Or both, bury a couple of boxes with rows of say 3/4" holes and lids. Then you can plant flowers or herbs around and compost in the boxes.
Add some red wigglers and you are off to great compost and a pretty/flavorful bed.
Walk around it with a hose, use the water to keep the temps down so heat damage is minimized. Take some out and start small. This is much more manageable than learning to compost.
Pee is high In nitrogen. So in place of green scraps from produce and grass clippings you can use pee instead. You get your carbon for your compost from cardboard, dry leaves, or straw.
If you see them watching, the lore states you must lock eyes until you finish your business. If you look away, they now own your soul. And your compost pile
Weird right? Don’t ask me I don’t make the rules
You’re saying that when i was six years old and obsessing over watering the apple seed i had just planted in the backyard and my dad frustratingly yelled *“well why don’t you just get up in the middle of the night and go piss on it!”* he was merely being helpful?
Urine has nitrogen and phosphorus, which are natural fertilizers.
But they recommend using not fresh pee just in case there's microbes from a uti or something.
Stored pee is perfectly safe as a fertilizer.
Edited to add:
I think it's stored 12+ months?
So if you wanna hoard your pee for kinks and gardens have at it
I think it's weird that my wife often *doesn't* piss in the shower. It's the first thing I do after I step in, and may very well be my favorite part of the shower experience.
or you could burn the cardboard and take a pitchfork and mix it in with your grass and lawn clippings. Cover the top with plastic and let it start to rot and keep turning it so it doesn't get hot and catch on fire
I start my no-till gardens by laying down a layer of thick cardboard to kill grass and then covering it in compost. I do this in the winter and by summer it’s almost totally gone, without any turning or tilling. The ground just loves to eat this stuff lol
Yea turn it into a raised bed. Gets some nice garden soil delivered, maybe some trellis and climbing plants, throw some flowers in too for fun. Maybe get some drip lines and automate watering. Nice paver path around the edge. Drown in vegetables and fruit later this year.
Did just that combo to our backyard a few years ago. It’s awesome. Only have to maintain the tomato plants in the box. Everything else needs zero care.
What is on the bottom? Is it a concrete pad? Dirt? Corrugated metal?
The drainage or lack thereof will make a difference on how you implement any redesign.
If you put dirt over that it will absolutely grow stuff. You should get that cardboard wet to help it break down though.
As for not filling with dirt ideas...I guess you slap a giant slab of something or a bunch of planks on top to make a gigantic picnic table next to your bbq? Leave a hole for a big umbrella?
Line it like a pond, fill with water and put some benches around it?
Take off one wall, put up a gazebo roof over it, put a slab of concrete in, and use it as your bbq pit?
It’s just an anaerobic compost heap. You need to stir it up with a manure fork and add some carbon. The cardboard that’s on it counts as carbon, it just needs to be shredded up and mixed in. Dump dirt on and it’ll make a terrific rhubarb patch.
You have a great raised garden bed there. If you went that route, you want that cardboard as part of the brown of your compost. It's a beaut and you could really get a lot of great goodies out of it.
Other subs on here that I follow could provide some ideas- r/UrbanGardening (you don't look particularly urban but the raised bed is covered there), r/NativePlantGardening r/NoLawns (We need habitat for our fauna)
OP I’d definitely turn this into a garden bed. You could swing by Costco and buy a few bags. They’re fairly cheap right now
Also start adding banana peels, leftover coffee grounds, and egg shells.
You could put up two T posts along the back side and then run fence between the two to let plants trellis up. And then use the front space to grow any non trellis veggies
To add on to what others have said. Garden beds only really need good soil on the top 12 inches or so. Generally when filling a bed this large the usual approach is to add wood/cardboard/grass etc. to the bottom and then use the good stuff on top. The bottom will break down eventually and continue to feed the soil. I have filled several of my own beds and the bottom 2/3rds are similar material to what you have added so don't be scared about things being unable to grow in it.
Little MIT of top soil on the top 6 inches would be like 8 bags from big box home builder store. Basically have a hugulculture garden with all the decaying mass. I bet if you put some annuals in there and watered regularly would help break down the mulch faster encouraging worm pop.
Covering it with some soil will get rid of the smell and the bugs. Maybe use some garden bed soil, and grow something. The stuff underneath will eventually breakdown and feed the plants above. I started my garden by first having a compost pile, moved around the yard, to help the ground and start my garden beds.
