New Raised beds

[HungryJim]

Happy new year to all forum users and good evening

New member here and i am after some advice from those in the know

I have had my allotment for around 18 months and have in the last fortnight put in two raised beds. One is approx 2 feet high and one is approx 1.5 feet high

My underlying ground is very gently sloped and whilst not overly heavy, is more clay than anything else

The question is - What is the best material/combination of materials to use to fill my beds? They will both be used for annual veg in a rotation

At this point I will add that I have access to unlimited free manure in various stages of decay, unlimited seaweed and very cheap topsoil

Especially interested to hear from members who have had their own raised beds from scratch

Thanks for your time

James

[Bigmallly]

Hello James & welcome to the jungle. I find for me that only the top 6" or so is important so under that I will put any organic materials I can get my hands on. Leaves, straw, old compost, manure, shredded paper, cardboard. I'm sure there are other materials that can go in but can't think at the mo.

[Two_Sheds]

Especially interested to hear from members who have had their own raised beds from scratch

There's loads of stuff in the archives ~ somebody might give you a link

I made "no cost" raised beds for my school : https://www.flickr.com/photos/miss-c...7626340887451/




Deeper isn't always better: our deepest bed was only up for a few weeks before the weight of soil pushed the sides out

[HungryJim]

Thanks for the replies, managed to begin filling the first bed today. Aiming to have both of these full by the end of January to allow them to settle in well before the growing season. Got a pretty much never ending supply of seaweed which washes up in my friends estuary garden so I think this is going to fill the bottom half of each bed

Think I have managed to build a fairly sturdy frame so hopefully it will hold together when full but I will keep an eye out for it

[Bigmallly]

Seaweed makes excellent tea so put some in a bucket of water to dilute for feeding.

[muddled]

With all that seaweed you could grow your own jersey royals!
(international kidney spuds grown in seaweed apparently)

And fabulous asparagus!

Jealous much? me? not arf

[hamesy]

Hi James, when I built my raised beds a few years ago I filled them with manure, kitchen waste, grass clippings, leaves and garden compost. The plants loved it

[alldigging]

The nicest most soily stuff at the top is all I'd say. If you're buying top soil then some of that, but really nicely rotted muck is just like soil. If you wanted to waste some extra energy then sieve it and it'll be lovely.
The nice stuff I got could be raked over and looked fantastic and that's a lot less effort than sieving.

[Bill HH]

Your beds are quite deep which in my opinion is good, you can grow some nice long carrots for instance, To Add to Big mally's list for the bottom of the beds I would add woolen and cotton clothing, excellent for retaining moisture. My raised beds are mostly home made compost mixed with top soil and old potatoe compost (originaly multi purpose bagged compost) Dead fish are apparently also good but very smelly.

[emzgogo]

Dont make same mistake i did last year filled them up great with top soil manure etc till top layer put verve compost on top. No sooner as i had watered it was bone dry again. This year going to mix more soil and manure on top. X

[HungryJim]

Thankyou for all the replies. I will take it all on board

Hoping for some decent weather this weekend to crack on with some work

[emzgogo]

Im off on a board hunt today for raised beds.Fingers crossed good weather for both of us on weekend need to get loads built and filled x

[penny]

I put wood and straw, wood chips, and poultry manure under soil in my raised beds now have rodents tunnelling so maybe the logs and twigs were a bad choice the veg grew well tho.

[Sheneval]

I put wood and straw, wood chips, and poultry manure under soil in my raised beds now have rodents tunnelling so maybe the logs and twigs were a bad choice the veg grew well tho.

Have discovered that mice like straw - when I put a covering of straw over a couple of beds last winter I had to give the a slap with the spade every time I went up - however straw proved beneficial to the soil when I eventually dug it in