Fall is generally considered the best for the reason you stated, but you can really add it anytime! I use both my homemade compost and I purchase bulk compost from a local landscape company. I fill the beds about eight to ten inches high and also use a hand full of worm casting out of my worm farm for each seedling. I love your article helping all keen gardeners as its a great life medication; plotting around in your garden, getting your hands dirt, enjoying and sharing the company with all the bees and red lady bird.
Love to hear from you with more gardening ideas. Cheers, Orlando. Before filling the beds with soil, toss in some hardwood logs that are a little past their prime from the wood pile. Then fill the beds as directed. As the logs break down they provide nutrients for the soil and act like a sponge soaking up rainwater that would normally drain out the bottom of the bed. Plants will develop deep root systems reaching for this moisture, as opposed to shallow roots with surface watering.
Not only will this conserve water, but everyone knows plants prefer rainwater. I have even heard of covering a downed tree with soil and planting on top of it, omitting the bed all together. Makes sense. In the woods, the most beautiful foliage is always near a fallen tree.
This is excellent! In response to Kay Emanuele and your comment, Jill, that technique Kay describes using wood in the base of garden beds is called Hugelkultur and has a long history in gardening.
Very useful for deep or tall, depending on how you look at it! The bed will thus over the years require topping up, but if you are adding mulch each growing season, that solves that problem.
You say that using mulch to keep the weeds out of your garden.. In fact, I just planted my carrot seeds today. It will be a very long time before I add mulch because they take so long to germinate and establish themselves. My first year the vegetables grew amazing, but grew smaller and smaller every year after that. I think you need to change the soil every years. Great post, thanks! I am new to gardening and want to use livestock troughs like big metal baskets!
What should the drainage situation be? Drill holes? Knock out the whole bottom? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Good question. If your native soil is sandy, I think drilling holes would be fine. Also, how hot is your climate? Those troughs will dry out quickly in hot summers, requiring more watering. In that case, you may want to stick with the drainage holes so the soil can hold more water in the hot days.
But again those suggestions are pure speculation. Cant find much info about this. My beds run both ways. The more important thing is how you place your crops. Hi Jill! This will be our first year to try the raised gardens. Thanks for the tips. You can make your bed any height that is comfortable. Just know that going inches will require much soil. Do you have any suggestions on getting rid of Johnson grass? Even though I used cardboard in the bottom and mulched.
I have dug roots like crazy, but every little bit left behind grows a new generation. Seems this is a hard thing to eradicate! My favorite tip is to use newspaper as mulch.
It keeps the weeds down and helps keep the moisture in the soil. I use only black an white print, not colored inserts. I built 15 or so raised garden beds 2 x 6 for the Mount Sinai NY Garden Club and we were wise enough to place these just as you described, about 10 years ago. Lots of happy neighbors. Thanks, Chuck! Thanks for sharing your experience! I once had to dig mine out and put chicken wire under the whole thing to keep gophers from devouring my garden.
So I recommend doing that right from the start too! What a pain that must have been for you! I read most of the comments on here and everyone seems to be concerned with animals coming into the beds from below.
I do not have a problem with animals but with tree roots. I have placed landscaping material into the bottom of the beds and the trees just ignore it and push feeder through it and populate the beds with roots. This robs the beds of nutrients for the vegetables. Looking for ideas for raising the beds off the ground inches.
Emptying the beds every year to remove the roots is very tiresome and at 65 very labor-some. Perhaps someone can chime in when they see your question.
I have the same problem, roots came through landscaping material, and my vegetables yield was very poor. The boards run perpendicular to the frames.
I am using a landscape fabric on the bottom of the box. I would like to plant strawberries in a new planter. Any hints? I live in zone 3. Is there a danger of them freezing in the winter? Any special soil.? The planter is 3 feet by 6 feet , 16 inches high. Mine overwinter in my ground beds, but I do know the soil gets colder in planters.
I would ask someone local to you and see if they have any suggestions. Alberta, Canada. Strawberries do not over winter in pots here, but they do in my garden? Thanks for the great read. A lot of ideas to consider before I put together our raised beds. To fill the beds can I use cheap plain dirt or should I use top soil?
I plan on adding bagged compost to it aswell. Also we will be having deeper raised beds and like the idea of lining the base with older wood logs and sticks and mulching with wood chips. Your advise would be great. Great questions here. Topsoil is recommended, as it contains more nutrients and organic matter than fill dirt. So if you line the bottom with older wood and sticks, any nitrogen that is tied up will be limited to that space in the bottom, not the primary root zone of the plants depending on the depth of your bed.