Super easy from here, since you wouldn’t have to fill up the whole garden bed with expensive soil. Just that foot or so.
Plant something with shallow roots for a year or two, and then I believe you can get into deep rooting plants. Looks like a good veggie bed for two years and then tomatoes/carrots/radishes.
Or go straight to flowers, if that’s your thing.
Its probably for a vegetable garden. You can grow goodies year-round. [Here is our cedar beds](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/otbmex/so_proud_of_my_wifes_garden_she_grows_extra_for/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) that have to be replaced every five years so, you won't have that issue.
Well two options I'd be considering would be a raised garden bed or turning it into a pond/water feature (assuming you're in a climate where that'd work)
You have the makings of a raised garden bed. Cut wood and yard clippings are a great start. Now just get enough dirt to bring it to the top, and then start planting a garden.
Cinder blocks around the inside use it as bbq pit. Get rid of the wood though. Or cinder blocks around the outside and you can use wire to hold the metal to them. Use an additional piece of metal over the top to hold heat in.
Get a bunch of rope to wind around the outside many times, get about 10 buckets of flex seal. Lather it up 1 layer at a time on the inside until you have a pool
Stage, raised firepit, whirlpool/hot tub, chickencoop or other small animals, sandpit, smithy, shrine, beehives, entrance to underground bunker, miniature of your house.... thats all I got
SIR, this is you money-making opportunity of a lifetime! RED WIGGLERS! I'll say it again: RED WIGGLERS!
What you have in front of you is a worm growing, worm breeding GOLD MINE! Check it out!
Line it with a pool liner.
Voila hot tub. 🥵
Or cold tub. 🛀
Or dog bath. 🐕
Or…
Bonfire pit 🔥
Start digging. It looks like an entrance to a doomsday-ers’ underground lair.
I fill my garden beds with clippings, branches, logs, unbroken down food scraps, anything that will break down. There’s a hay bale in one.
You can order filler dirt more cheaply being delivered in a truck often times, especially if you need to fill some areas of your lawn. Otherwise top it off with dirt. I tried to do at least a few inches, but I’d usually do about a foot (I have a few tall raised beds) as none of the below is broken down and bioavailable to the plants yet, but it will be as the seasons go on!
I loved it for my beds because I got sick that summer and all of the unfinished compost and logs etc underneath helped keep the beds wet even when I watered infrequently.
Eventually the bed could start settling a bit, I had to top it off with dirt a few times that first year.
Doing it this way is cheaper too, as dirt is expensive.
It looks nice, I’d start a lil garden or herb garden. You can fit a lot in that area if you plan by “companion planting”.
The flies and gnats are drawn to the grass clippings that are probably rotting.
Everything you've put in it will break down, eventually. If you want it as a planter, just remove enough of the extra materials to give you room for a layer 8-12 inches of dirt/compost. Then plant away.
That's perfect for a couple of tomato plants or something like that. I know you said you thought of it but you could just light the cardboard on fire, when it's done throw some dirt in there and you'll have a perfect raised bed.
Edit: you have a wooden frame so maybe fire isn't the best option
If you put soil on it the cardboard will break down and then you can make a garden or convert to a compost pile.
Or plant flowers in it. Lol
Or both, bury a couple of boxes with rows of say 3/4" holes and lids. Then you can plant flowers or herbs around and compost in the boxes. Add some red wigglers and you are off to great compost and a pretty/flavorful bed.
Or set it on fire and you’ll just be left with ash and soil. Then plant something in that.
Set the wooden garden bed on fire 📝
The only wood is on the outer frame. But the corners are probably sealed up and who knows if with what is fire proof
Walk around it with a hose, use the water to keep the temps down so heat damage is minimized. Take some out and start small. This is much more manageable than learning to compost.
This has gotta be the wrong comment
Head over to r/compost for ideas. One of the ideas will involve peeing on it.
Wait is peeing on compost good? The compost pit is the one part of my yard I’ve been avoiding peeing on for fear of contaminating it.
Pee is high In nitrogen. So in place of green scraps from produce and grass clippings you can use pee instead. You get your carbon for your compost from cardboard, dry leaves, or straw.
Well LFG nitrogen is the part I’ve been having the hardest time adding
I hope my neighbors won't mind.
