trying our hand at raised beds

[cabingrl11]

In years past my husband and I have always done in-ground gardening. We use a lot of methods that we read about in Dick Raymond's gardening books; wide rows, block planting. But this year we may try a few raised beds since it seems like those are pretty popular now.

I have done a little online research and want to do this as practically and economically as possible. If you look at raised bed videos on youtube a lot of them are geared toward the backyard suburbanites who go out and buy all new fancy wood for their frames and fill it with bags of potting soil. Sorry, too cheap for that.

This is what I think we're going to do, tell me if you think I'm building my "lasagna" wrong!

#1-till soil where you want the frame and level it out. (We have a tiller attachment on the tractor so a few passes should do it I think.)

#2-assemble frames: we are using pressure treated wood that we used to have surrounding our kids trampoline and swing set area. I think standard size is 28-30" high and 4' wide?

#3-line the bottom-I read from another poster on here that he used old paper feed bags which we have plenty of from our chickens

#4-fill halfway with compost or in our case we may use hen house litter

#5-fill with soil the rest of the way. (This is where I draw a blank...where do you get the dirt? Just dig it up from somewhere else on your land? If so, what do you with the hole left there? Nothing? Sorry that is a stupid question...just wondering!)

#6-Plant and water

I think that is the plan. We are going to fill one bed with carrots and green onions (I heard that if you alternate them the smell of the onions will deter the carrot fly), another with leaf lettuce and spinach, and maybe one or two more that I haven't thought of yet.

We've always done just fine putting peas right in the ground so I still might just have my husband till me one wide row of those. We do NOT stake or tie up our peas, we just broadcast them in the extra wide row and let them grow up each other. It works great.

If anyone has any other raised bed tips/tricks/advice I'd love to hear it. We are in for another cold snap next week so we're going to try to get things going before the weekend.

Thanks!

[bluefish]

Use what you've got to fill the beds. I use barn cleanings and top with compost. The compost gives the seeds a good starting point and encourages the stuff below to compost as well. Using this method, it takes 2-3 years before I get optimum results, but I grow stuff in them the first year and usually do fairly well. I don't have dirt to spare, so I don't put dirt in my beds. If I did have some, I would mix it with the compost.

My blog link has a short bit on how I do my beds, even a couple pics. They're not 'pretty' as I use what is available and free, but they are functional.

[cabingrl11]

Those look so cool! I love the logs, so rustic. And I would think like you said as they rot you'll get the water retention bonus and extra organic matter. How do you find the cardboard works out as far as weed/quackgrass control?

Nice job! Looking at those pictures made me cold, though!

[wy_white_wolf]

Built my raised beds 16" tall and 3' 6" wide. Lined the bottom with cardboard and used compost to fill to the 8" level and planted in that. After the second year I broadforked it down to the depth of 12 to 16 inches.

Having the sides stick up that much made it nice to use as a cold frame in the spring. Just cover it with clear plastic and use bricks to hold it down around the outside.

WWW

[bluefish]

^^^ Now that's a cool idea! Now I gotta try that.

Cabingirl, the cardboard works very well for normal weeds. It does ok with the quackgrass, but I am starting to find some in the oldest bed. Nothing seems to stop that stuff. Having the beds taller seems to help as well. Most of it seems to just scoot on through the bottom of the bed to the other side rather than come up through the bed. So far, anyway.

[Callieslamb]

That sounds wonderful...but a lot more work than I went to. Finding/buying soil isn't on my list. I tilled my soil and dug a path between where the beds would go. That soil went into the beds. My beds are only 6 inches high. They weren't filled totally with soil the first couple of years since I put compost on top every year and 'dig' it in with my potato fork. I have sandy soil so a 2 foot high bed would dry out much too fast. I didn't line the bottoms with anything. I get weeds but they are annuals that sprout from seeds every year. Over time, I have eliminated many of them. I don't have quack grass (knock on wood) to cause me problems. I used 10 yr old 2 inch thick oak boards from a dismantled riding arena for the sides of my raised beds. To keep the boards in place, I pounded conduit into the ground beside the boards and screwed the conduit to the bed frame. I use those conduit pieces to support PVC hoops that hold up the plastic over the beds in early spring. My current garden is much more 'rustic' than gardens I've built when living in the city. But it works very well for me. I am sure yours will for you too.

