Just a musing: I was just reading Kitchen Garden's latest issue, which has a long discussion in the letters about raised beds (following on from an article the other month which was flatly against them).
All the pictures they printed showed a frame of wood around soil. Except the soil level was the same as the paths.
When I did mine, I topped up the beds with compost heaps, manure, soil dug off the paths and also dug over the base first. As a result all my beds are overflowing and the soil is at least 6" higher than the paths (making things easy to pick).
Do folk here have filled beds or framed beds (which are to be filled over the years with compost and manure)?? ?? ?? ??
enquiring minds need to know!
moonbells
Filled. But, as mentioned before, I made the mistake of filling with JIC.
It will not reabsorb moisture. It can be powder dry after the heaviest shower.
no edges here, the beds raise themselves cause they aren't trodden on. To start with I scraped the topsoil off the paths and put it on, then layers of mulch :) I'd call them deep beds rather than raised beds - once a year I wiggle them with a broadfork to loosen them up deep down.
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/supersprout/Path2.jpg)
IMO edges are places for weeds and critters to lurk, i.e. the devil's work 8)
I'll get me coat ...
WHAT a show, Sarah!!
But I have found that walls keep the slugs out - if Vaselined - & the height does seem to dissuade the fly.
That really is impressive, Supersprout - wish I'd seen it before we built all the frames!
When we started in the Spring, we went for a lot of frames (to be filled over the yearswith multi and compost). The weeds love the corners and edges and they can be very hard to get out from underneath.
(http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k167/jackdaw3/20060805_Allotment-August_029.jpg)
On a plus note we have found that copper tape round the brassica frame kept the slugs out - but will we have to polish it up every year?
Off the thread, but the pic reminds me that I wanted to ask whether I should do something about the Jerusalems which are now about 8 ft high?
Wow that is a piece of work barnowl! :o I really admire handy peeps who can put these things together, and your plants look really happy in their beds.
If you want to top your JAs, you can - but they're doing a good screening job ain't they? They will die down soon and you can chop them off, but leave a stump so you remember where the plants are, then cover them in straw so you can dig them up if it's frosty :)
That's a truly beautiful plot! :o 8) ;D
I have filled raised beds. At least i filled them with soil from the paths when I first built them, forgetting at the time to add any organic matter! I have had to remove soil from the beds over the years to make room for compost and improve the soil. In adition to start with i didnt realise you didnt have to dig them over deeply every year - this resulted in too much air displacing soil (requiring regular removal) Since easing off on the digging levels have dropped and i now make do with a forking over and mulch with compost. Consequently the soil levels remain fairly constant.
I have recently though discovered some of the beds have developed 'cultivation pans' at around the depth of my fork! If anyone has encountered a soil 'pan', then you will know what this means. Basicaly i have a hard layer of soil at the usual digging depth (about the depth of the beds above the paths) which hampers drainage and root penetration. For the benefit of future crops i think i will have to try and break this up a bit over the winter.
I have built raised beds for the first time this year on a new site as I couldn't face large areas of digging. I filled them with a mixture of old compost from a compost heap , bags of manure and general compost.
They needed plenty of watering, but I had a superb crop of courgettes and am still picking aubergines and I can now grow carrots!
Lucky you to have plenty of compost and not have to use any topsoil. Ideal. You should get great crops with that little lot!
Quote from: tim on September 12, 2006, 16:24:51
Filled. But, as mentioned before, I made the mistake of filling with JIC.
It will not reabsorb moisture. It can be powder dry after the heaviest shower.
whats JIC??
John Innes Compost?
Touché!!
Quote from: Garden Cadet on September 13, 2006, 09:50:43
Lucky you to have plenty of compost and not have to use any topsoil. Ideal. You should get great crops with that little lot!
I am putting in raised beds i have innialy gone 6inchs high but have allowed for another 6iches which i will be doing end of next growing season ( to accomodate bad back and arthritus in the knees ) Which will make raised beds of 1ft high.
Were lucky in that we get tons of 'soil improver' delivered free to the allotments so i can use this to fill the raised beds - but when its dry its difficult to get it wet again so i have been adding sifted normal soil to make it a little better at holding water.
I covered my plot with weed membrane and then made the beds on top and cut the membrane inside the raised bed approx 3" from the inside of the bed to try and stop the weeds growing under the membrane and into the beds.
Again were lucky that were due to get some shreadded wood chips from trees ( oak, chestnut etc ) are they are building a dual carrage way and i am going to use this to cover the weed membrane. I need to do something as the weeds are lifting the membrane and with high winds we get its actualy wearing the membrane away in areas so i am doing patching with the bits i have cut out of the raised beds.
Most of the allotments have followed suit and are putting in raised beds because the ground is so hard ( heavy clay ) and the allotments are surrounded on 3 sides by wildflower medows which are pretty but give us problems with wind blown weeds.
I am all for raised beds!
LakeViewAllotment
Our sites are clay and suffer badly from flooding during the winter months, so raised beds with trenches were essential.
Double digging inside each raised bed and forking in horse manure into the bottom layer, with the soil from the areas outside the beds and the trenches has meant great results for courgettes, brassicas, potatoes and tomatoes and strawberries.
these same beds will have onions and shallots and garlic soon enough, then the next year in will go the carrots and parsnips etc.
I have been removing the wood surrounds/frames this year, as there is little need to keep them there, and various pests do so lurk...