Selfsufficientish.com

I've recently made some raised beds for growing vegetables. My land is covered in grasses and weeds and rather than try to get rid of the weeds I decided to try and grow in raised beds. I don't like the idea of using chemicals like weedkillers either. I got some excellent topsoil delivered yesterday and I had intended turning over the soil under my raised beds before I added the new topsoil. The problem is my neighbour arrived shortly after the topsoil arrived and offered to fill my raised beds with the soil while he had the use of a mini digger. I took him up on the offer and he had the beds filled in a half an hour, it would have taken me all day with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Now I'm worried Ive made a big mistake as I'm afraid the weeds will grow up through my topsoil. I'm a total rookie with growing veg, what do you all think, am I in trouble?

Ger.

The Waxbill wrote:I've recently made some raised beds for growing vegetables. My land is covered in grasses and weeds and rather than try to get rid of the weeds I decided to try and grow in raised beds. I don't like the idea of using chemicals like weedkillers either. I got some excellent topsoil delivered yesterday and I had intended turning over the soil under my raised beds before I added the new topsoil. The problem is my neighbour arrived shortly after the topsoil arrived and offered to fill my raised beds with the soil while he had the use of a mini digger. I took him up on the offer and he had the beds filled in a half an hour, it would have taken me all day with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Now I'm worried Ive made a big mistake as I'm afraid the weeds will grow up through my topsoil. I'm a total rookie with growing veg, what do you all think, am I in trouble?

Ger.

If you are in yroublr then so am I because I done the same. The thing to remember is if you see something that you haven't planted pull it up. Divin worry about it.

Big Al wrote: If you are in yroublr then so am I because I done the same.

Have you turned Russian all of a sudden Big Al?



I agree, no big deal... you'll just need to pull up the weeds as you see them... but then, thats what we all do anyway. A lot of people use mulch to control weeds, you have just used a huge amount of topsoil as mulch, that's all.


Don't worry about it, as far as I have learned in my apprenticeship there are no big mistakes in veg growing - just wee lessons that we learn from

Enjoy veg growing

Ha! As everyone knows, we've just done our raised beds here - last 2 are just about filled..... anyway, they are 9ins deep & before the soil went in, hubby wanted to take the top layer of grass & weeds off & turn the soil over.....
Now... that would have added HOW many days???

So, I persuaded him that the grass & weeds would be just fine under all that soil & that it would actually compost quite nicely & do no harm.... so he left it & we did exactly the same as you - without a digger though!

No harm done, but just watch for the weeds coming through as you would have done anyway - why make it harder for yourself?

Wow thanks guys that sure is a relief. Hi Julie I just got lucky with the digger, I was thinking of you when I read your thread earlier, it's back breaking work, I know i moved tons of earth a few weeks ago for another project and it nearly killed me, a digger really is worth it's weight in gold and as an added bonus the neighbour left me alone with it for most of the day so I had great fun learning to use it. It's a bit tricky to get the hang of but great fun I have to admit. I made an awful mess of the gearden though lol.

Ger.

The Waxbill wrote:Wow thanks guys that sure is a relief. Hi Julie I just got lucky with the digger, I was thinking of you when I read your thread earlier, it's back breaking work, I know i moved tons of earth a few weeks ago for another project and it nearly killed me, a digger really is worth it's weight in gold and as an added bonus the neighbour left me alone with it for most of the day so I had great fun learning to use it. It's a bit tricky to get the hang of but great fun I have to admit. I made an awful mess of the gearden though lol.

Ger.

Boys and their toys

I did the same as you a few years ago. I built two raised beds. One lined with old carpet and filled with bought compost, the other filled with top soil from the garden, straight on the grass. I can honestly say that there is little difference in the weediness of the two beds, but the one with carpet is a pain to plant root crops in.

I'm sure you'll be fine.

Zoe

Hi Waxbill, as you've probably gathered by now....... where theres soil, so you will find weeds, whether wind-blown, from bird droppings, whatever. But it sounds like you've got some prime raised-beds there, so look after 'em & good harvesting!

Annpan wrote:

Big Al wrote: If you are in yroublr then so am I because I done the same.

Have you turned Russian all of a sudden Big Al?

Я желаю что я имело 100 миллионов рублевки поэтому я смог стать очень самодостаточный… ish


Your favourite ruskie....

Shouldn't that be:

Я желаю что я имело 100 миллионов рублевки поэтому я смог стать очень самодостаточный…ICH!

MW

Ok Comrades............................

MuddyWitch wrote:Shouldn't that be:

Я желаю что я имело 100 миллионов рублевки поэтому я смог стать очень самодостаточный…ICH!

MW

probably but bablefish didn't translate it with ich ! ,lol.

Well the dock has been finding it's way through my raised beds over the few weeks, what a pain! All I can do is pinch them out as they come through the soil or does anyone have any better ideas? It's so fast growing and the shoots go way down into the soil under my beds.

Ger.

Waxbill, that's just what I do!

My plan is to continue pinching - but I'll certainly have good dig about when the beds are clear..... mind you, my docks in the beds are nowhere NEAR the size of the others that are generously dotted around the place

Thanks Julie, I suppose we'll just have to persevere. It's not too bad anyway as long as I stay on top of it.

Ger.

I am putting old carpet down under my raised beds to cover the layer of grass and weeds, like you I did a load of digging over and it damn near killed me! Will let you know if the experiment works and keeps the weeds out.