Lavacrete Garden Beds
If you've been following along you know that we're super excited about Lavacrete, an under-the-radar alternative building technique that uses scoria sand combined with portland cement, lime, and rebar to create thermally efficient, highly compressive walls that need no finishing work.
Watch this video to learn more:
And while it makes a super rad house, it's also great for raised garden beds, too.
Lavacrete Garden Bed Benefits
- Thermally Stable - The porosity and material itself allows for a perfect temperature at the root zone for the plants so they don't get too hot or cold
- Porous Nature - Air pockets in the scoria sand and the way the material is laid means your soil is oxygenated naturally
- Termite Resistant - Lava sand is often used as a termite barrier because it's sharp and hard for them to dig through
- Non-Toxic Properties - Scoria is generally considered non-toxic, safe for landscaping, and eco-friendly
- Low Labor Intensity - The process of mixing lavacrete and lightly compacting the material in forms is simple and easy on your body
- No Finish Work Needed - Lavacrete needs no plastering or finishing work, and the result is a gorgeous natural wall
- Cost Effective - Scoria sand is a byproduct of landscaping lava rock, and can be cheap if you're near a cinder mine
Fresh off our Lavacrete Utility Lodge project, we invited Paul Schwam and Guru Das back to the homestead for a weekend workshop building garden beds, and experimenting with cladding Lavacrete to Hyperadobe. But first we had to prep the area.
Step 1: Hyperadobe Wall & Lavacrete Form Prep
We only had 3 days to get ready for this ambitious workshop. This included marking, leveling and prepping the area, laying a bunch of hyperadobe bags, and building the first lift of forms for the Lavacrete Garden Beds.
Step 2: Weekend Workshop + Form Removal
We're cladding lavacrete onto hyperadobe for the very first time - and we have no idea how it's going to look. Over two days, we built a lavacrete garden bed from scratch with our workshop attendees, including returning guests Guru Das and Paul. Then we pulled the forms and got our first real look at this material on the homestead. Here's what we actually think.
Step 3: Fill, Plant & Shade
It's time to dry in the Lavacrete Utility Lodge before monsoons! Join us as we install the door and windows on the building, then fill, plant, and shade the nearby garden beds. Bring on the rains!
We're loving how these beds turned out so far - stay tuned as we document how the plants inside perform in our high desert weather.
Become a Tiny Shiny Homie!
Subscribe to our patreon-style community & help support our family so we can keep making things for you! Get early access to ad-free videos, special behind-the-scenes updates, & goodies like exclusive stickers and name drops in our videos.
Signup & Become a HomieApparel
Grab a fun, comfy t-shirt & help support our family.
About the Author
Jonathan Longnecker is the strongly opinionated tattooed and bearded half of Tiny Shiny Home. He loves making music, figuring out nerdy solutions, exploring the outdoors, and living off-grid.
comments powered by Disqus