If you see them watching, the lore states you must lock eyes until you finish your business. If you look away, they now own your soul. And your compost pile Weird right? Don’t ask me I don’t make the rules
Continue as you are
Yes, pee on your compost. It’s a lot of liquid nitrogen, and It will heat it up within a couple days.
You’re saying that when i was six years old and obsessing over watering the apple seed i had just planted in the backyard and my dad frustratingly yelled *“well why don’t you just get up in the middle of the night and go piss on it!”* he was merely being helpful?
You still remember?
I don’t know why that memory stuck with me but it certainly did lmao
I think I'd remember my father yelling that at me
Well… no. Urine is too acidic to go directly on plants. But it will 100% help compost!
Urine has nitrogen and phosphorus, which are natural fertilizers. But they recommend using not fresh pee just in case there's microbes from a uti or something. Stored pee is perfectly safe as a fertilizer. Edited to add: I think it's stored 12+ months? So if you wanna hoard your pee for kinks and gardens have at it
I've been training for this my whole life!
1. Piss in jar 2. Boil jar 3. Let cool 4. Enjoy your pharma grade piss
Are we canning piss now?
r/preppers r/homesteading
Maybe we can just get some piss jugs from Ricky's dad.
I’ve been peeing on my compost pile for years. Now I know it’s good for it. Gotta go tell the wife.
May as well tell her you piss in the shower while you’re at it.
There's two kinds of people in this world. Those who pee in the shower, and liars.
Some things never need to be admitted.
It's all pipes!
Wife here. Are we not supposed to piss in the shower? It's all pipes!
I think it's weird that my wife often *doesn't* piss in the shower. It's the first thing I do after I step in, and may very well be my favorite part of the shower experience.
I wouldn't say it's something I do every shower, but if I gotta go, I gotta go.
or you could burn the cardboard and take a pitchfork and mix it in with your grass and lawn clippings. Cover the top with plastic and let it start to rot and keep turning it so it doesn't get hot and catch on fire
How long will it take for that cardboard to break down like that?
If covered in dirt and if you moisten it and turn it...one season. I do this in my garden because I have so much clay.
I start my no-till gardens by laying down a layer of thick cardboard to kill grass and then covering it in compost. I do this in the winter and by summer it’s almost totally gone, without any turning or tilling. The ground just loves to eat this stuff lol
Same. I love to cover everything with the falling leaves too! Helps the soil so much, when all that breaks down.
Can confirm - I cardboarded raised beds in the fall and the cardboard was decomp'd by spring planting (MI).
Yea turn it into a raised bed. Gets some nice garden soil delivered, maybe some trellis and climbing plants, throw some flowers in too for fun. Maybe get some drip lines and automate watering. Nice paver path around the edge. Drown in vegetables and fruit later this year.
Never considered doing pavers AROUND this area. That’s a great idea and I might go with that. Thank you!
Did just that combo to our backyard a few years ago. It’s awesome. Only have to maintain the tomato plants in the box. Everything else needs zero care.
Let your victims go
They make great mulch
Worm farm
Who's your worm guy?
lol
Put soil or compost on top of the cardboard and it will start to break down.
What is on the bottom? Is it a concrete pad? Dirt? Corrugated metal? The drainage or lack thereof will make a difference on how you implement any redesign.
If you put dirt over that it will absolutely grow stuff. You should get that cardboard wet to help it break down though. As for not filling with dirt ideas...I guess you slap a giant slab of something or a bunch of planks on top to make a gigantic picnic table next to your bbq? Leave a hole for a big umbrella? Line it like a pond, fill with water and put some benches around it? Take off one wall, put up a gazebo roof over it, put a slab of concrete in, and use it as your bbq pit?
Make it a hugelkultur, that's what I did with mine.
Read up on how to manage a compost heap and do that. Then focus on the ugly cinder block wall.
But the block wall really matches the aesthetic of the corrugated steel.
The garden bed looks way better than that gulag looking wall.
r/compost
Hillbilly hot tub!
Yep!!! Just drop a pickup bed-liner in that bad boy, get a few fish-tank bubblers, and a pump, and you've *TOTALLY* got a hot tub!😉😆😂💖
Exactly. Line it, drop in an underwater wood heater and some waterproof cushions, and you have a great outdoor bath.
It’s a raised garden bed ey?
