Raised bed

[Muriel]

I'm thinking of building raised beds on my allotment and so i was wondering what is best used to fill them in?

[WiZeR]

well it depends on how many and how deep. Generally it would be best to dig soil from elsewhere on the allotment, weed it and then shovel it in your new beds. After this you could top dress with a bought in multi purpose compost. However if like me you are unable to dig then here's what I have done. I lined the bottom of my beds with cardboard to stop the weeds, then a thin layer of unrotted manure, then fill with bought in multi purpose. The bought in multipurpose is proving to be VERY expensive, but to save my back and keep me gardening this is the easiest way.

You could have some topsoil delivered, which would be cheaper than multipurpose. This would probably mean barrowing it to you plot unless a lorry can get close.

HTH

[Snadger]

I have raised beds in my allotment but have no boards around them!

If you dig the whole area over, mark out the position of the proposed beds, and trample the path areas in between you have instant raised beds. If you want to board around them do so and add a good thick mulch of straw or manure. After a few years cultivating the beds and walking the paths the beds will be 6" to 9" highwer than the paths!

4'0" bed 2'0" path ad infinitum works for me!

[WiZeR]

PS: remember that if you are having deep raised beds that you do not have to fill them right up. Last year I half filled and planted and each year i'll add to the soil, building up a good structure.

[snohare]

And don't forget to make sure that your wheelbarrow is not too wide for your paths...! I did that once, we measured the paths between all the beds very carefully, measured the barrow...then put the posts for the beds on the outsides of the boards to make barrowing compost etc into the beds easier... Doh ! (We had removable ends to the beds, as they were great big waist high things.) After that, we always put the posts inside, where they never get in the way...
Sandy soil is better for carrots and parsnips, so obviously if planting them you want to make the mix more free draining, maybe add a bit more sand or grit.

[lyndap]

Better half has 'transplanted' my raised bed boards from my lottie which I can no longer manage.He then spent hours wheelbarrowing all the well rotted compost from the compost bin there.I couldn't believe there was enough to fill all 4 of the new beds he has made for me.I've just added manure to 2 of the beds ready for my beans,squashes etc.The shop bought compost seems more pricey this year.