Topic: raised beds

[artichoke]

Over the years, on my first allotment, I have been lowering my few permanent paths by scraping soil and weeds off them and throwing them onto the beds. I hate walking on good topsoil! The beds are gradually rising as others have described, and don't seem to need supporting.

[dirtyfingernails]

ditto to loving raised beds - ours were made from old scaffold boards which a local builder sold us for £1 each (they're 13 ft long) - we made them by making boxes with battons at each corner to hold them together - the battons are about 3 inches longer than the depth of the boards - we made the box with the longer bits sticking up then turned it over and bashed it down with a sledgehammer to get the battons into the soil and hold the beds in place - each one took about half an hour to make once we'd got the hang of it (and bear in mind that as pathetic women we weren't used to using drills etc - although now we reckon we could build anything!)

take everyone's point about them potentially drying out but we've basically used ours to mark out the beds and have just been adding compost and digging as normal, the soil is therefore a bit higher in the beds than the paths (which we've lined with weed suppressing membrane) but not too much - and as our soil is heavy clay it's very wet anyway

[manicscousers]

some of ours, used old pallets  :)

[Marymary]

They look fantastic MS - wish I had that much space.

[lorna]

I thought I might try one or two raised beds, I only have a small area for veg growing. My son has some double sided (gap between like a cavity wall) shelves but they would make the bed about 15ins high. Although I think the height would help my dodgy back would they in fact be too high? Help please.
Lorna

[manicscousers]

Hi, lorna, because ray and I have mobility problems, our beds are between 12 and 15" high, as long as there's enough soil in them so you don't add to the problem of bending over the edge, you can sit on them, especially if you can place a plank across so you can still do all the planting, weeding and hoeing..I can also kneel for short periods of time and they don't cause any problems, hope this helps, marilyn  :)

[lorna]

Cheers Marilyn. I am going on a 4 day break with Lorna (jnr) and Johua on Monday so when I come back I will start on the beds. John was going to throw the shelves out but I thought they may be useful. No problem regarding soil, I have a lot of rotted horse manure so will put a good amount in the bottom. Will take a pic if they turn out OK.
Lorna.

[manicscousers]

looking forward to seeing stuff growing  in them, have a nice break and come back to some nicer weather  :)

[cacran]

I have been wondering whether to raise the beds, but only by a couple of inches, to define them, really. I am wondering, now, whether to peg and string  the beds and put down a few broken flags between the rows, just to keep off the soil.  I prefer not to be overfaced. Just to concentrate on digging an area at a time. does this sound like a good idea or not?

[manicscousers]

that's how we started  :)

[OliveOil]

Thats my main problem, my plot is so darn big, i seem to dig and get nowhere but am hoping if i can slowly create beds then it wont be so daunting.

If only the soil would dry out a bit, i cant do a darn thing at the moment!

[cacran]

Then (Manicscousers) did you follow on to get wooden  frames or just keep on with the string?

[Deb P]

I found it easiest to mark out my beds with wooden stakes or bricks and string, so I could see where not to walk, and where to dig!

Dug the beds over, then gradually replaced the stakes and bricks with edging as pallets became available:

[OliveOil]

awww Deb looking at your plot is like looking at heaven to me! I'll have to post a pic of my plot and you will see what i mean!

[manicscousers]

Then (Manicscousers) did you follow on to get wooden  frames or just keep on with the string?

as our plot spends 3 months of the year flooded, I'm not kidding, we have to have wooden raised beds, approx 12 to 15" above the surrounding area..it'll come in handy if summers as hot as last year but is nasty at the moment  ;D

[Andy H]

Taking pallets apart someone posted once that if you stand on edge and smack the cube bit of wood to free it from the lengths.
I built 4 raised beds this weekend to put on the plot, 4 is all I will have as I can`t use my nice new roti in them :-\
But I am going to experiment with the four beds and see how they go

I marked plot out originally with stakes and rope (4 quarters) it help but I am a bugger for taking the shortest route :-X
Hopefully the raised beds will never be trodden on. I am also going to use rock dust in the raised beds only.

I was lucky(?) in that i had to build a new back fence so ordered feather edge wood online(ebay) needed about 120 bits and bid for 440!!!!! so loads of spare for making things.
The batons I got online cheap & 100`s of them as usual
Cut a point each end and cut in half and coated and now have many stakes for various things.

The raised beds are 4 stakes each and 9 feather edge boards
3+3+1.5+1.5 making a bed 6ft by 3ft. built first then plopped on plot and tapped into place and filled with sifted stuff from compo heaps.

2 ready to go but run out of soil to sieve for the other 2

Just filled up 3+1 big bin with manure, over 200 bags I reckon, trailer loads of the stuff all rotting down for later in the year, you should see the steam!!!! ;D ;D ;D

[Pigface51]

Howdy....WOW, what great raised bed photos...I'll have to get my camera out!

I have moved to raised beds for some of the side area of my plot - Rather than use planks/scaffold boards (whihc, incidentally you can usually get a really goods deal on with Ebay), I have taken to the nice shiny adverts in the Gardening magazines - I have succumbed to the link-a-bord, and I must admit they are very easy to handle, and put together...

...they have the added advantage that as they are hollow, they insulate the bedas well as being water/wind/rot proof so there is no need to paint/treat them. Also, they are frm 97% recycled material so there is the Planet saving feel good factor too...(and ultimately, the cost isn't too dissimilar from buying gravel boards from a DIY/garden centre)