Giraffe Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I have a question about raised beds based on the earlier (current) thread about tilling them. One of the responses recommended the Pioneer Woman's blog for instructions on how to build them. She has incredibly detailed instructions, which are great, but complicated. Do I really have to screw and re-screw and level and stake the frames? I was kinda thinking I would build some temporary-ish beds out of bricks this season and see how things go (we rent so any garden I do this year won't be my "forever" garden anyway). Or at the very most just make very simple wooden frames and go from there. Do I really have to stake the frames? Can I just make them out of the bricks and concrete blocks we already have loose in our yard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Sure you can. I did my first ones with long, slim landscape 'timbers'. They didn't last long or work well, but it was a good improvement on my clay soil ick. I do think hers are pretty complicated. Mine are 2x10 lumber, 8ft. long by 4ft long. (Buy three 2x10s 8ft long for each box. Saw one in half (4ft lengths) I took a 4x4 post and sawed it into 10in lengths. Those blocks go in the corners--screw the sides and ends of your box into the 4x4 making all the edges neat and tidy. If you put them together on a hard flat surface like the driveway, it helps. It then takes a couple of muscley teens to move them. I painted mine with a good exterior white paint (for a cottage look) and placed them. Lined the bottom with thick newspaper to quell the grass. Filled them with Mel's Mix recipe and planted. We've had GREAT results. We are long time conventional gardeners so going Square Foot was a change for us. Use your bricks and whatnot. Gather good soil and plant. Water with attention and care. Enjoy the excellent produce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 How do you keep the soil good? Do you have to take out the old soil and add new? I have some with just cedar boards screwed onto square posts. The first two years, I grew lots and lots--the past two years I've had major soil problems and don't just want to dig out all the old soil. Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KS_ Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Do I really have to stake the frames? Can I just make them out of the bricks and concrete blocks we already have loose in our yard? You can make raised beds out of whatever you have - some people make raised beds w/o any type of edging, they just mound up the soil, and make a little trench around the edge to help keep the grass from growing into the beds. My raised beds are only one 2X10 high because I did sink another frame into the soil to help keep the quack grass out. But when I lived in places w/o all this quack grass, I used whatever I had, or that I could buy inexpensively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 No, you just enrich it over the years with various composts. You can also plant winter cover clover or the like. You also want to rotate crops. What have the problems been? I had a squash borer problem that has been tormenting me. ;) How do you keep the soil good? Do you have to take out the old soil and add new? I have some with just cedar boards screwed onto square posts. The first two years, I grew lots and lots--the past two years I've had major soil problems and don't just want to dig out all the old soil.Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Refresh each year or two with bagged (or homemade) compost. Stir it in or layer it on top of the existing soil. We buy several brands of compost and mix because one brand of compost might be lacking in essential nutrients. This year it was mushroom compost, Moo-nure, and a generic compost. The year we started doing this our yields improved. My soil is icky...I use the Square Foot gardening guidelines for soil and such because I don't use ANY native soil. If I had good soil, I'd use it and just amend with compost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KS_ Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 How do you keep the soil good? Do you have to take out the old soil and add new? I have some with just cedar boards screwed onto square posts. The first two years, I grew lots and lots--the past two years I've had major soil problems and don't just want to dig out all the old soil.Beth I sheet compost in my beds to help improve the soil. When I'm not actively growing in the beds, I will throw my kitchen waste in them and dig it under. I've also been able to get ahold of a lot of coffee grounds that I dump and dig into them, too. Before I was adding the coffee grounds, I'd add composted manure in the early spring before I planted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 How do you keep the soil good? Do you have to take out the old soil and add new? I have some with just cedar boards screwed onto square posts. The first two years, I grew lots and lots--the past two years I've had major soil problems and don't just want to dig out all the old soil.Beth I find that my soil disappears each year, so I add more. I do a little bit of composting, and should do more than I actually do (and I do have a compost tumbler). In the spring you can fluff up the soil and plant, and as the summer goes on, you'll notice that it recedes quite a bit. I put in my first raised beds about 3 years ago (I think this summer will be the 4th summer planting in them), and I still haven't finished topping them off with soil. So no, you never need to remove the old soil. You will want to add more, and make sure some of what you add is compost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giraffe Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 Sure you can. I did my first ones with long, slim landscape 'timbers'. They didn't last long or work well, but it was a good improvement on my clay soil ick. I do think hers are pretty complicated. Mine are 2x10 lumber, 8ft. long by 4ft long. (Buy three 2x10s 8ft long for each box. Saw one in half (4ft lengths) I took a 4x4 post and sawed it into 10in lengths. Those blocks go in the corners--screw the sides and ends of your box into the 4x4 making all the edges neat and tidy. If you put them together on a hard flat surface like the driveway, it helps. It then takes a couple of muscley teens to move them. I painted mine with a good exterior white paint (for a cottage look) and placed them. Lined the bottom with thick newspaper to quell the grass. Filled them with Mel's Mix recipe and planted. We've had GREAT results. We are long time conventional gardeners so going Square Foot was a change for us. Use your bricks and whatnot. Gather good soil and plant. Water with attention and care. Enjoy the excellent produce. Thank you! I'm marking out where the beds will go (2 4'x'4 boxes) and DH promises when the ground thaws out enough he will dig up the grass there. I'll then add my bricks and whatnot and fill with soil and plant. Unfortunately I don't have a couple of muscley teens to help move constructed frames. It would just be me & DD, and she's not real good at heavy lifting. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6packofun Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I've found a lot of good info on this stuff--how to rotate crops to get the best out of the soil, etc.--in the book The Kitchen Garden: http://hannersrawr.deviantart.com/#/d38inq4 I like that it gives you a month-by-month plan for what to do! If I don't have a plan, I'll just flounder. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Unfortunately I don't have a couple of muscley teens to help move constructed frames. It would just be me & DD, and she's not real good at heavy lifting. :tongue_smilie: Then if you do ever build a raised bed from wood, build it a close to the final location as possible, on level ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giraffe Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 Then if you do ever build a raised bed from wood, build it a close to the final location as possible, on level ground. Good point! I never really thought about it until now. There's a lot more to this gardening business than meets the eye.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Then if you do ever build a raised bed from wood, build it a close to the final location as possible, on level ground. This!! We followed the Square Foot Garden instructions for ours, and had the guys at Lowe's cut the wood into the length we needed. I think they were 4 feet each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Good point! I never really thought about it until now. There's a lot more to this gardening business than meets the eye.... I built my wood raised bed by myself, all except for one board that I needed dh's help for. My bed is 4' by 8', with a 4' board halfway, so that it looks like two 4' squares. I had started to fasten that board into place, but there was still a gap between that one and the boards on the long sides. Dh and I turned the bed onto its side and one of us hung on the long board from below, to pull it down, while the other one used the power drill with screw driver bit to drive the screws in the rest of the way. I also have 2 plastic 4' x 8' beds, but I like my wooden one better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I bought a round raised bed frame from WalMart last spring. (It was on clearance). I didn't want to mess with tilling, so I bought soil and manure to fill mine. Fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssexton Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I put out a 4' x 10' raised bed last year and layered newspaper under the new soil to keep out the grass. However, I got a little lazy with weeding late in the summer and now my icky bermuda grass has taken over my raised bed. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I've got a large raised bed full of bermuda grass, and it's about impossible to get rid of. ugh... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lukhere Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 Yeah, they can be really heavy, especially when they are filled with ground. You wound not be able to move them. Or at least that would be hard to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lukhere Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 Check out this page and see how large those raised beds can be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenangelcat Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 You don't actually need to edge them with anything. You can make raised beds with just soil. We had wood framed raised beds at the old house and they were just a basic frame with no extra support and they bowed out a bit and eventually started to fall apart after about 4 years (spruce). We have a much bigger space now and have unframed beds. They look just as good without the added cost and effort. Tilling isn't good for the soil so we just lightly loosen it each year with a claw tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsintheGarden Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I put out a 4' x 10' raised bed last year and layered newspaper under the new soil to keep out the grass. However, I got a little lazy with weeding late in the summer and now my icky bermuda grass has taken over my raised bed. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I've got a large raised bed full of bermuda grass, and it's about impossible to get rid of. ugh... Since it's summer, you could solarize your soil. You will lose about a month of growing time, but it will get rid of the weeds, along with potential pests and diseases, too. Just google "solarizing garden soil" and many links will pop up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I was kinda thinking I would build some temporary-ish beds out of bricks this season and see how things go (we rent so any garden I do this year won't be my "forever" garden anyway). Or at the very most just make very simple wooden frames and go from there. Do I really have to stake the frames? Can I just make them out of the bricks and concrete blocks we already have loose in our yard? We made ours out of R.R. ties. We did "set them in." We don't "need" them in that we have plenty of space but it visually keeps me organized and I do a modified square foot garden. How do you keep the soil good? Do you have to take out the old soil and add new? I have some with just cedar boards screwed onto square posts. The first two years, I grew lots and lots--the past two years I've had major soil problems and don't just want to dig out all the old soil.Beth We cold compost. We add leaves, composted horse manure, grass clippings, etc. I am constantly adding to our beds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 make them out of bricks and see how you like it! I made mine with some cheapo plastic garden edging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 John Jeavons grows in raised beds without sides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lukhere Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 John Jeavons grows in raised beds without sides. How is that possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.