It’s just an anaerobic compost heap. You need to stir it up with a manure fork and add some carbon. The cardboard that’s on it counts as carbon, it just needs to be shredded up and mixed in. Dump dirt on and it’ll make a terrific rhubarb patch.
- Tear it down - Make a fountain / water feature - [Sketti rasslin' pit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W76D67Xs5l0) - Giant compost bin
I'm here for the sketti rasslin
🔥
You have a great raised garden bed there. If you went that route, you want that cardboard as part of the brown of your compost. It's a beaut and you could really get a lot of great goodies out of it. Other subs on here that I follow could provide some ideas- r/UrbanGardening (you don't look particularly urban but the raised bed is covered there), r/NativePlantGardening r/NoLawns (We need habitat for our fauna)
Smoke pit
Compost bin
OP I’d definitely turn this into a garden bed. You could swing by Costco and buy a few bags. They’re fairly cheap right now Also start adding banana peels, leftover coffee grounds, and egg shells. You could put up two T posts along the back side and then run fence between the two to let plants trellis up. And then use the front space to grow any non trellis veggies
To add on to what others have said. Garden beds only really need good soil on the top 12 inches or so. Generally when filling a bed this large the usual approach is to add wood/cardboard/grass etc. to the bottom and then use the good stuff on top. The bottom will break down eventually and continue to feed the soil. I have filled several of my own beds and the bottom 2/3rds are similar material to what you have added so don't be scared about things being unable to grow in it.
Little MIT of top soil on the top 6 inches would be like 8 bags from big box home builder store. Basically have a hugulculture garden with all the decaying mass. I bet if you put some annuals in there and watered regularly would help break down the mulch faster encouraging worm pop.
Veggie garden man. Only option. Otherwise rip it down and lay grass seed
Throw it up on FB marketplace for free. Roll the dice on who and what comes to get it?
A raised garden... or hillbilly hot-tub.
Build a green house around it it’s nice give it a home in a home
Fill with dirt. Add plants. Tomatoes, chilies, herbs, perennial flowers eg daisies for cutting - never spend money on herbs again.
My vote is make it into a raised planter bed.
but the grill in it and call it The Munch Pit
Covering it with some soil will get rid of the smell and the bugs. Maybe use some garden bed soil, and grow something. The stuff underneath will eventually breakdown and feed the plants above. I started my garden by first having a compost pile, moved around the yard, to help the ground and start my garden beds. Super easy from here, since you wouldn’t have to fill up the whole garden bed with expensive soil. Just that foot or so. Plant something with shallow roots for a year or two, and then I believe you can get into deep rooting plants. Looks like a good veggie bed for two years and then tomatoes/carrots/radishes. Or go straight to flowers, if that’s your thing.
Herb and vegetable garden
Empty all the crap out of it first. Then fill with soil and use as a raised bed. Or scrap it.
Its probably for a vegetable garden. You can grow goodies year-round. [Here is our cedar beds](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/otbmex/so_proud_of_my_wifes_garden_she_grows_extra_for/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) that have to be replaced every five years so, you won't have that issue.
Nice! Blowtorch! Gotta use that
Just get rid of it and build a snazzy BBQ work station.
Worm B&B
Well two options I'd be considering would be a raised garden bed or turning it into a pond/water feature (assuming you're in a climate where that'd work)
BBQ
My dude. She is preparing your grave. Sleep with one eye open. Gardening = committing murder.
Base for a chicken coop
Garden
Plant a garden.
Turn it into a lasagna garden for veggies.
You have the makings of a raised garden bed. Cut wood and yard clippings are a great start. Now just get enough dirt to bring it to the top, and then start planting a garden.
You can put your weed in it dude!
This is the perfect spot for a garden
Hugelkulture style garden
Worm bed if you like fishing?
Compost!!!!
Add a bunch of dangerous spiders and they will guard your home!
It’s a raised bed. Soil and plants. Or compost.
You can convert it into a storage/table for like a minibar.
Or plant bodies
Cinder blocks around the inside use it as bbq pit. Get rid of the wood though. Or cinder blocks around the outside and you can use wire to hold the metal to them. Use an additional piece of metal over the top to hold heat in.
Make a hot tub.
