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I am about to actually 'make' my raised beds; just waiting for the bad weather to pass and paint/treat the scaffold planks. There is a fair bit of creeping buttercup and goodness knows what else lurking under the carpet that is on the patch at the moment, so it will need some thorough digging/cleaning.

Soooooo.....

I am trying to figure out how to go about it. Whenever I dig first and then add stakes and build sides they end up all higledy pigledy and lopsided. As I will have 6 in a grid I would rather like them to look straight and square !

So do I make the 'boxes' knock them in and then dig from the inside ? how awkward will it be fitting [tripping over] the wood and getting into the edges ?

Or do I dig the approximate area and fit the box over ? Will the stakes go in square ? shouldnt be too many rocks as it used to be a veg bed a few years ago.

Or some other permutation of the above ?

Any recommendations ?

Thanks

Sarah

When we did ours, Sarah, we used large pegs & twine to mark the beds out first. Then screw the stakes onto the long side of the box - hammer those stakes in & attach each end - a bit of pushing & pulling, but it should work fairly squarely.

As for digging... hmmm... depends on how deep your beds are - I covered the ground inside with cardboard first & threw the soil on the top, no digging required! Our beds are 9inches deep though, & so far, so good!

When my husband put my raised beds in for me over the winter we had already dug the area first. Then he used a spirit level and a BIG sledge hammer to knock them down to ground level. This was after we 'trod' the earth back down.

Good luck with your project, it's a big job but gives you a great sense of satisfaction when you get it done and get some seeds sown in them.

If they're shallow beds then I'd dig first, then grin and bear the inevitable muck when installing the beds. If not shallow (6 inches plus) I'd go for the option I and Julie above favour - line with cardboard that will break down then fill and plant directly - let the worms do the work underground over time ;)

Thanks for the advice.

Will the cardboard covering kill off perennial weeds ? buttercup is thick and possible ground elder.

Maybe I will dig/weed a little and then fill, altho not sure how much 'volume' I can generate for 6 beds, got some dirt from conservatory clearance/foundation and some compost; but dont know it will make a super thick layer. Got LOTS of cardboard tho from packing boxes from moving house [and country !]

Sarah

I made mine 4ft x4ft and 1ft deep put 6ins of cardboard in them ,and filled them with soil, i just topped them up with compost /grass cuttings over the next two years, and now i have 12ins of great topsoil.

Sarah, if I dug out all the creeping buttercup, ground elder & moss where our beds are, I'd just be left with dirt!!
OK, there's a bit of weeding going on, but I suspect that those weeds came in with the soil that we moved anyway. The cardboard will certainly halt the nasties underneath