Hex / PVC Raised Bed Grower

Growing tomatoes in a raised bed can be daunting sometimes because you know they will end up taking over the whole bed. If you're wanting a lot of tomatoes, or even if you're not, inevitably they will end up crowding everything else out. Needless to say, it is vital to plan out the spacing and location of your plants. We wanted to build a fancy hex shaped grower to plant a few cherry tomatoes and some beefsteak slicers. In this how-to I will show you how I used PVC pipe and fittings to build a pretty neat little raised bed that can be covered and can also provide upward

support for your plants.

For this project I used the following Circo Innovations items:

1.) (12) pieces of 24" long 1/2" PVC pipe

2.) A bag of 1/2" Snap Clamps

3.) (12) 45-degree Ells

4.) (1) 1/2 inch Geodesic 6-way Hub

The PVC pipe can be any standard schedule 40 pipe that you would find at your local hardware store. In this project I used some 2 x 12 lumber to build the box. If you miter each board end to 60 degrees you will have the correct angles to create a hexagon shape. The hexagon shape was ideal because we were able to use a 6-way Geodesic hub to make the top.

For the wood frame you will want to make sure you

pre-drill the boards so that you don't split the wood while attaching the ends. I installed 3 screws in each end and so far for the past year they have held up okay.

Click below that says Hex Grower / Raised Bed to watch the full how to video on our YouTube channel.

This design also acts as a great frost protection frame in cold weather. We found this design to be very useful to be able to cover our plants yet still have easy access when we needed to pull back one side or unsnap a leg. You'll notice that we were able to get an excellent crop of tomatoes. This frame is a great way to not only cover your plants but also it works great for plant support. We used zip ties to hold the tomato branches up onto the PVC legs.

For this and many more ideas please visit our website (or click the button below) where you can find all the PVC fittings and parts you need to build your own Hex Raised Bed or any other PVC idea.