Raised beds

[vette-kid]

Thinking of doing a raised bed next year instead of containers everywhere. Probably somewhere around 4x8. Tree spot gets a good six hours of direct sun, plus a few hours if light shade and a few hours of dappled shade. If like to do tomato, cucumber, zucchini, carrots, broccoli and bell peppers. I'll likely keep jalapenos and fish peppers in pots as well as potato in 30gal grow bags.

I'm just curious to see other people's raised beds and layouts. What did you do that was creative? What did and didn't work?

 

[Tech]

My personal experience with raised beds are that they are only good if your plants at grade get too much water. Otherwise raising them off above the grade will require more watering. Depends on plants though. Longer root systems wont mind raised beds. Personally it looks nice, but is less efficient for me and I'd opt for reverse of raised.

 

[vette-kid]

Fair point. Partly it's to keep it looking nice. We also have A VERY we season here, so the drainage will help with that. Plus I can easily attach hoops to act as a mini greenhouse in winter.

 

[SQWIB]

No disrespect to Tech and this is not aimed at Tech but a lot of times folks come out with a blanket statement that raised beds require more water without giving regards to the media in the beds.
There are also other things to consider like ones native soil, for instanced, a raised bed with proper media will hold water better than a sandy soil.

Here is one I built in a problem spot.

• After everything was secured, I added some of my crotch wood, roots from the Bradford Pear tree from the back yard and some old firewood. The section in the center where the buckets are will be tore up and pavers will be put in.

• My neighbor wanted to get rid of this shrub, so I told him I would take care of it, figured it would be great for the Hugel Bed.

• After some of the trimmed bush was added to the Hugekultur Raised Bed, the third section was built and secured.

• The top is capped with 2"x4"'s with a 1.5" overhang to be flush with the uprights but I can't finish the uprights yet because the pavers need to be installed first, then I can cut the uprights to be flush with the pavers.

• Another layer of Crotch wood and logs are added. I told a friend that I am planting firewood so I can have a firewood crop in the fall.

• The soil that was removed during construction was dumped into the bed. It's a fairly heavy clay soil but I have had no problems growing anything in this soil, quite the contrary. It will be top dressed composted manure and mulch.

• I busted up the concrete slab under the gate, it was over 5" thick and took a bit of work with a sledgehammer, after the slab was busted up and tossed in the truck for disposal, I removed the roofing tile and placed it in the truck for disposal.

April 12th - I spent several hours trying to get this root out, I even tried irrigating the soil away to get under it and only made a mess. This thing is just SICK!

• Looking good so far, In a few years I'll most likely lift the pavers and peak the center up a bit so its rounded and not concave, but for now I'll leave it!

April 14th - Final touches, adding the side pieces and irrigation.

• Finished the pavers and uprights

• Ran some drip irrigation to the bed.

• Even looks good from the deck.

• In the fall, the beds are stained, cleaned out and top dressed with mulch.

 

[SQWIB]

Here is another

• After everything is secured, the two end pieces in the center are secured to one another with 3" deck screws.

• The top is capped with 2"x4"s on the sides and back, the front is a 2" x 6" for a little bench.

• Added about 10 (5 gallon) buckets of soil from the back hill.

• 2 bags of shredded mulch are added, figured this would help keep everything intact to help planting this year, I'm sure this is going to settle quite a bit and I'll keep top dressing with mulch.

• Composted Manure is added

• The composted manure is saturated.

• Three bags of top soil are added and saturated.

 

[SQWIB]

One my brother and I built for Mom and Dad



Before...






































After...

 

[SQWIB]

I decided I wanted a raised bed the whole length of the fence so I built another.

 

[SQWIB]

And this is the last one I built out front by the Koi pond

 

[vette-kid]

Those look great, I have a few questions.

What's the theory behind all the logs etc? Is that just for filler to avoid have to use so much data?

What timetyp wood did you use? Looks like PT. Seems people are concerned with using PT wood in a food garden. But cedar is expensive! I thought of maybe using PT but looking the inside with plastic to minimize the chemical leaching into soil.

Looks like you used 2x for everything. I was looking at 1x. Any reason not too?

 

[vette-kid]

Ok, so I just researched the hugel idea. Makes sense. And I just happen to have some rotten logs around.

 

[vette-kid]

https://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infptforraisedgardens.html

https://www.finegardening.com/article/are-pressure-treated-woods-safe-in-garden-beds

https://extension.psu.edu/environmental-soil-issues-garden-use-of-treated-lumber

Seems it's deemed safe.

 

[trail twister]

My 4'x8' raised beds do not require any more water than a normal garden bed. I use dirt form my woods which is rich in Humas mostly leaf mold.

I like ther raised beed because it places a lot of plants in a small space that I feel crouds out weeds. is easy to cultvate with a long handled 3 tine rake out fit. I also use recycled PT wood for my beds.

I wrote about mine here with pictures.
https://www.gardening-forums.com/threads/since-there-is-nothing-for-raised-beds.15249/


Al

 

[SQWIB]

Trail twister has some good stuff going on with his raised beds.

You are correct that it is Hugelkultur.

IMHO, PT is fine dont believe all the regurgitated hype that it is unsafe, folks are using plastics, galvanized steel, old cinder blocks that may not be as safe as PT. Just do your homework and make an informed decision.

I definitely suggest 2" over 1" for longevity.

I do a sort of Lasagna gardening and no till in my Hugel Beds. Also I try not to remove anything at all from the beds, that includes weeds and rogue maple trees, everything is chopped and dropped. If something invasive goes to seed, it is put in a bucket of rain water for a week or two then dumped back in the beds.

There is one caveat to using logs in the bed... getting a dam tomato cage in the ground lol.

Another issue could be too much carbon tying up nitrogen the first year or two, I haven't had this problem. If you do the beds now and cover crop with some nitrogen fixers you should be good.

I do oats and Crimson Clover in the fall. (Water lettuce from the pond as a base)

If I wasn't so impatient, I would have built the beds in the fall, filled with logs and loaded up with yard waste, kitchen scraps, old potting mix, compost, wood chips, leaves, pizza boxes, newspapers, ashes, bio-char, urea, pond waste, and tree trimmings layering with my native soil throughout the fall early winter.

The only thing I would do differently is not buy any top soil, my heavy clay native soil has been good to me over the years. All my beds have at least 20 percent my native clay soil. The bagged amendments was a one time deal and nothing is put in these beds that are a purchased item. I make my own fertilizer and so far (2018) it has worked for me.

Here is a bed being prepped for winter, nothing is removed from the beds, weeds, plants, roots, everything stays.

Topped with shredded cardboard.

Topped with some old potting mix and seeded with oats and crimson clover

Covered for several days, then boxes are removed and composted.

 

[vette-kid]

My native soil is pretty much just sand, so I'll have to buy some real soil. The logs I have are also pretty rotten already, so the nitrogen issue is probably minimized. And I'm pretty sure I can stick a tomato cage into them!

It was interesting to research the PT wood issue. All the articles I read provided scientific evidence that it was safe. Over then went on the recommend against it completely opposite of what they had just pointed out scientifically. At least PT from after 2003 send safe as anything.

Shall we tackle the Roundup debate next!?

 

[trail twister]

Why use round up unless you farm?

I've had good luck with just straight house hold vinegar.

Al