making raised beds

[jdlondon]

Hi there,

I used to live in London in a flat with a balcony garden which was neglected in recent years due to too much travelling, but now I've just moved up to Liverpool with a proper ground garden - which has me excited beyond belief! Going through my cache of seeds again is wonderful, and I'd forgotten I had so many.

However, rabbits! And rocky soil! - So I'm planning raised beds for my veg, and I just read about hugulkultur - using wood upto half the height of the bed, and then filling with a mix of coir, vermiculite and compost. I was also going to use kitchen waste in a hole like with keyhole gardening.

If I used big rocks at the bottom, do you think I can skip using wire at the bottom to keep out the rabbits? Or is that wishful thinking? Apparently the rabbits here are really brazen, eating your stuff while watching you watching it through the window

I'm using up materials hoarded by my family, old planks, doors, glass panes and plastic ones from an old conservatory. Got metal poles from something or other too. Old bricks.

Any advice would be welcome!

I'm starting off seeds inside, going through the process right now of choosing which ones - although this might be too early since I was going to wait for my mum and dad to help build. They might take a month to get here. Anyway! Nice to be here again, talking about growing things and hopefully getting to actually growing things

[nickdub]

My garden and the area around it has lots of rabbits - 3' high wire fence around the area of the veg plot would be my recommendation, and check for uneven bits of ground along the bottom of the fence where they might be bale to squeeze underneath.

As for the sides of the beds you obviously have in mind using what you can get free or have got already, which would be my approach too - just remember that untreated softwood will not last more than a couple of years if its in direct contact with damp soil. In my mind the ideal material is something like large slabs of slate which are strong, last virtually for ever and don't take up much space - perhaps a holiday weekend with a van to North Wales ? ....

[jdlondon]

I'm budgetting! - so I'll look into it but whereabouts in Wales? I'm still new to this area and only been to Powis castle - which was lovely.

I've actually rented a van to get my stuff from London, so I could fit it in while I have it.

People have said to bury the wire a foot down too! Which involves more digging than I wanted. Hence, trying to cheat my way through with rocks spaced just so to still allow water, nutrients etc.

[toomanytommytoes]

For the hugelkultur bed I'd dig down a spade's depth before putting the wood in, then top up with a mix of topsoil and compost. Unless you've got a really tall raised bed, half the height being wood won't give plants enough root space until it rots down. I'd only do it if you have wood to spare, otherwise topsoil and compost will do just fine. Easier to do the classic free standing hugelkultur mound. Filling raised beds with coir and vermiculite is going to be a rather expensive endeavour!

[nickdub]

My garden and the area around it has lots of rabbits - 3' high wire fence around the area of the veg plot would be my recommendation, and check for uneven bits of ground along the bottom of the fence where they might be bale to squeeze underneath.

As for the sides of the beds you obviously have in mind using what you can get free or have got already, which would be my approach too - just remember that untreated softwood will not last more than a couple of years if its in direct contact with damp soil. In my mind the ideal material is something like large slabs of slate which are strong, last virtually for ever and don't take up much space - perhaps a holiday weekend with a van to North Wales ? ....

I had friend who lived up by Bangor and he gave me some slate slabs which were just lying around - quite a lot of the walls and fences round there are made of pieces of slate - you would need a local contact though because buying it from a quarry would be v expensive - may be Face book or the local free-cycle would be possibilities for finding contacts ?

[veggiechicken]

My advice, get a dog who likes to run around the garden chasing things. Rabbits no longer visit my garden.

[Logunner]

Rabbit + air rifle = fresh food

[jdlondon]

I keep trying to avoid digging but good point. I was going to make it tall, to save my bad back, and there's a lot of wood due to some demolition of some stuff and a lot of hard fruit tree pruning. The cost of coir and vermiculite totally went over my head! - since I did it in London and took it as normal, while of course, I'll be doing it now on a much larger scale!

[veggiechicken]

Thinking about your rabbits, I can't see how burying rocks will stop them as they'll just hop over the beds and eat your veg anyway. Burying wire would only be useful if you ringed the plot both below and above ground. They used to squeeze under the wire here. In fact they set up home under the shed and I didn't know that until I saw their foot prints in the snow.

[jdlondon]

I've got a few friends of friends living in Wales so I'm waiting to hear from them! Thanks for the idea. Never even thought of slate.

[jdlondon]

If only. Hunting requires patience and I'm just not! However, who knows what these rabbits will drive me to? The future might see me become Katniss.

[MyWifesBrassicas]

I can't see the rocks doing much either!
Find a friend who loves to eat them, unfortunately I don't eat meat

[jdlondon]

Rocks instead of wire to stop invasion from below, but above I'm definitely using wire frames to keep them out. Some sort of cage affair. But I've changed my mind on rocks since this morning, I'm definitely going with some chicken wire. I was wondering if some kind of anti-weed material, or plastic, tarp maybe, with holes poked in them, could work too.

[nickdub]

Rabbits won't dig down far unless the are looking to set up permanent residence - generally the biggest problem is uneven ground, but if you have enough chicken wire burying a few inches at the bottom of a fence in the ground will be plenty.

[jdlondon]

my comment yesterday disappeared! - where I said I had two cats who hunt much too successfully for my somewhat squeamish self. And still the rabbits don't care! They get caught and more still show up.