Raised bed construction & longivity

[Woodpecker]

After a poor first year on my allotment I have decided I need to move from the usual open plan layout to a more structured raised bed layout. Now as this means putting my hand in my pocket I would welcome any experience on what to make the bed sides of and how long they are likley to last.

I have bought a couple of 2*1metre 'linkabord' beds but this runs at about £25 per bed and does not seem good value. In the local DIY I have found packs of 5 2.4m long planks for £12 which are described as being treated (and look a little green in colour) - this sounds a more economic route but has anybody tried treated timber and have experience on how well it lasts? Does it leach the treatment to the soil?

My final option is to use pallet wood as I have access  to unlimited supplies. But these take ages to take appart as the wood splits easliy when removing the ridged nails used in their construction. This wood also looks as though it may not last long and I would prefer an option which is going to last 3 or 4 years at least.

Anybody got any experience or comment?

[Woodpecker]

[Robert_Brenchley]

When I first took over my plot, it was littered with the remains of someone's attempt to edge borders with pallet wood. Don't bother, it rots. And to think they used to do garden makeover programmes on the box using pallet wood for decking!

[supersprout]

Hi woodie, welcome to the forum :)
If you do a search on 'raised beds', you'll find a number of threads with recommendations for materials, spacing etc.
Mine? Make deep beds - rather than raised beds - and don't edge for at least the first growing season, more if you can. You'll be able to refine your layout and think about whether all those edges are really necessary. I don't edge at all 8)

[Tee Gee]

I'm with supersprout, I don't edge either apart from the path between my two plots, and the reason for this is one plot is higher than the other.

My philosophy is; edging may make things look tidier but it doesn't necesserarily make things grow any better.

I have no pictures at hand but if you look in at my allotment on my website you will see how it was when I arrived and how it is now.

[Tulipa]

I have raised beds and love them.  We made them with gravel boards which from your description might well be what you have seen.  Our beds are 8' x 4' and have been in place for abt 8 years now with no sign of rotting and no harm to the plants.

T.

[MikeB]

Same as Tulippa, this is the first year showing the initial construction

[supersprout]

What a piece of work mike! :o
If I were Handy (sigh), I might even be tempted seeing that ;)

[amphibian]

Try scafolders, they will either give or sell you planks.

I'm using raised bets temporarily, to help clear the couch.

[moonbells]

I'm another in favour of raised beds, though I think that treated wood does leach into the soil (having watched treated fence panels stop stuff growing for the first couple of years). I made mine with untreated rough cut timber from the local wood yard. Much cheaper than the DIY place and they cut to precise sizes.

My main reasons for going with raised beds are that I have back problems on and off, and it's so much easier to weed when it's 6-8" higher, and also that the plots slope diagonally and I built my later beds higher on the downhill corner so I could level them a bit and make planting/watering a lot easier (stops the water running off!).

Of course my first efforts didn't try and compensate for the slope so they look awful compared with the rest of them! But I'll get them on the rebuild, whenever that is needed. I don't know how long they'll last, but I chose 1" thick timber for a reason...

moonbells (see the lottie diary archive, Jan-Mar 2005 and Sept 2005-April2006 for piccies)

[Woodpecker]

Thanks for the responses.

I have decided to adopt a mixture of approaches - my plot has a grass path down the middle so I am going to try the non edged deep bed approach on one side for my spuds, onions and brassicas and use this on a 3 year rotation (as these will form the bulk of my crops).

The other side is going to get about 8 1.2m*3.4m raised beds using the timber I found in the DIY (as someone just gave me a 20% discount voucher vaild to end of today). These will handle all the carrots, parsnips, and salad stuff, etc.

Will post some before and after photos when I finish.

[Katinkka]

I've made a few from bricks!!  A newbie to allotments and not really sure how this is going to work out but my beds look great, although I do often knock off the top bricks by accident! 

For the rest of my plot im going to use some old fencing which is good wood and im told should be good for the job and good old linkabords.

[supersprout]

Well done woodpecker, have fun creating your own space for allotmenting, look forward to your photos :)
Good for you katinkka, using available materials is part of the fun eh ;)

[Belinda]

Another fan of edged beds here - very similar to MikeB's in construction. When we first put ours in place we dug them in a good 3 or 4 inches and then took the top soil from the paths in between and added it in to the beds themselves. Now in the third season, we are contemplating adding another set of boards on some beds as the level of soil within the bed has increased to the point that it is in danger of spilling over onto the paths.

[moonbells]

In Top Tips, there's instructions from 2005 on how to break pallets up without splitting the wood too much.

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,28/topic,7587.0

moonbells

[pete10]

Nice work Mike what size wood did you use ?

[ted72]

We constructed a raised bed for my strawberries and they have produced tonnes, much more than the other plants left in the ground. So these others are going to be moved into a further raised bed built from the bricks that were knocked out of my wall to make space for patio doors.

Anyhow the first bed was made out of timber that was posted on our local freecycle site, if you have one in your area give it a go may have someone out there who has wood they have no use for but want someone else to put it to good use.

cheers
trina

[MikeB]

Nice work Mike what size wood did you use ?

6" x 1" by 10' gravel boards.

For the first 5 years I made do with string and pegs, you'll be supprised how often you change your mind about the layout.  I then constructed by beds as shown and used them for another two years to make sure that I was really happy with the layout.  I then cemented paths around my beds.  Naturally within a year I thought how nice it would be if this bed went that way or maybe this way ;D ;D, but they are fixed now and that is where they are staying. :D :D

last winter showing final layout,

[pete10]

Thanks for the info Mike looks very good .

[lancelotment]

I've never had raised beds so I don't know the answer to the question but does any additional yield you may gain by using raised beds outweigh the loss of productive land as a result in the abundance of paths that are required?  Lance

[MikeB]

I've never had raised beds so I don't know the answer to the question but does any additional yield you may gain by using raised beds outweigh the loss of productive land as a result in the abundance of paths that are required?  Lance

Hi Lance'

two separate issues here 1) is using beds and the other 2) wether they are raised.

Below is the instructions given by Dolbies for their onion seeds.

Culture: Dig and manure the soil in autumn or early winter. Give the ground a light dressing of lime early in February and a week before sowings. For a good general crop to use from September onwards sow seed March-April in drills 23cm (9") apart. Thin the plants out finally to 10-15cm (4-6") apart.

If you take one of my beds at 10' long and 4' wide with a path next to it of 18", so giving a total width of 5 1/2' which is equal to 66 inches.

Using Dolbies instructions and planting an onion every 4" down the row I would plant 30 onions per row. With each row spaced 9" apart I would have approximately 7 rows. Thus total number of onions for the area of 10' by 5.5' is 7 x 30 =210 onions.
Using the bed system I do block planting and plant the onions 4" in all directions, but now my bed is only 4' wide = 48", this would give me approx. 12 rows, 12 x 30 =360 onions.
This is an approximation I would probably only have 10 or 11 rows since I would want to plant away from the edge, but this still gives me 300 or 330 onions as opposed to 210.
Other issues are raised about the fertility of the soil etc. if you do a search on ' raised beds ' you will see this and other points that have been raised, also different conclusions on the bed system. Me, I'm happy with the system and will continue to use it, but fil yer boots and do what you are happy with. :D :D