Raised Beds

[Muriel]

i was wondering, what is the best way to build a raised bed. What do you fill it with.

[Norm]

How big do you want the bed?

[Muriel]

I haven't thought about that, but i know that i don't want them too big.

[Norm]

I have a few raised beds at the lottie. All are about 4' wide, 3' high and range in length from 8' to 25'. They're filled with a combination of topsoil, sharp sand, spent compost and muck, but they have taken years to fill. There is weed membrane under all of them and the sides are insulated roofing sheet.
HOWEVER, the next ones I build will be 3"x3"tanalised fence posts at the corners and old scaffold boards for sides.
Hope this helps.

[Muriel]

Thanks

Thanks for the advice Norm. That has certainly helped. I look forward to making them.

Muriel

[Norm]

One last piece of advice. When you're nailing the boards on, don't hit your thumb

[Herbie]

Hi Muriel

We have been building raised beds at home this year. We have made one that is c-shaped and is about 30ft long, 2-3 ft wide and about 3ft high! this was a big project, made from recycled railway sleepers. We did this in February, this one was made as herbacious border, we have made others to grow veg from scaffolding boards and we have used decking.
The decking ones were easiest to make, we just made four stakes for the corners and then cut the length as required, hammer and nails to fix together. My OH is completing the last two once it stops raining. I don't have a lottie, so use raised beds as I like the no dig element. We had a good result last year with them and I'm hoping for better sucess this year as last year was rubbish due to the bad weather.
I brought decking as I wanted it to tie in with the big border that we build in our garden but you can use old pallets they work just as good and even better if you can get them for free.

[allotmentlady]

most of ours are 6x4 beds, filled with manure, mushroom compost and soil and now some lovely veggies :-)

[JO,JO]

two raised beds built by my oh in the sunny side of my garden allotment one side flowers the other lol.we have bought a mixture of fertilised top soil, farmyard manure and mulit purpose compost with john innes.cost a fortune but it was worth it.

[chuffa]

raised beds

Hi Muriel, I made mine out of old scaffolding boards so they are 9" high. They are 10ft x 4ft and filled with topsoil, spent hops, manure and own compost. They will fill up completely over the years.

[Muriel]

Thanks

I would like to say a big thank you to all of you for your advice, it has helped me alot.

Many Thanks

Muriel