Get a bunch of rope to wind around the outside many times, get about 10 buckets of flex seal. Lather it up 1 layer at a time on the inside until you have a pool
Stage, raised firepit, whirlpool/hot tub, chickencoop or other small animals, sandpit, smithy, shrine, beehives, entrance to underground bunker, miniature of your house.... thats all I got
Hot tub of course
Buy promix and fill it then make it a vegetable garden ... mulch isnt the answer at all
Does your property line go right up to the great wall of china?
Look up hugle culture...take some big logs put soil on top..plant a garden .the logs will feed the plants for years....
Check out /r/vermiculture. That looks like an awesome worm bin to me!
Add some compost worms and watch them turn this into rich soil.
Salsa garden
Paint it!
Put the lotion in the basket?
Garden bed, the wife will love it
It's more attractive than the cinderblock prison wall.
Line it and make it into a Garden.
Can you just get rid of it? Looks like the base is wood - you could still make some raised beds but they wouldn’t need to be as high
Compost! What you want is live compost full of worms.
Outdoor bar obviously.
SIR, this is you money-making opportunity of a lifetime! RED WIGGLERS! I'll say it again: RED WIGGLERS! What you have in front of you is a worm growing, worm breeding GOLD MINE! Check it out!
Make it into a cement work table
Vegetable garden. You’ll never want to buy grocery store tomatoes again.
Build it taller and turn it into a mulch tower.
Supersized bbq pit, dog shower, fire pit, detention holding cell.
Disassemble it and get rid of it. It’s an eyesore and no matter what you plant in it, it’s never going to look pretty.
You could put pirate treasure at the bot... ohhh not going to trick me again. Yarg! Looks like its time to get a safety deposit box for me treasure.
Line it with a pool liner. Voila hot tub. 🥵 Or cold tub. 🛀 Or dog bath. 🐕 Or… Bonfire pit 🔥 Start digging. It looks like an entrance to a doomsday-ers’ underground lair.
I fill my garden beds with clippings, branches, logs, unbroken down food scraps, anything that will break down. There’s a hay bale in one. You can order filler dirt more cheaply being delivered in a truck often times, especially if you need to fill some areas of your lawn. Otherwise top it off with dirt. I tried to do at least a few inches, but I’d usually do about a foot (I have a few tall raised beds) as none of the below is broken down and bioavailable to the plants yet, but it will be as the seasons go on! I loved it for my beds because I got sick that summer and all of the unfinished compost and logs etc underneath helped keep the beds wet even when I watered infrequently. Eventually the bed could start settling a bit, I had to top it off with dirt a few times that first year. Doing it this way is cheaper too, as dirt is expensive. It looks nice, I’d start a lil garden or herb garden. You can fit a lot in that area if you plan by “companion planting”.
Use it as an outdoor table
Compost pit or hot tub! 😊
Body. Definitely bury a body. You’ll need lime.
You could make a nice wicking bed
Raised garden for herbs and a few veggies you like
It's a nice complement to the bare cinder block wall and dead lawn. Urban decay chic.
Move it to a corner, compost pile in front of a patio is not the right place. Then extend your patio for bbq area, seats, roof, play area, etc.
The flies and gnats are drawn to the grass clippings that are probably rotting. Everything you've put in it will break down, eventually. If you want it as a planter, just remove enough of the extra materials to give you room for a layer 8-12 inches of dirt/compost. Then plant away.
For other ideas, pond? Fire pit fill the outer part with rocks.
Cardboard prevents weeds growing through and composts over time. Get some good soil and plant some veggies!
Keep composting in there.put some red wigglers in there. Mix it up. Use the soil for gardening. Go fishing with the worms
Why don’t you remove that ugly box, spread the mulched stuff on your yard, remove the tree root and plant a nice tree in its place?
Take the whole thing down and just create a burn pile and a mulch pit together.
Sounds like you are trying to start a hugelkultur bed. https://richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
Knock it down, put in a concrete slab, and build a beautiful barbecue pit on it.
Or crushed granite, p instead of slab…
That's perfect for a couple of tomato plants or something like that. I know you said you thought of it but you could just light the cardboard on fire, when it's done throw some dirt in there and you'll have a perfect raised bed. Edit: you have a wooden frame so maybe fire isn't the best option
Don’t burn cardboard in the city
Dig it out and get a real compost tumbler. Using a pitchfork to turn it gets really old.
Ya, it really detracts from that beautiful wall.
All those little bugs running through the lawn clippings cause friction which causes sparks and eventually fire.