And no, you do not need to remove the wood chips at the end of the season. They will slowly break down into the soil, giving you a more fertile soil for the next season as well as prevent erosion over the winter. My raised bed on legs is not doing well. This is my second year with purchased organic soil. We have had a lot of rain and hot sun.
The plants are not growing at all like last year. Your suggestion of adding compost is appreciated. Would fertilizer help now? Could it be too much water and heat? It looks pathetic! I would try adding organic fertilizer as a quick remedy like fish emulsion or seaweed or kelp emulsion , but you definitely need to add compost, too. Regarding irrigation, I assume your raised bed on legs has drainage holes.
If you do have drainage holes, you will have to water more frequently this time of year due to the heat. I love the ease of use. I topped with compost from our pile the top foot has good clean compost mixed with peat moss, coconut coir to help keep soil moist. Every fall I add a bunch of crushed egg shells can cover with compost.
To top it off I cover with layers of cardboard or newspaper. This helps in spring to keep weeds at a minimum and the amendments have had all winter to slowly decompose into the soil. Before I started covering my beds over winter in spring I would have quite a bit of weeding to do prior to being able to plant. Now only the few exposed areas need attention.
Lastly, we added goat panels as an arch between the beds- attaching them to the sides of the raised beds. I planted peas, cucumbers and summer zucchini which are now quickly growing up and through the archway. It not only added more garden space but it looks pretty and once covered will give some much needed shade in the raised bed area. I have found that to also control weeds between the beds is to put white vinegar not distilled white vinegar in a sprayer hand or pump and spray the weeds when they are not in stress and it will kill them or knock them down.
It may take several sprays, but it works and does not contain any harmful chemicals. Be careful and spray on a calm day with little or no wind. I just found your Raised Bed Gardening site and have not had time to completely read all of the comments. I would like to tell you about something that worked for me years ago and I have forgotten until now. At one time in my earlier gardening days, I collected rainwater and stored it in 55 gl.
Because my garden was in an area where elevation was available, I would put the barrels at a higher elevation than the garden. By doing this, I could then gravity feed the water to my garden use a garden hose. I found that I could use gravity by siphoning the water to start the flow or turn on the faucet. Once the gravity feed started, it could be stopped by kinking the hose and temporarily stopping the flow turning of the nozzle.
Once you released the kink, the flow would start again. This same affect can be gained by elevating the barrels a foot or two when no other elevation is available. I hope that this my be found helpful as it allows you to water your garden when water would otherwise not be available. Great idea! I know many people are looking into ways to use rain barrels. We used them in the past, and what you said about it being elevated is key.
What are your thoughts on building the garden boxes waist height? I currently live in a rental and thought I could build them taller and on wheels so that I can move it around the yard and avoid killing the grass. Also do you use chicken wire underneath your beds? Is that to help drain excess water? Raised garden boxes are common, but they function more like containers.
If you build it yourself, though, yes, you need to make sure you include drainage holes. We have very iron heavy water. It would have been a couple thousand more to extend the filter outside. Any advice or suggestions? I honestly have no idea. I recommend contacting your local county extension agent and asking them. Hello, I was reading this article and noticed you have irritations with grass and weeds. I went online and found a mixture of 1 gallon distilled vinegar — 1 cup iodized salt and 2 tbs of dish soap.
Killed crabgrass and broad leaf weeds such as dandelion and more. Hopefully it helps, you probably already know, right….? Yes, I have heard of this and might consider it for spot treatment. I had plenty of questions before reading the plethora of comments left here.
So I will use my space to say this. Jill,, you have to be one of the most patient and kind people I have ever witnessed online. You share great information and a true love for gardening and the people who visit your page can feel that.
You are doing a wonderful job here, keep up the informative great work!! Thank you so much for taking your time to write your comment, Peter. Your kind words are truly touching. If you have any questions not addressed already, feel free to ask. There are drainage spaces between the boards on the bottom, so I hope that is enough. But my main question is about using a black plastic liner.
There are so many mixed reviews on this. Some say it protects the wood for many more years. Some say it warms the bed. Some say it rots the soil. We have a fairly wet climate in the winter, with nice, warm summers.
If I did use plastic, should I line just the sides, and not the bottom? Or, should I line the sides AND the bottom and put holes in the bottom of the plastic? Or, should I just put landscape fabric on the bottom, and possibly some rock for drainage, and forget the plastic? Or, maybe I should do none of these things, and just build my garden in the cedar bed with no liner at all: Thank you in advance for your advice.
I hope this helps! I have been reading this thread and it is very informative. I am putting a new bed on a piece of land that has grass that used chemical weed preventer and bug killer on it. How long do these chemicals remain in the soil? Is it safe to cardboard over the grass and place the beds? They will be 8 in high. Will the chemicals Be taken up bt the plants? Those chemicals will remain in the soil for quite some time. I would probably go higher than eight inches, though, just to be safe.
