Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: OliveOil on February 01, 2007, 18:54:56
-
I've decided to slowly change over to RB's. I've dug so much and dont feel i have touched the plot. even with paths i seem to be compacting alot of the soil... So at the weekend i made my son his own raised bed with some stakes and some skirting board... i need sooooooooo much more wood though.
Any tips on getting cheap wood - what do you all use? So far the skip down the road doesnt have anything useful in it grrrrr
-
Check any local factories or business and see if they have any crates - have found some large crates used to deliver large machinery.
also I use pallets although I do have problems trying to get them apart.
If you can get hold of floor boards from houses that are having the old ones ripped out.
on mine up to how have used laminate flooring / pallets /crates / old door and filled with mole hill soil and compost
good luck with your RB's
-
there've been loads of discussions about pallets on this site, just wish I could remember where ;D
on them people said where to get them from, we've built ours from pallets, the thick pieces we use for corner posts and the long pieces, obviously, for the frame
maybe someone can remember where the threads are :)
-
Hi six foot gravel boards are cheap . I paid £2 per board from my local garden centre ,All in so far about
£65 . That should make four nice beds .Plus some batton wood.
http://s70.photobucket.com/albums/i90/peterfroud/?action=view¤t=Picture007.jpg
http://s70.photobucket.com/albums/i90/peterfroud/?action=view¤t=Picture004.jpg
-
I think this is the thread you want....
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,91/topic,26335.msg257998#msg257998
There are also a couple of photos of my raised beds and how they were constructed from pallets in the october-december 'allotment progress' posts in locations section. ;D
-
ThANKS for the thread referral... OH has big van this weekend so i will scout round the tile and diy places early sat morning and hope i can grab a great freebee.
-
Do raised beds dry out quicker than the same soil at ground level?
-
Interesting question dtw! In theory yes - you're building a container above soil level. I think there's more to it, because the soil's handling of moisture can depend on:
1. Soil composition/structure
2. Weather
3. Evaporation from the soil surface
4. Height relative to the water table
I'd love to know which factors are most significant! ???
If you incorporate plenty of organic matter into the soil, never tread on or compact the soil, and cover the soil surface, the soil seems to do a good job of managing water (both under- and over-supply) - whether or not you have raised beds.
In practice, I didn't water our beds last summer at all, except for at planting-out time, whilst my neighbours were out morning, noon and night with their hoses. We were all happy with our crops!
-
I tried raised beds years ago and they didn't work for me. They did dry out rather quickly in dry weather. I have got one on our half plot but its on some very hard stony ground where nothing would have grown anyway. I've put a few strawberries in it. I prefer deep dug beds (sunken beds) lol. You can still have them the same shape and put paths around them. Bunjy (my daughter has done that on her new plot because she wants to get stuff growing with the minimum amount of digging. Her beds are approx 6ftx 2ft. Apart from that you don't have to get the wood and the slugs dont have anywhere to hide away.
-
I so agree shirlton, the term 'raised beds' seems all ... erm ... wrong somehow. If the soil is cultivated deeply, it raises itself by becoming more fluffy ::) My un-edged beds sound very much like yours and bunjies :)
Any chance of some more pics of yours and bunjies' beds in the near future? :D
-
Hi six foot gravel boards are cheap . I paid £2 per board from my local garden centre ,All in so far about
£65 . That should make four nice beds .Plus some batton wood.
http://s70.photobucket.com/albums/i90/peterfroud/?action=view¤t=Picture007.jpg
http://s70.photobucket.com/albums/i90/peterfroud/?action=view¤t=Picture004.jpg
I'm building some raised timber beds using various bits of wood found in skips. I noticed you assembled the wood first, pete10. I was planning to drive the posts into the soil (clay) first, then screw the planks onto the post. Any recommendations on which is the easier method?
-
Going to Erdington tomorrow to do a bit. So will take some pics
-
I dont have clay .But i built that one on my own as was easier to build them
flat then ,The six feet planks first then screw the four foot on the sides , then i lifted the last six foot section on the top and screwed it on . Must have had my
strong head on that day.
-
I use a combination of scaffold planks & kerbs. For the kerbs I ring the council & they let me know where the flaggers are working, if its local they deliver the kerbs along with flags as it saves them taking them to the tip.
-
In my company we destroy hundreds of pallets monthly because they have been damaged through use and would love someone to take them away as many boards unbroken. The problem ,we are in N Ireland, so doubt if useful. On other hand there is a website called 'Waste Matchers' which works on the principle one man's rubbish is anothers raw material.
-
Kaido my grandfather used to take unwanted broken pallets off companies, take them apart, put them back together and sell them to anothe company for £2.50 a go. You should try that.
As regards raised beds (whatever the meaning), I have raised beds kept together with wooden planks in my back garden and the only problem I've found is that the planks have now rotted after 2 years. So make sure you use something very thick. In my allotment I'm raising the beds by just digging them and adding more organic matter. Hopefully by just walking on the paths will compact them enough to be below the bed. Not sure how it will work with drying out as has been mentioned but I will let you know how it goes.
-
Personally I have chosen to steer clear of edging my beds - the soil raises itself in time and tends to stay there as you dig less. Wood etc can make nice hidey holes for slugs and bugs and weeds can be hard to get out if they root under the boards.
I have just defined the beds and laid weed suppressing membrane inbetween on the paths. In time the soil will become more raised - helping drainage and it also warms up quicker! It makes it easier to crop, you can reach into the beds to till etc without compacting the soil!
But each to their own I say!
Louise
-
I have some raised beds made from scaffold boards [find a friendly builder or scaffold firm] They were very good last year for carrots, french beans, aubergines, salad veg and courgettes. Took a bit of watering in the very hot weather, but we could have eaten veg for breakfats, lunch and supper and still would not have run out!
-
there've been loads of discussions about pallets on this site, just wish I could remember where ;D
on them people said where to get them from, we've built ours from pallets, the thick pieces we use for corner posts and the long pieces, obviously, for the frame
maybe someone can remember where the threads are :)
I posted a request to my local Freecycle group and was inundated with offers of pallets - worth looking up your local group on http://uk.freecycle.org (http://uk.freecycle.org)
Also managed to get a free Dalek compost bin and a few other bits and pieces.
-
I love my raised beds in my garden. They are made of old floorboards from when we replaced those in our conservatory. They are made [by my OH] by banging in corner posts then screwing the boards to them. I do agree weeds can be a pain when they grow along & under them - such as creeping buttercup but we have put down membrane & gravel on the paths so hopefully less of a problem this year.
-
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.
-
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
-
(http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/8592/dscf0013js3.th.jpg) (http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0013js3.jpg)
some of ours, used old pallets :)
-
They look fantastic MS - wish I had that much space.
-
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
-
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 :)
-
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.
-
looking forward to seeing stuff growing in them, have a nice break and come back to some nicer weather :)
-
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?
-
that's how we started :)
-
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!
-
Then (Manicscousers) did you follow on to get wooden frames or just keep on with the string?
-
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:
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l47/dlp133/Nov06009.jpg)
-
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!
-
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
-
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
-
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)