a video tutorial below that documents what I did. It shows you how the mixture looks being spread on, which is probably the most helpful part. I still recommend reading the written tutorial because there are lot of details that I didn’t include because it would have made the video too long.

WRITTEN TUTORIAL

Step One: Determine Location and Size

My beds used 19 cinder blocks and 19 caps each which created a bed about 3.5 feet by 10 feet (39.25 x 125.75 inches). The actually growing space is more like 2 x 9 ft. though because the blocks are about 8 inches wide.

The cinder blocks are 8 inches tall and the cap blocks are 4 inches, which makes this bed about a foot tall.

Step Two: Prep the area and remove the grass.

Remove any grass or weeds from the area and start leveling out the ground if you’re on an incline. The gravel that will be added in the next step will help with the leveling a little bit too, so don’t worry if it’s not perfectly level at this point.

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com

If you have rocky soil like I do, then I highly recommend using a pick axe rather than a shovel. It will save you so much time and frustration.

Step Three: Add a gravel base.

Lay at least 1-2 inches of gravel underneath where the blocks will go, compacting it with a hand tamper and leveling it as you go. For some of my beds on more of an incline, I had to add more like 3-4 inches of gravel.

You will likely have to adjust the amount of gravel you need in the next step, so you don’t have to get too picky about how precisely it’s leveled just yet.

Step Four: Add concrete blocks.

Now is the time to get picky about leveling. As you add your concrete blocks, ensure that they are perfectly level. You may have to add or subtract gravel to get this just right. I also recommend re-compacting any disturbed gravel, which I didn’t always do and ended up regretting later (I’ll explain at the end).

This step takes the longest, but it’s very important to get right as it determines the stability of the beds and makes the next steps much easier.

Step Five: Add cap blocks.

This part is fun. Just add the cap blocks, ensuring the placement is staggered with the concrete blocks. It goes by super fast because you already did the hard work of leveling the first layer!

Step Six: Add the QuikWall surface bonding cement.

Spray the concrete blocks down with water to help the surface bonding cement adhere to it. You will need to re-wet them as you go, especially if the weather is hot and sunny.

Mix the surface bonding cement according to package directions until you get a mixture that is the consistency of a thick pea soup. Then you spread it on like you’re frosting a giant cake. You want it to be thin enough to spread to about 1/8 -1/4 inch on the blocks. If you are working with it on a hot day, you will want to start with a little bit thinner mixture because it will thicken up quickly. If it starts to get too thick to spread thinly, you can add water to maintain the proper consistency.

Which leads me to a note about cement dye: I wanted my beds to be black, so I also added a cement dye to the water before mixing it with the QuikWall. Not only did it not give me as saturated a color as I was hoping for, it was also hard to keep consistent if I needed to add water to the mixture as I worked. So, if you are a novice like me and want a color other than gray cement, plan on painting them and skip the dye.

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com

Spread a thin layer 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch thick of QuikWall on the outside, tops, and inside of the blocks. I mostly left the rugged troweled texture, but did smooth the corners and edges using a gloved hand.

Optional: Paint the garden beds.

Let it cure according to the package instructions before painting. I used patio and porch paint, but have since touched it up with garage epoxy flooring paint from my stenciled greenhouse flooring project. Use a brush made for exterior, rough surfaces.

COLOR TIP: I should have known, but I found that black paint makes dirt and bird poop very obvious, so it needs to be cleaned and refreshed more often than white or a lighter color to stay looking nice. Dark paint can also heat up the soil in the bed. This is actually an advantageous thing in our cool climate, but may work against you if you live in a hot climate.

A YEAR LATER

I made these beds last year, but decided to wait to share my tutorial until I had used them for a year to see how they fared…remember this was an experiment.

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com

A year later, two out of three look great! One has a couple of cracks I think where the ground settled over winter. This is why I recommend re-compacting any disturbed gravel in step three. The cracks are just cosmetic though and have not affected the integrity or stability of the bed which is the most important thing. If I get around to it, I may try patching it with some leftover surface bonding cement. Maybe. Ha!