Most of the roots of plants are located in the top six inches, and the higher you can get those roots from those persistent chemicals the better. I have heard mixed reviews on concerns with chemicals leaching into the plants. That, of course, is a personal decision. I do not believe landscape fabric would prevent leaching of chemicals, since it is porous, and I imagine cedar planks would be the same. If you want to line it, look into a food-grade plastic liner. I have a major problem! We built a raised garden — 3 feet off the ground….
Once we put soil and plants in it it was good for 2 weeks and last night the bottom completely came off the structure! We used cedar per research and screws, etc. What did we do wrong and how do we proceed??? Thank you so much for any insight! I have no idea! Perhaps a board or two on the bottom would help for stability? Perhaps you used heavier garden soil instead of potting soil? Question about mulching inside your raised beds: what do you do with the mulch after the growing season?
Scrape it off? Mix it in? I keep the mulch on over the winter. It depends on what mulch you use; some breaks down more than others during the course of the season. I bet this is a first lol We have bird feeders on the long hooks out off deck.
Perfect for bird watching from kitchen table. The hulls, feed drop down into ground and exterminator says bad, bad encouraging mice and squirrels. We have large metal trough. What about plants under bird feeders in trough? Would seed kill plants? I have a bird feeder with the same issue but nothing ever bothers the area — probably because we have a cat. I have a raised bed that I built on a concrete slab with bricks and cement.
How do I cater for the drainage issues on this build. Is it simply a case of using water retaining components in my soil mix or do I need to make a plan and get some drainage holes in place? I do not have personal experience with this, but I would assume that there would be some type of gap even small between the bricks and the concrete slab. If so, that should allow the excess water to drain. If not, treat the bed more like a container and use lighter soil, such as a potting soil.
Any heavy soil like clay-based soil or garden soil will retain too much moisture and possibly cause root rot in your plants. Greetings, a lot of good info. About 25 yrs. After planting, lay down news paper and cover with straw. The news paper keeps the weeds down the straw keeps the paper from blowing away. This works great. It all breaks down by the end of the growing season. This helps with watering by retaining moisture.
I also chop up all my dead plants lay them on my rows. Wisley Surrey. Bridgewater Greater Manchester. Environmentally friendly gardening. Plant health. Take part in our research. Meet the team. Shop plants rhsplants. Shopping with the RHS. RHS Christmas gifts. Help us achieve our goals Make a donation. Join the RHS today and support our charity Join now. Save to My scrapbook.
Raised vegetable beds. Credit: RHS Advisory. Quick facts. Raised beds are good for: Improving drainage Increasing soil temperature Improving access Growing plants in a different soil type. Jump to Suitable for Building raised beds: getting started Building raised beds: construction Top tips Problems. Suitable for You can grow almost any plants in raised beds. Try the following: Soft fruits: Such as strawberries, currants, raspberries and blackberries Vegetables: Almost any vegetable can be grown in raised beds Herbaceous perennials: Raised beds are a good idea for establishing a cutting garden for cut flowers Alpines: Ideal for alpines that relish good drainage Small trees and shrubs: Depending on how big your beds are, you may be able to grow some smaller trees and shrubs Ericaceous or lime-hating plants: By filling beds with acid soil , lime-hating plants such as heathers and rhododendrons may be grown in areas of alkaline soil Raised beds can be used to: Improve drainage: Soil is raised above the surrounding ground level.
However, this can be disadvantage in droughts as more watering may be needed Increase soil temperature: Soil in raised beds is better drained, so warms up faster in spring Enhance root health: Filling the beds with good topsoil enriched with fertiliser and organic matter gives excellent root zone conditions Improve ease of management: Raised beds have a bigger soil volume than containers, so are easier to manage with watering Match the soil to the plant: By filling raised beds with acid soil, for example, ericaceous lime-hating plants can be grown even where the underlying soil is alkaline Improve ease of access: Raised beds are easier to manage for gardeners with mobility problems.
Building raised beds: getting started Although raised beds can be built at any time, most gardeners find it convenient to build them in winter, as long as the soil is not too wet or frozen.
When building raised beds, the following points need to be considered: Firstly, define how big your raised bed needs to be, and where you need it Walking or stepping on raised beds is best avoided, so go for widths of less than 1. Additionally, if the bed is to be situated near a boundary or roadside, height limitations may be enforced.
If in any doubt regarding these regulations contact your local planning authority. Commonly used materials Stone: Both natural stone and stone prepared for wall construction can be purchased. Building raised beds: construction Clear the site of existing vegetation and level as required Mark out the beds with stakes and string, and check the levels For all but masonry walls, insert retaining stakes 5 x 5cm or 2 x 2in timber is suitable at the corners and then at every 1.
