Traditional patch or raised beds?

RHYSDAD

I'm working all hours at the moment to try to get the home veg patch going but having now cleared the site (not dug and not weeded yet) i'm now wondering whether it's best to go with the traditional patch or build raised beds. Our neighbour has just told me she's getting rid of her decking as it's subsided but after i had a ganders at it, the actual boards are fine and there's a fair bit there, perfect for building raised beds.. This got me thinking about whether raised beds would be the way forward but do what do i fill them with? Surely if i filled them with multi-purpose compost i'd have to dig it out and replace it each year wouldn't i or could i rejuvenate it every year? Any advice please?

rhiwfield

No you dont need to replace the soil every year, in fact after construction of the beds you'll want to dig the soil as little as possible to encourage soil structure.

When constructing the beds you can skim off the top 2" to 3" of soil to get the weed roots. Use this to fill one or two of the beds which could be say 4" to 6" high. When bed is full cover with weed suppressant and plant thru in first year.

Another bed can be a runner bean bed, use a mix of scrunched cardboard, veg peelings and maybe a bit of urine, then cover with soil/compost and plant up in early May.


Depending how many beds you make you will need to buy in some topsoil/compost (if you cant source it free) but you will find that the initial digging will bulk up the soil and you may need less than you expect. Of course if you raise the beds higher than 4" to 6" you WILL need to buy in lots to fill them.

From then on its matter of adding compost annually to maintain fertility and soil structure. It can be put on the surface as the worms will take it under the soil. That way the beds may rise slightly each year so dont fill them to the max initially.Top up fertility as needed with fish, blood and bone, manure, urine etc and adjust ph if reqd.

Ideally when you design the beds do it as a rectangular block of several beds with an inner mulched and edged path. That way there is little need to maintain internal edges of beds, just the outer rectangle

ERICS_MUM

Start a compost heap and if you do it "properly" you will have some lovely stuff to put on top of your raised beds every spring to keep the soil fresh, aerated and fertile.


Linda :T

ALIBOBSY

We went for raised beds as we have quite heavy soil, so it was a way of getting good soil without too much digging lol.
It also helped putting woodchip paths around as it soaks up the rain-as well as some sand filled drainage we dug first.

ali x

Wookey

How good is your existing soil? How large an area are you going to cover with raised beds? Are you going to need to buy topsoil/compost to fill the beds up with? When you say you had to clear the site to what extent was it overgrown?

If your soil is in reasonably good state i would perhaps tend to use it rather than cover the area with raised beds, a couple of raised beds though would be ideal for growing the harder veg in or for veg that need certain growing conditions. 3 raised beds of 1m X 1m X 300mm is going to take approx 1 cubic metre of soil/compost to fill, you will need to cost this into your reckoning. If your ground was extensively overgrown you will have a lot of weed seeds, couch grass, bindweed etc are also extremely virulent and these will surface up thru your beds unless you take measures now to stop them.

RHYSDAD

Wookey wrote: »

How good is your existing soil? How large an area are you going to cover with raised beds? Are you going to need to buy topsoil/compost to fill the beds up with? When you say you had to clear the site to what extent was it overgrown?

If your soil is in reasonably good state i would perhaps tend to use it rather than cover the area with raised beds, a couple of raised beds though would be ideal for growing the harder veg in or for veg that need certain growing conditions. 3 raised beds of 1m X 1m X 300mm is going to take approx 1 cubic metre of soil/compost to fill, you will need to cost this into your reckoning. If your ground was extensively overgrown you will have a lot of weed seeds, couch grass, bindweed etc are also extremely virulent and these will surface up thru your beds unless you take measures now to stop them.

Okay, the soil type i would say errs toward clay but is nice and dark brown for the first 6 - 8inches or so so i would say a reasonable loam for growing. The ground does get wet but does drain after a day or so. The plot itself measures roughly 10' wide by roughly 30' long. I was aiming to do a four bed system and was looking at each bed being around 8' x 4' so 32' square. I aim to fork over the bottom of the bed to aid the aeration and bulk out some of the bed but, yes, i will need to buy some material to fill. Basically my site has been the unloved side of the garden (previous owners). There was a mature Cox apple tree (now removed) and some awful stuff very much like very thick couch grass that throws up 4-5' high seed heads, awful bloody stuff. I'm thinking of using agricultural roundup to kill them off before digging over. There was also a small area of lawn under the tree which is now just a muddy mess. I know a traditional bed will be cheaper but ultimately harder work.
Not much else in the way of weeds, no brambles or bindweed, just this horrible grass type plant that needs killing. What do you think?

Wookey

One advantage to raised beds depending on what you are growing in them is the ability to incorporate a membrane in them to stop weeds growing up thru them. The soil around where the apple tree was should be in excellent condition with good drainage. If drainage is likely to be an issue try to design the layout with this in mind, slight pathways/ground sloping towards hedging or trees will make surface water disappear a lot faster.
I'm working with a clay/soil mix at present and choose to dig down around beds thereby creating a raised type bed and adding in some compost and allowing it to overwinter which has helped break down the clay quite a bit, a couple of forkings thru to turn out any larger clumps between frosty spells of weather is helping to. Drainage was sorted by digging out a sump at the back filled with stones with some sloping of the ground towards it, what used to take water 3-4 days to clear is now gone in a day or so.
I personally would dose your weeds with weedkiller and rotavate once dead, you can then cover the main bed areas with cardboard and build your beds on top, the cardboard should last long enough to prevent weed growth and will itself compost down. Also worth checking if bulk bags of top soil are available in your area, they should work out a fair bit cheaper than compost unless your council give it away free.

A._Badger

I like and use raised beds but they aren't the answer for everything and I sometimes wish I had space for a traditional plot, not instead of, but as an addition to, the beds.

If you could manage to do both, it might serve you best.

Davesnave

I already have some raised beds, but after thinking about it, I've decided my soil is a bit too light and free draining to create more. I'll still define the beds with wood edging though, to allow for them to creep up a bit over the years as I add organic matter.

There isn't a one size fits all solution IMO, but either way, I'd have those boards if they are going free!