Due to some rather unpleasant weather caused issues, we have to buy a new home. Said home doesn’t have much landscaping, which is good because we have greyhounds who love to run laps, but don’t really notice the vegetation except to jump over high things. They just barrel through the low stuff.
So, we are having raised beds built so I can still mess around with plants. I’ve looked online about how to start them, but want advice and/or suggestions from people who have actually done it.
So, here’s what the plan is: I am going to start with a 3 foot wide by 12 foot long by 3 foot high brick bed. Some websites recommend putting a special barrier that stops weeds from growing, some don’t. What have you folks done?
Some websites recommend a 6 inch or so layer of gravel and sand for drainage, some don’t. I know that plants need good drainage, but I’m not sure about this advice, because other websites recommend a gravel footing for drainage. Any advice or suggestions?
Something else I’ve also seen online was to mostly fill the bed with compost material and then fill the last 6 inches with top soil. I think this sounds like a wonderful idea, but am wondering about the settling. If I do this, will I be adding another foot of mulch/soil next year?
I slapped together two 4x8 boxes made from 6 or 8 inch pine and filled with decent topsoil. Worked a treat. Some weeds might blow in but they’re easy enough to see and remove. Make sure you can reach the middle from the sides and you’ll be fine. Over 8 years I’ve only replaced the frame once but your version sounds more sustantial - good luck!
Our beds are 4x6 feet, made from pine 2x12’s, set directly on the ground and filled with topsoil. The only real problems we’ve had with weeds are from ones that blow in from the top.
If you choose topsoil instead of garden soil, work a couple bags of Kellog Amend into your beds. This is the best stuff. As for compost, we didn’t bother with it at first. Most of our beds were filled with Kellogg Raised Bed soil or topsoil and the aforementioned Amend. You can always start your own compost pile and next year you can use that to bolster your soil.
The afore mentioned greyhounds just lurve chasing squirrels. While our neighbors used to complain about the furry rats, I don’t think we have ever had squirrel damage. New place, new critters, new neighbors. Same hounds, though so I am doubting that the squirrels will be an issue.
Rhiannon8404 Thank you so much for that suggestion. I have seen that stuff in stores, but have always used Miracle Grow and mulch.
Additional question: Its so damp that my compost bin keeps trying to rot, so I am adding straw and shredded paper to the mix. Any suggestions about that?
When you build the bed, lay down chicken wire fencing wide enough to tightly cover the bottom, keeps the moles and gophers from tunneling up into your bed and eating all your worms.
It definitely sounds like you need more brown material in your compost. Straw and paper will definitely help. Also leaves, eggshells, wood ashes (not from charcoal briquettes, though). Saw dust and wood chips can help as long as the wood was not pressure treated.
I have a couple of raised beds (one for vegetables, one mostly for blueberries), made from pseudo-lumber plastic frames, measuring about 12 x 4 feet, 2 feet deep.
The OP’s brick raised beds sound attractive. Three feet deep sounds like more than you’d need for good root development, though it might be easier on the back via less bending.
I started my beds off with cheap bagged topsoil, amended with cheap bagged compost mix and composted manure. Over the years I’ve worked in used potting mix and homemade compost. I never bothered with a gravel or sand base, and don’t see the need unless one’s soil is really heavy, badly draining clay.
Never had 'em myself, but here’s some info from friends who had several.
Fill them with styrofoam blocks (or even packing peanuts), leaving only the top 12-18 inches for compost & topsoil. That saves a lot if you are buying in topsoil.
the chicken wire covering the bottom is good advice. But chicken wire is rather weak, you might consider upgrading to welded wire mesh fencing. One person re-used chain link fence that he got for free. But the links need to be small enough to stop small burrowers.
Another free option, for wood-sided ones, is the plastic cardboard used for political signs. That can be put inside to protect the wood from moisture & rotting. And they’re probably free from any defeated political candidate. May not be needed for a brick one.
the soil in them gets heavily used over the years. Plan on fertilizing or adding compost regularly to keep getting good yield.
Have you already looked at the Square Foot Gardening sites? There’s a lot of great raised bed information there.
Thanks to raised beds and container gardening I’m still growing carrots here in Utah, both new seedlings sown last month and nearly mature carrots sown in September. You can control everything but the amount of sunlight w/ containers.
As far as brown compost, I add my toilet paper tubes (after shredding) to mine as well, plus egg cartons.
I try not to use plastic so the weed barriers I’ve tried, while better for the soil have failed; even layers and layers of newspaper on top of the black fabric barriers didn’t hold up an entire summer.
Next summer I’m going to give straw bale gardening a shot; several neighbors have had good luck w/ it so we’ll see how it compares! It sounds like you’re going to have a lovely garden w/ a great foundation, best of luck to you!
Wouldn’t worry about the gravel layer in a bed that deep. It probably doesn’t matter what you put at that depth, as the roots aren’t really going to be really using it, so if you can get gravel free or cheaper than topsoil, go ahead, or fill with whatever you have to hand. Aside from that, what’s best to fill it with depends on what you’re planning on growing.
Vegetables want lots of nutrition so a lot of compost is great, but you’d expect to top dress or mulch every year, or after every harvest, to replace the nutrients you’d taken out with the harvest, you could even basically build the compost in the bed (though then you really would want to stop burrowing critters), by layering up your waste, often called a ‘lasagna bed’ and leaving it to break down in situ, was that what you meant by fill with compost material as suggested? These can work great, but yeah, they will shrink down, and you pretty much do need to keep adding to them.
If you’re wanting ornamental long term planting on the other hand, you’d be more concerned about long term structure and nutrient release, as you won’t clearing crops out, so mostly top soil with just a little compost is probably the way to go, and lasagna beds aren’t such a good plan.
If you buy 2 of these 2"x12’x12’ and throw in some L braces and you can make a single 4x8 bed for about $40. Sink it a little into the ground (or not), fill with soil and you’re good to go.
Worms? Our gophers ate all the roots to some plants right up to the surface of the ground, until the plants fell over in the first breeze. And, as already mentioned, you need heavier wire mesh than chicken wire, gophers can chew right through it.
Sounds like a fun project (and a lot of work). I hope it works out well.
Untreated pine in ground contact won’t last at all long here. Even the treated stuff is practically temporary. I’d like something that would last well over 10 years. The “raised” part is not as important as the “walking on” part. So wide but not deep.
I assume the “poison” reference is to pressure-treated lumber using CCA (chromated copper arsenate) which used to be commonly available in home supply stores, and which some claimed could leach metals into the soil. The new pressure-treated lumber uses a different process and should be OK for making a raised bed for growing edibles:
Another source of lumber sometimes used for raised beds is railroad ties, which can ooze creosote (and which I would stay away from). The only problem with plastic “lumber” is potentially esthetic, but a number of products on the market (including mine) look good and won’t degrade for a long time.
Many good thoughts here, but some more back ground if anyone wants to chime in.
We live in Houston. Its still pretty damp here.
I used to live in central AZ. Rather dry and hot.
I like to putter around with plants, but I’m really just a noob. My plans for the raised bed is spend half of the room growing food, and the other half will go to pretty things.
I have read a lot of square foot gardening stuff, but I wanted to hear how successful regular folks are with it.