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com

I also decided to add another coat of black paint because it had gotten a bit hazy and dingy over winter and I wanted it to look fresh and new for this post. 😉

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com
DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com

So far, they are doing a good job at keep the berries in check. We’ve had a few runners pop up outside the beds but we are able to easily mow it down when we cut the “grass.” I put that in quotes because it’s really weeds at this point. Ha!

DIY Cement Garden Beds // www.deliacreates.com
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. fred blair says

    June 24, 2021 at 2:04 PM

    these are not cinder blocks but concrete blocks big difference

    Reply
    • Delia says

      June 25, 2021 at 12:26 PM

      Thank you for your comment and for your interest in ensuring my post is as accurate as possible. I looked this up because I didn’t know the difference between cinder blocks and concrete blocks. They seem to look the same, but while concrete blocks are made of pure concrete, cinder blocks are made up of concrete with ash mixed in. You’re right that these are concrete blocks. I have updated my post to reflect that.

      Reply
      • John says

        December 2, 2021 at 6:59 PM

        Most people still call them cinder blocks.

        Concrete basically has three ingredients: cement, sand, and aggregate. Most concrete uses stone for aggregate but you can use other ingredients.

        Cinder is just a type of stone so cinder concrete is very similar to regular concrete.

        It can be “recycled” from burnt coal and is used in landscaping, among other things. It collects in the bottom of coal furnaces so it has to be removed periodically.

        Cinder used to be cheaper than stone so that’s why it was used. New rules requiring cinder to be cleaned and processed in a way that removes harmful toxins is what drove up prices.

        It is basically indistinguishable from regular concrete though, so the historical use of cinder for concrete aggregate is more of a “fun fact” and not something that will get you in trouble anywhere.

        Reply
        • Delia says

          December 8, 2021 at 9:21 PM

          Thanks for the information! That is really interesting.

          Reply
  2. Sheryl says

    August 29, 2021 at 10:05 PM

    This is so great thank you for this!!!

    I’m wondering if the QuikWall surface bonding cement will leach into the soil?

    Reply
    • Delia says

      August 30, 2021 at 11:29 AM

      That’s a good question. I’m not sure, but I found this information sheet on Quikwall that details what it is made of. That may help answer your question: https://www.quikrete.com/pdfs/data_sheet-quikwall%20sbc%201230%201231.pdf

      Reply
      • John says

        December 2, 2021 at 6:51 PM

        Most people still call them cinder blocks.

        Concrete basically has three ingredients: cement, sand, and aggregate. Most concrete uses stone for aggregate but there’s no rule that concrete has to use stone.

        Cinder is just a type of stone so cinder concrete is very similar to regular concrete.

        It can be “recycled” from burnt coal and is used in landscaping, among other things. It collects in the bottom of coal furnaces so it has to be removed periodically.

        Cinder used to be cheaper than stone so that’s why it was used. Newer rules requiring cinder to be cleaned and processed in a way that removes harmful toxins is what drove up prices.

        It is basically indistinguishable from regular concrete though, so the historical use of cinder for concrete aggregate is more of a “fun fact” and not something that will get you in trouble anywhere.

        Reply
        • John says

          December 2, 2021 at 6:54 PM

          Sorry I meant to reply to the other comment :/

          Reply
  3. Mrs. C says

    January 7, 2022 at 8:47 PM

    Hi! Thanks for the tutorial. I have just the right place in my yard for something like this. I need to add a second layer of the cinder blocks before I put the caps on. The space is very uneven so I have to raise it up otherwise the plants won’t grow in some spots.

    I also won’t be doing the quiktrete. Do I need to add any bonding agent between the layers of blocks and under the caps since I’m skipping this step?

    Reply
    • Delia says

      January 8, 2022 at 12:45 PM

      That’s a good question. I’m not sure because I used the quikrete as my bonding agent. I have heard of people dry stacking bricks and that as long as you stagger them, they can be pretty sturdy on their own. Best of luck!

      Reply
    • Elaine says

      January 16, 2022 at 6:03 AM

      Yes you will need to use an adhesive for concrete block, otherwise they will shift You still need to offset each level to the one below it.

      Reply
  4. Annie says

    January 30, 2022 at 6:30 AM

    Really interesting and helpful idea. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

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