[Scott SW Ohio]

Cabingrl, I expect to be working on my new raised beds this weekend. I have been replacing an old fence that has cedar posts. The posts are solid except right at ground level, where they have rotted, so I will be building the sides of my raised beds with the usable lengths of the posts. They have a lot of life left in them. Like wy white wolf, I am shooting for a 16 inch height or so.

As far as what to put in them, I have some compost but not enough. My plan is to dig out and remove the topsoil inside each raised bed, then fill with a mix of my compost and mulch (this comes from our village public works folks who grind up yard waste - it's free) and then put the topsoil back on top.

[jwal10]

Thoughts. Raised beds that tall take a lot of water. Mix what ever you have into the soil as you go, mix 6" of wood chips, rotten hay, whatever in with the normal soil, go from there, more height. Keep the best for the top. Does not have to be completely full the first year. Make a compost pile this year....James

[jwal10]

Originally Posted by Scott SW Ohio

As far as what to put in them, I have some compost but not enough. My plan is to dig out and remove the topsoil inside each raised bed, then fill with a mix of my compost and mulch (this comes from our village public works folks who grind up yard waste - it's free) and then put the topsoil back on top.

Just wondering why you would put the best (compost) on the bottom, unless you have GREAT topsoil. I would mix that with the topsoil, put the best on top....James

[Scott SW Ohio]

Originally Posted by jwal10

Just wondering why you would put the best (compost) on the bottom, unless you have GREAT topsoil. I would mix that with the topsoil, put the best on top....James

When I say topsoil I mean the top 6 inches of my existing garden bed, which is pretty mulchy already.

[akitt]

I'm lucky enough to have lots of plant nurseries close by and we get all the used potting mix we want for free. We mix in compost and some peat moss to the mix plus rabbit and goat bedding. Everything grows great. These are pictures from last year. We have replaced all the concrete blocks(free) to wooden beds, which are deeper.
Angie

[jwal10]

Originally Posted by Scott SW Ohio

When I say topsoil I mean the top 6 inches of my existing garden bed, which is pretty mulchy already.

Great, just remember to add some new nutrients to the mix....James

[cabingrl11]

Oh look at those lovely photos! How inspiring!

I think you all are right, 28-30 inches is too tall, esp for what I intent on growing. Nothing will root that deeply. And the carrots I'm planting are Nantes so they will be pretty teeny.

I have plenty of topsoil that I can use from my previous years' inground garden.

James, it's hard for me to keep a compost pile because almost all my "green" (as in not brown) compost goes to my 23 laying hens for snacks! I feel like I wouldn't have much to add to the pile other than banana peels.

Thanks for the advice, learning a lot.

[Callieslamb]

Originally Posted by cabingrl11

.............James, it's hard for me to keep a compost pile because almost all my "green" (as in not brown) compost goes to my 23 laying hens for snacks! I feel like I wouldn't have much to add to the pile other than banana peels. ..........

I consider what comes out the backside of a chicken to be "green". I put my grass clippings in the chicken run and after a few days, rake the run and at that to the compost pile. If I had an unplanted bed, I wouldn't hesitate to work it into the soil for planting.

[mnn2501]

Google Hugelkultur
I'm doing it this year myself.

[homesteader824]

I have used raised beds for a few years, and overall like them as an adjunct to my regular garden. With clay and rocky soil I can't grow decent carrots in anything but a raised bed.

For sure don't make them any wider than 4 feet; 3-1/2 feet may be even better. You want to be able to work the whole area from outside, and not step inside the bed.