Footings should be approximately 15cm 6in deep and 30cm 1ft wide Where a masonry bed is to be built on a hard surface such as a patio, leave gaps at 45cm intervals between the joints in the first two courses to act as drainage holes. Cover these holes inside the wall with fine wire mesh, and heap gravel against the mesh when filling to help prevent clogging Sleepers and logs can be laid directly on level, firm soil. Fix into place by hammering metal rods into the ground through holes drilled vertically in each corner.
Alternatively, use heavy-duty staples and wire Sink sawn logs or log rolls partially into the soil, and then ram them hard to keep the logs upright Filling the bed Once the sides are in place, cultivate and enrich the underlying soil with organic matter Although raised beds constructed on free-draining soils drain naturally and permit deep rooting those on poorly-drained soils, or on a solid base such as concrete or paving should be filled with open textured soil, adding sand if necessary, and making sure there are adequate holes in the sides allow water to drain away.
Most plants need about 25cm of top soil and beneath the top soil sharp sand can be used which will drain freely yet hold some water to sustain plants and into which plants can root for stability.
Think of raised beds on impermeable surfaces, especially shallow ones, as being similar to pots needing careful and frequent watering and replacement of the soil at intervals of several years when drainage becomes impaired. For beds deeper than 50cm 20in , remove the underlying topsoil for use later in filling up the bed and replace with subsoil, rubble or old inverted turves.
Then replace the topsoil, enriched with organic matter such as well rotted compost or manure and fertiliser, firming in layers to prevent undue settling Where the topsoil is unsuitable for the crops or plants to be grown, leave it in place, but simply loosen it and fill up the bed with new soil. Plastic lumber needs more lateral support than regular lumber. If you are using untreated pine, just plan to replace it periodically.
If there is concrete buried a few inches below the surface that is preventing water from percolating down into the soil, how is putting gravel on top going to help water percolate down into the soil? That doesn't make any sense to me. Please realize that if that concrete covers the ground area under your raised bed, your raised bed is going to function more like a giant container garden.
It's a fact that sometimes, raised beds are undone. I can't see that a layer of gravel will be all that much of a help for drainage though I don't fully accept that it will harm it either.
But it would surely make it a lot harder to clean this project up when and if ever the time comes. I would go sans gravel. Also, I know you already have a plan for making the container out of wood, but it's the case that many wood boxes end up looking pretty shabby down the road. I recently came across a video where someone made raised beds out of interlocking precast concrete panels that they fabricated themselves.
Link to precast raised bed panels. They were much nicer looking than the typical wood affair and are also flexible in that they can be linked to create larger size beds.
They'd be much more durable, too. If ever undone, they could be reused somewhere else instead of being pitched in the trash. No need to worry about rot or coating the insides. Wow, I just saw that this is a nine year old thread that someone resurrected. Westes, what gives? Based on my experience, I advise to use a natural barrier for the bottom of the raised garden bed. Like you said, if you have burrowing rodents definitely you'd wanna lay the bottom with a metal wire for protection.
I am making raised beds that do Not sit on the ground. They are cedar boxes and the bottom of the box is cedar as well.
Do I add fabric liner? And drill holes for drainage? How many drain holes are recommended and is lining it with fabric safe and recommended? I am doing the same thing! Anxious to see the responses.
If you seal the bottom of a raised bed off from the ground underneath - as you have done by building boards at the bottom of the planter with drainage holes in them - then you have a container, not a raised bed. That's important because a container imposes special restrictions on the kind of soil you can use. Putting in normal potting soil, topsoil, or garden clay, is going to create significant drainage problems for the plants in that container.
If you do not mind that, when you get ready to plant put up a post on the container gardening forum and start a discussion about a good kind of soil to use in a container for the kind of plant you are raising. Indem Sie weiterhin auf der Website surfen bzw.
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This is how I will be constructing my garden if anyone wants to supply any other tips: 1 Till and level area 2 Install galvanized wire over ground we have burrowing rodents 3 Place 2" of crushed gravel over ground 4 Build raised bed frames, 2"x10" double-stacked for 20" high beds 5 Remove some gravel from inside beds to allow worms to make their way inside 6 Install drainage material on inside of beds 7 Place loam in raised bed 8 Install soaker hoses, 3 evenly spaced down each bed 9 Start planting Eventually install fence to block off remaining area from animals Thanks for your help.
Email Save Comment Featured Answer. Like 4 Save. Sort by: Oldest. Newest Oldest. Hi, what zone are you in? Sounds like you have a respectable plan. Like 1 Save. Whatever you do you must have a hearth. There is a reason for them. It's to protect your flooring from cinder burns.
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