Raised Beds From Bike Wheels

I make these from bike wheels.
Mostly using hardware cloth and zipties.
These are for my moms house.
They will be placed in the shade of the sweet gum tree and planted with kale, collard and mustard greens.
Each has a wheel with half the spokes cut out to act as a "lid", because she has rodent and deer pressure.
Each will get an olla of some kind.

The newest design uses pallet wood and deckscrews.
I will line it with cardboard before I fill it.

I made it very tall to make harvest easier for my momma.
She has a sunny spot by her backdoor that should be good for peppers
It will get a screened in enclosure on top and a HUGE olla in the base.
I might use a weed torch to give it a blackened finish.

Going forward I'm hoping to uses wire or even bike spokes to affix the pallet wood to the rims.
Right now I'm not sure if the there is any advantage over an all wood rectangular bed.

I am looking for good ways to cover the edges of hardware cloth, so far I'm leaning towards split hose but I'm hoping for better ideas from y'all.

Old garden hose is good for being free, smooth, soft, flexible, easy to cut, long enough pieces, colorful, looks like it belongs in a garden.

Sandwiching the hardware cloth between the bicycle rims and something else would "hide" the edge of the hardware cloth, even if it isn't completely covered, A hoop or band of plastic or metal, which could be pallet banding, strips cut from something plastic like a garbage can (salvage one with a broken bottom?)

Another idea would take the place of the zip ties. Wrap the hardware cloth onto the rim by lacing rope, twine, string trimmer line (the smooth stuff), broken extension cords... through a hole in the mesh, around the rim, through the next hole, and so on until complete. The thicker the stuff, is probably better since the spaces between will be narrower and deeper. This idea for fastening might also be a way of securing the split garden hose.

Some sheet metal thing like a tight U-shape that could slip over the edge of the hardware cloth when flat, and be crimped in place or soldered on, then bent into the cylinder shape together. I'm thinking I've seen something similar done on the edges of lids for fish tanks and terrariums for reptiles. HVAC ductwork is joined using "drive cleats" or "S-cleats" which can be found at the home improvement stores. They are narrow strips that are rolled/folded to have the sharp edges enclosed, and are made to slip the sharp edges of the duct sections into to join them together.

Kenneth,  those are some great suggestions!
I especially love using  a thicker cord to whip stitch the metal to the bike wheel.
I like the sheet metal fittings as well.
Your post got me thinking, I have 1/4"  tubing, it would fit nicely, but I also could cut strips of PET plastic from a soda bottle the fold and seam them with an iron.
The key is balancing cheap, with fast and good.
I might switch to self tapping roofing screws for securing the wood to the rims, for speed and quality, despite the cost.

Using  copper wire to secure  wood to a rim might be cheaper.
Done correctly there would be few joints, plus the look would be pretty nice.
I'm imagining a backstitch sort of pattern.
It would take some  time, but I might not mind.

William Bronson wrote:
The key is balancing cheap, with fast and good.

As the saying goes, pick two.

I like the lashing /whipping idea since it eliminates the zip ties, and reduces the chance of being poked by the edge of the mesh. (the zip ties might be useful as a temporary fastening to line things up) You could cut old garden hose into ribbons and use that for the cord as well, if you didn't have something else, and time... but a slitting jig could be easily made with some utility blades mounted to a guide.

The copper wire idea for the boards could look quite nice! It would take time but the result would be worth it. Maybe if the wood was ripped into strips as wide as the space between the spoke holes, or some multiple 2,3,4, you could more easily do some sort of lacing without drilling holes.

Since you have bike wheels, do you have dead inner tubes?

Split in half longwise could cover the sharp edges.
Cut longwise into narrow strips for wrapping and ties.
Cut short wise into loops to make rubber bands.