They take watering more often because they are above the ground, and not drawing from the soil like plants in a regular garden. Mulching is almost a must. Also I added vermiculite to mine to help with water retention, as recommended in the square-foot gardening books.

For some reason proponents of raised bed gardening say weeds aren't a problem. They are in fact as much of a problem as in a regular garden. You will need to weed them regularly, and mulching will help here too. I have used different ground covers when starting a bed: cardboard, dog food bags split to lay as a single layer and overlapped, and even an old roll of roofing. The dog food bags seem the easiest to get caught with my spading fork when I'm turning the soil in the spring before planting. Cardboard would probably be best.

I have used different materials for the sides: junk 2x4s that were deteriorating, cement blocks, and bricks. For my next one I may use trees cut to the desired length. I have also used old tires with the sidewalls cut out for beds.

Since I've only done them one at a time, it wasn't too expensive to buy the ingredients for the soil. Bags of composted cow manure are cheap, and I added bags of other compost (if I didn't have my own handy), peat moss, and some vermiculite. Each year I add compost and turn it all to mix it up. If the topsoil you are using isn't too heavy with clay and rocks, it should be fine with some compost added.

[wally]

I went to raised bed gardening years ago and I have been very pleased with all the work
of a traditional row garden gone. My beds are 3x12 and 12 inches deep, with about 10 inches of soil. We used treated lumber

[jwal10]

The good part of raised beds and weeding is you only improve the planting area, so the soil is softer and the weeds are easier to pull. Also you plant closer giving less room for weeds. Less area to weed, easier weeding and less weeds. I don't work the bed anymore, just plant right in the mulch. If I am planting small seeds, I open a furrow, deep enough to add compost and plant in the compost, very few weeds. I like 3' wide beds, 2' between each. I use redwood or red cedar, rough cut 2"x10" set on a paver block footing all around, all in 4' increments so that a 4' hoop sets on top, most are 3'x12' or 16' but I do have a few 4'and 8'....James

[Danaus29]

When I empty my small containers I usually dump the potting soil into the raised beds. I add sand whenever I can because you could make pottery out of some patches of what we call soil here. Leaves are a good addition. I've got loads and loads of leaves. Rabbit waste is always a good additive but whatever you have will work too.

The only raised beds I lined were the ones set up on grass. IMO your feed sacks would work better as weed blockers, especially if you're plating beans. Lay the sack, punch a hole, plant bean seed. Of course you have to weigh down the sacks so they don't blow or wash away. Check the feed sacks to see if they have plastic in between the paper layers. You could still use them to block the weeds, just pull them off and throw them away at the end of the season.

[Kasota]

I don't have near the trouble with weeds in my raised beds as I did when I had tilled garden space. Part of the reason is that when you til up a regular garden you bring weed seeds up close enough to the surface that they germinate so every time you til - you are effectively planting weed seeds.

Scruffing is what works best for me. Early in the year when any weed seeds have germinated I go out on a warm day and just take a little hand held garden tool or even just my hands (because the soil is so fluffy) and I just scruff up the top inch around the plants. This dislodges the tiny weeds and the vast majority of them die. If I am diligent early in the year they don't get a foothold and then I have WAY fewer weeds than I would in a tilled garden. You can still scruff a tilled garden...but it seems like it is a lot more work.

My raised beds are 10-12 inches high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long. 8 feet long because that is the length of a board I can cram into my Dodge Caliber. LOL! Where I want longer beds I just butt two or more against each other on the short end. Works like a charm.

I put down landscape cloth and mulch between my raised beds to cut down on sneaky weed invasions. Here are some pictures of my beds. Last fall I doubled the number of raised beds and I can hardly wait until Spring and I can plant them!

HomeDepot (and I'm sure many other places) sell a nifty corner vice that is just perfect for building raised beds. It lets me get them all straight and tidy, holds the boards while I pre-drill holes and then screw them together. Best 20.00 I ever spent.