Daft Question About Raised Beds??

[jonohanson]

I'm turning 75% of my allotments into beds, this will equate to about 50 2.5m*1.5m beds (If I did my plan and maths correctley). using a mix of decking boards and old laminate flooring.

My question is what do you fill them with? at the moment the ones I have build just seem to be oblongs ontop of the old beds??

Do the gradually fill overtime with digging and addition of organic matter or do you take soil from other parts of the allotment.

Many thanks.

[peachmonster]

I won't profess to be an expert on raised beds, but we just recently built two small raised beds at home, so here's my tuppence worth, I'm sure some more experienced grapes will be along soon!

When I was planning raised beds, i initially thought we would have to buy in loads of topsoil. However (and as you're on an allotment this may be different) just digging the ground within the beds (which was previously lawn) added air into the soil, so the soil level was raised naturally by digging. I then dug in the contents of one compost bin which raised the level up further. Having done this a few weeks ago and covered it with polythene, the soil has definitely settled back a bit, and we will beed to buy a few bags of topsoil - but nowhere near as much as I originally thought we might need! I intend to only fill the beds to within about 3 inches of the top, so that there is room for further organic matter to be added in future years.

If you need to incorporate some organic material into the soil this winter anyway, then that combined with the digging may well be enough to get the soil depth well on the way to what you need.

Hope this helps!

[Kristen]

I have "lazy" raised beds - no smart timber surrounds! - I dug the paths out 1 spit deep and piled that onto the beds-to-be-raised

The beds are 4' wide, and the paths about 18"

I never walk on the beds, and they have had plenty of manure during the last 3 years since they were created (but nothing, as such, to "build them up"). They are not "tall" compared to the paths, only a few inches above the paths, but clearly the draining is much improved and the soil in the beds, although heavy clay, is pretty fluffy now - I had no difficulty lifting Parsnips for XMas lunch when lots of people were saying they could not get theirs out of the ground (we had two nights at -11C just before Xmas - so it was certainly pretty cold!) and I rotavated a bit for some late-planted-Garlic without difficulty a couple of days ago. (Just for clarity: walking around the rest of the garden on a wet day makes the clay soil stick to your boots!)

[chris]

I'm turning 75% of my allotments into beds, this will equate to about 50 2.5m*1.5m beds (If I did my plan and maths correctley). using a mix of decking boards and old laminate flooring.

My question is what do you fill them with? at the moment the ones I have build just seem to be oblongs ontop of the old beds??

Do the gradually fill overtime with digging and addition of organic matter or do you take soil from other parts of the allotment.

Many thanks.

Depends on you really.. Some people build up over time, others dig the paths down a bit, and put the soil in the beds, or you could buy some topsoil/compost in..

[Two_Sheds]

I've made a raised bed at school, and filled it with alternate layers of weeds, kitchen scraps, grass clippings and autumn leaves (it's usually called a "lasagne" bed)

[Aberdeenplotter]

there's no question, the area of the beds to be raised will need aditional soil. By digging, you are basically just disturbing the soil which will resettle. Even adding materials which compost down will not have lasting effect.

It takes a lot of work but have you considered whether it is essential? Is there presently a lack of depth in your vegetable plot? Small raised beds need a lot of access pathways which is very wasteful of potential growing areas.

[Kristen]

Following on from that, is 1.5M a bit wide? I see 4' (which is 1.2M) recommended as the max width - to make it easy to reach the middle from either side

Mine are long - so you have to walk a bit to get to a cross-over path to then get to the other side - but I can make my groups of plants, within a bed, any size without bumping into the end too soon! (although it will depend on the layout of the overall plot though).

I have 4 main beds, and they do the main rotation. Then I have several others in a separate area for potatoes, sweetcorn, strawberries (in situ for several years), sweet peas and gladioli

I plant the main beds from the ends towards the middle. Things that are long-season at one end, and shorter season at the other - so the things that overwinter are at one end, and the other end is harvested before the Winter and is thus free for things (in the next rotation) that need to be planted early (if that makes sense?)

[jonohanson]

Many thanks for the advice guys, unfortunatley my allotment doesn't have much depth before I hit clay, so beds are the only way to get more depth.

Looking at replies I will do a mix of loads of organic matter, and any spare soil I can remove from other places, I thought this might be the case but am fine for the beds to fill up over time.

Many Thanks for the advice.

[Pumpkin Becki]

jono, I built my raised beds about three years ago, we're on clay mixed with chalk and flint, and the land was sheep meadow before we started using it..

The gravel boards are about 12" tall, I dug out the turfs from inside the beds, turned them upsidedown and put them back in the bottom. Then, because the soil quality was so poor, I added peat-free multi purpose compost, garden compost and manure from horses bedded on wood shavings.

The wood shavings made quite a light fluffy texture, and things grew really well, but the shavings rotted down very quickly, reducing the soil level again. I think I should have added some topsoil to this mix to give it more body.

I top the beds up now and again with garden compost, the odd bag of multi purp, the odd bag of manure and topdress with chicken manure pellets and blood, fish and bonemeal. You'll start to get a sense of when you soil is starting to get tired and in need of a boost.

You can see my lottie on my blog if you're interested (link below)

[shangrilyla]

Depends on you really.. Some people build up over time, others dig the paths down a bit, and put the soil in the beds, or you could buy some topsoil/compost in..

Hi,

I'm new to the forum (hello!) and just got an allotment in Manchester. There has been absolutely nothing done to the space, as the council had to add a bunch of new soil after someone illegally used the land as a construction site.

We wanted to build raised beds, and I was thinking that digging out the paths and putting that soil into the beds is probably the best bet - the only thing I'm worried about is the soil from our neighbors allotment collapsing in on ours. Do you think building a little retaining wall between the two with a few planks of wood would work? Or is it too much effort?

Thanks for any advice!

-A

[chris]

Hello there - welcome

You could do, it just have the beds up against the border? I.e. if you have 4 rows of beds, two outer rows with their right and left hand sides at the plot border, or as close as possible - make paths on the inside of these beds (may have to orient beds a certain way). That said, you don't need to dig down so much, as like is mentioned above when you break up and dig the soil in the beds the volume increases anyway. Good luck!

[RectoryAllotment]

Hi
Newcastle City Council collect residential and commercial garden waste and turn it into compost, which they refer to as "soil conditioner". They deliver a tonne for about £16. Obviously Newcastle wouldn't deliver to you, but your local council may have a similar scheme.

[jonohanson]

Hi
Newcastle City Council collect residential and commercial garden waste and turn it into compost, which they refer to as "soil conditioner". They deliver a tonne for about £16. Obviously Newcastle wouldn't deliver to you, but your local council may have a similar scheme.

Our council does have a scheme, I have emailed them, as if its around the same price could be worth while buying a few tonnes.

Thanks for the idea

[Bigmallly]

If they are owt like Leeds City Council, they don't sell it, instead they use it for their own planting schemes around the city which to me makes sence.