Raised bed

[Bill HH]

Yes you could do that, the price you will pay is the weeds that will come with your top soil. I would take the popportunity to riddle the stones out if it were me. once in the bed you will be hard pushed to ever get them out. You dont have to fill the beds, you could leave them half full this year and fill them up next year, or as you go along. If you make lots of your own home made compost this year it will save you a fortune.

[Luke6]

I'm deviding the bed in half and then make it bigger next season. The bed is 6 inches deep and 2 half meters long. Is the depth ok


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[Kristen]

I've bin filling my raised bed with compost and topsoil with organic matter and it's still not finished and it's getting quite pricey. Could I dig the soil up at the top of the garden. It has quite a few little stones in it would that be a problem. I don't want to lose heart on it but I don't want to keep spending loads of money on it. I now have learnt I should of made it smaller but least it's a lesson learnt

I excavated my paths, one spade's depth, and put that soil on to my raised beds when I made them. Increased the amount of the "raise" which in turn improved the drainage in the beds - but not a lot of help if what you want is beds that are at a better height to work at with less stooping. I wanted beds that drained better on my heavy soil.

Anyone about to build a conservatory etc. near you? They will be paying to have their soil taken away - and you could do that job for them for free ... or perhaps for only half the fee that they would pay to have it taken away

[NicolaD]

Some great tips for me here. Also thanks Kristen for pointing out google can do the maths, I use it every now and again for other calculations and never thought to try it for this.

I know of Square Foot Gardening, but not tried it or read enough to have seen any recommendations. Are you planning to mix that with existing soil (at least 50% soil)? If not then I wonder if it would be better to buy half as Multipurpose Compost and half as Topsoil bags?

I would also be inclined to buy some of the bags as rotted manure, rather than MPC, but again I have no knowledege of S.F.G.

Interesting. Vermiculite retains moisture, and I can imagine that would be helpful (probably no benefit if your soil is heavy, sand might be better for raised beds on heavy soil?), but near the surface I fear it will blow away when it comes to the top, and dries out in the sun, and then you have even a light breeze. That stuff is lighter than a feather when dry!

If you follow sqft gardening closely then I think the idea is to use 'mels mix' (mel being the guy who came up with sqft gardening)

Mel's Mix:

• 1/3 vermiculite
• 1/3 peat moss
• 1/3 compost

My beds are a lot deeper than what Mel suggests so I will use cardboard and look into topsoil options too. I also need to look around for cheaper vermiculite £5 for 10l is not a good deal! (B&Q). I'm new to this so lots to learn, thanks for sharing.

[Kristen]

1/3 vermiculite strikes me as a heck of a lot. I wonder what the thinking was? Perhaps for improved drainage in the peat moss - but Vermiculite also holds a lot of water (as does peat). Peat is very hard to re-wet, if it dries out, Vermiculite might help with that.

Good job it is intensive as the "compost" is going to cost a fair bit!

[Dorothy rouse]

I was advised by the man who runs our allotment shop, v experienced gardener, that vermiculite and perlite, were too light for use in a raised bed, so didn't bother. Good for potting up tho,so I'd check if you really need to use it.

[petep]

This is quite pertinent to my current project. Our soil is compacted and a bit stoney so I have been trying to get free topsoil to fill my newly built raised beds, but as I need about 12 tonnes for all the beds I've been forced to scale back for the moment. The nearest topsoil I could find on Gumtree was a 40 mile trip, which I've done twice already for 2 tonnes each trip.

Anyway, the previous house owner had built a compost heap which seems to be predominantly grass cuttings plus some food waste and plant cuttings. Should I mix that in with the topsoil, put a layer in first, or is part rotten grass cuttings not a good idea?

I haven't dug over the ground under the beds as it's too much effort. The beds are 12-16" deep.

I've just checked online and Aberdeenshire council has apparently stopped it's garden waste program so I can't get compost from them, and the companies that are now collecting the garden waste are too far away to supply me - yes, even further than a 40 mile round trip.

[Bill HH]

This is quite pertinent to my current project. Our soil is compacted and a bit stoney so I have been trying to get free topsoil to fill my newly built raised beds, but as I need about 12 tonnes for all the beds I've been forced to scale back for the moment. The nearest topsoil I could find on Gumtree was a 40 mile trip, which I've done twice already for 2 tonnes each trip.

Anyway, the previous house owner had built a compost heap which seems to be predominantly grass cuttings plus some food waste and plant cuttings. Should I mix that in with the topsoil, put a layer in first, or is part rotten grass cuttings not a good idea?

I haven't dug over the ground under the beds as it's too much effort. The beds are 12-16" deep.

I've just checked online and Aberdeenshire council has apparently stopped it's garden waste program so I can't get compost from them, and the companies that are now collecting the garden waste are too far away to supply me - yes, even further than a 40 mile round trip.

I would prefer the compost to the top soil, use cardboard and newspapers on the bottom aswell cheap and a good space filler. Also green un-composted things will be ok on the lower levels. If you just use soil your missing a very important chance to condition your beds. Some soil is good but pad it out with cheaper stuff.