Raised beds - help?

valk_scot

My take on this is that unless you live far, far away from the urban sprawl and are gardening in virgin soil, there's likely to be a bit of pollution in there already. So obviously be careful about what your boards are treated with, but don't get too paranoid. There's an arguement against using old floorboards, for example, even untreated ones, because of the pollutants that have might have leached out of the rubber carpet underlay.

Most of my wood comes out of skips, so I have little idea of what's on or in it. I avoid painted wood because it flakes, but treated fence panels and old tanalised stuff? Yes to that...it's probably had a fair amount of treatment leached out already because it's been weathered. I think it's far more importany to avoid excessive use of chemicals directly into the growing medium ie I've got organic gardening leanings, but I'm very pragmatic. There use to be a web link out there from one of the top organic sites giving guidelines as to what sort of recycled timber to use in gardens, but I'm darned if I can find it just now. Will look later.

I don't mind having to repace rotting timber after five or six years, btw. So I use untreated scrap timber and don't really care if it looks a bit scruffy after a while. I only have an allotment of course...it would be different if I was setting up a decorative potager in the front garden.

poly1

We have got a raised bed running down our fence which is about 12m long by 50cm wide!!! I want to use it for growing all my herbs/veg etc this year. Last year it was half empty, so we have filled it with some topsoil (free) some rotted maure and various other bits of soil dug out form our garden. The condition looks pretty good now. The problem is I really don't know how to plan such a huge space for planting , I have only ever gorwn my veg etc in containers before, the other problem is after about 2 in the afternoon it doesn't get much sunlight. Any advise as to how to go about it wouold be great.

arkonite_babe

poly1 have a look at our older raised bed threads here on Greenfingers for some advice.

Lotus-eater

Put some raspberries in it, perfect to take up some space

bina72

You could try dividing the space up using a grid pattern. That way it'd be easier to keep track of what you've put where.
You could use thin strips of wood or even just string to mark out the area. Then pop a lollypop stick with the name of what you're planning to plant in each area. Take a step back & try to visualise them growing (height & spread etc), then you can move the sticks about to fit better before you actually plant anything.

robnye

this might sound silly, my OH has been green fingering this afternoon and asked whether i could create a raised flower/veg bed for her....

I have identified the ideal area for it, but just wondered whether
I should use, bricks n mortar or can i use breeze blocks (or rather the concrete type ones.....?
breeze block construction being quicker to make and using less bricks/blocks

what would be the optimal soil depth... hence depth of raised bed?

nodwah

I'd have thought breeze blocks would be fine, depends on how attractive they'll be I suppose?
My raised beds are 6-8 inches high but any height is fine depending on what you want to grow eg roots like carrots and parsnips need more depth. My parsnips last year went right down to the subsoil, they were about a foot long. People who grow for shows grow their carrots in huge raised bed or dustbins and the like to get the maximum length. You can get different types that will grow to different sizes lokk in a good seed catalogue like 'chilterns' or visit 'real seeds'.
Just remember the higher the are the more compost you'll need to fill them and therefore more expensive to start off.

jean48

I used old scaffolding planks at £5 a piece have painted them with wood stain and they still look good after 4 yrs have had loads of different crops from my raised bed well worth the time and money

Keith

I've used pressure treated wood, if I grow veg and eat it, will I die?

bella165

lol no dont be silly