Allotments 4 All

Gosh it's been a long time, but finally I have got my dream garden, and can do some vegetables in a proper raised bed. My husband is going to build me a 3 foot high 6 foot square raised bed. We have cleared the land and this is where I need the advice.

To clear the land we removed 5 leylandii, underneath there were the odd weeds but nothing special. I have heard that you can't grow on land that leylandii has been removed from for a few years (is this true?). As the raised bed will be so high would it be best to line the bed with plastic/black fabric and then put stones in or would it be safe because it's such a high raised bed to grow straight on the soil? If we line the bed I plan to buy in enough top soil to fill the entire bed.

If we did grow on the soil, would the weeds come through eventually even though they were so far down?

I will post some pictures one we have made it but would really love some advice

Thanks very much Cripery   :)

welcome to a4a,
providing there is no bindweed,  ground elder  or horseradish in the soil, just fill up with top-soil / manure mix and away you go!!
don't forget to post some pictures, please!!
rgds, Tony

wow, 3' high..nice one  ;D
our beds are only 4' wide so we can reach into the middle and 18" at the highest. May be best to put some 'ballast' in the bottom or you'll need tons of soil  :)

Fill it a bit more each year. No need to do three feet all in one go. Is there any particular reason to go for three feet?

Thanks for the replies, I will definitelyput up some pictures.

My husband wants it 3 foot high as he wants to make the top of it as a kind of seat all the way around and clad it with decking on the top, hopefully it will look good as well as being functional.

Thanks again Cripery

Hi - I do think Manics point is an important one - you need to be able to reach the middle without standing in the bed - that'll be difficult if its over 4 feet wide (I speak as someone who made that mistake!!)

And that you can reach comfortably without hurting your back.  We have a 3ft wall in the front garden and I find it hard to reach 3' into it without getting up there when I am doing a lot of work, but I am only 5'! ;)

Three feet is extremely high for a seat; fifteen to eighteen inches would be more like it.