Raised Beds Questions

[growingthings]

Any advice most welcome this is all for me, and for once the old boys down the allotment can't comment on as it's something none of them do!

I am looking to put a raised bed system into action down my allotment this year, as due to health problems, I find the rather more physical aspect of the allotment unmanageable. Theres talk of me undergoing surgery possibly this year so I want to get stuff done before I'm either not well enough or convalescing. (and I'd love to rely on Hubby to take on the brunt of the work but he's already sooo busy that it just won't be fair to ask him to take something else on)

So I thought that by putting beds in, it cuts out the need for rotovating and digging, I can cover the empty beds when they are not being used to keep weeds down, but....

What should I do with the ground before I put them in?

I'm making the beds from recycled palettes, as hubby can get hold of as many as I like, and they are simply frames, with stakes on each corner to anchor them to the ground.

The ground is even, and isn't yet very soft underfoot as I haven't begun either digging or rotovating. Can I just clear the weeds and put them straight on top of it all, or should I dig over the ground that will be inside the bed. I don't think that I'm going to grow anything that deep rooted. (I am going to grow my spuds direct into the ground)

Also suggestions as to what to do with the paths, I've seen some where they are grass, but I also have in mind that Hubby produces a hell of a lot of chainsaw shavings, and wondered if I could use those, and eliminate the need for mowing.

Oh, and one last thing, what can I put into them to get the soil level up? I have a good pile of well rotted manure, homemade composting - which is a bit coarse, but needs to be put to good use, and a bit of top soil, but as I am setting at least half of my plot over to the beds, I'm acutely aware that I'm going to have to get stuff in from elsewhere and wondered what you would recommend.

Thanks for making it through the ramble! But I desperately don't want to do anything twice thanks to silly mistakes...

Lorna x

[boboff]

Hi

Don't dig before, just put down Cardboard and "water it" This will rot down and supress the weeds.

You could dig out the top soil from the paths, wood shaving will work on the Paths, the wood makes the soild acidic, according to my gran, so it should keep weeds down. Again cardboard or newspaper under it will help with weeds.

Speak to the council about compost. It might be worth buying a truck load to get you going. £200 for 10 tonnes is allot of money and allot of compost. It might be you can share a bigger load with some of the old buggers? If you can tip it on your plot, you always have it for freshening up in years to come. All you other fillers will work well.

Hope that is of some use?

[growingthings]

Not digging before are EXACTLY the words I wanted to hear!

I'm not lazy, I just can't dig!

[wulf]

How tall are your resulting beds going to be? I don't know if you are aiming for pallet high (for access without bending) or much lower, made with wood from the pallets.

In the former case, that will be a large volume to fill with soil / compost! When I made a waist high raised bed in a previous garden, it was partly because I could use all the waste rubble from a path I dug up to fill the lower part, which kept the amount of soil added down and also made it pretty stable (a big volume of soil on its own will have much more tendency to splurge out when wet than a smaller amount sitting on a well-drained mound of rubble).

Wulf

Wulf

[grahamhobbs]

I question the use of pallets to make the raised beds. Pallets are made of cheap wood, I doubt that they would last that long in this situation, although you could line the inside (and tucked under the bottom) with some decent polythene to keep the damp soil from it.

[happyhippy]

I revamped my last garden(was all lawn,small scale).First I covered it all with weed mat which I brought from a DIY store.Then I placed my ready made raised beds on top,then filled in the paths with wood chippings.I back filled the beds with a mixture of top soil and compost and had a very successful garden.We moved just over a year ago,and yep the garden was just all lawn!This time I am not using the weed mat,mainly because I am planning to grow more root type veg ect this time around.I initially dug over the planned plots,then surrounded them by the wooden frames.(I could of done this the over way around but at the time had'nt decided whether to use raised or not)I will however use weed mat on the paths as this cuts down alot of weeding and just looks neater in my opinion.I am planning on ringing my council this week to see if they have any mulch/wood chippings to offer,if not then I guess I'll have to buy them!Good luck with your garden,I'm sure you'll get alot of joy and happiness from it!

[Big Al]

Don't dig, put cardboard down then fill with soil manure etc whatever you have. Why not maker a few of the deep beds and fill them with soil from other parts of the allotment? then, as time goes by build more deep beds but until then just bung in a load of tatties to break up the soil. If you try and build a load of deepbeds all at once you might sicken yourself. as for the time the wood will last, even if you get a couple of years out of each deepbed then you can gradually renew each one as needed in the future. Good luck also.

[fran]

I have been reading The Low Maintenance Vegetable Garden by Clare Matthews (excellent book, highly recommended). She says first layer newspaper or cardboard (straight on to the weeds), then layers of organic compost, grass clippings, straw, plant stems, vegetable peelings, manure etc and finally a layer of compost or topsoil. I have been doing this on my allotment, slowly building a bed at a time. You could get all your beds built and start off with a lesser amount of filling and gradually fill them with homemade compost as time goes on. Top soil round here is about £15 per tonne so not too bad as just a top layer.

[oldjerry]

This is all really good advice,and I'm a big fan of raised beds,but could I just add a small caveat re: topsoil.I've spent a lot of time in the past landscaping (mostly commercial,hated it,but the holding wouldn't support us all) and I've come across quite a bit of the stuff.When houses/roads/etc were being built(so nothing like now) you MIGHT find some worth having.I would be dubious about buying topsoil if I hadn't seen it before it was removed.You might be able to do that if you can find a small builder who's taking out some footings,but you dont need a load of crap /weed seeds/etc in your raised bed.Compost/FYM/spent Mushroom Compost,I know you cant get it everywhere but those beds are going to be your larder for a long time...just a thought, best wishes.

[boboff]

I noticed in the paper this week Mushroom Compost £1.20 a bag, delivered. That does seem better than dock infested buidling rubble, sorry I mean top soil.

Something I read or watched the other day as well, they got a couple of sacks of "woodland" earth. Not so much for the soil as for the worms, apparently it works really well? Anyone know anymore about "worm importing"?

[oldjerry]

At £1.20 a bag delivered that's so cheap it suggests that if you take some bags they might give it away to you.I've come across 2 mushroom farms and they were only too glad to give the stuff away if you turned up during the small window when they're clearing and refilling one of the tunnels(I expect some enterprising soul does this,bags it and then delivers.) It's probably treated with all sorts of stuff,so its probably worth recomposting or adding to your heap.You often get a free crop of mushrooms when you do this.

[growingthings]

There's been a slight developement in the construction of the beds. I remembered just in time that hubby now works on a scaffolders depot!! yes! How could I have missed that one I hear you ask so they're going to cut some old boards to the length I need so all I have to do is put them together.

I was also wondering about the chances to get clean topsoil, and have been considering getting spent mushroom compost as it is sold from a local farm a couple of villages away.

Al, I'm not making them high. I just want to eliminate the need for digging over - it's my heart I need to give a rest not my back - At the moment at least!

[oldjerry]

Here's a cunning plan..As end posts.and for the centre if the beds are long enough,use hubby again and 'borrow' lengths of scaffold tube(just hammer it into the ground).Drill this and bolt the Scaffold planks to it.Make the end posts taller than you need,then you have the capacity to increase the depth of the bed in future (by adding another plank or two),or making a framework that will support enviromesh/protective netting etc.