Need advice on new vegetable bed

[Saadn]

Hi

I recently have built 3 garden beds, each 6ft by 3ft, 14inch deep and need some advice.

The beds are currently empty and need filling with soil but I'm not sure what's the best (and cheapest!) way to do this.

I've got a whole load of soil left from digging the garden (it was on a slight slope so had to dig to level out for the beds) so I was thinking of using that for ⅔ of the bed and then get fresh compost for the top ⅓.

Could I just throw a load of grass clippings in and purely use the soil I've dug up? I've never gardened before so have no idea what way to go forward from here (the beds were the wife's idea!) so any advice will be appreciated

Thanks in advance

[burnie]

Welcome, a bit of reading for you to start with
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ide_94913.html

[lolie]

Hi

I recently have built 3 garden beds, each 6ft by 3ft, 14inch deep and need some advice.

The beds are currently empty and need filling with soil but I'm not sure what's the best (and cheapest!) way to do this.

I've got a whole load of soil left from digging the garden (it was on a slight slope so had to dig to level out for the beds) so I was thinking of using that for ⅔ of the bed and then get fresh compost for the top ⅓.

Could I just throw a load of grass clippings in and purely use the soil I've dug up? I've never gardened before so have no idea what way to go forward from here (the beds were the wife's idea!) so any advice will be appreciated

Thanks in advance

You don't mention your location. If you're heading towards winter then you're probably not going to be planting anything other than a green manure crop for a few months. That means you have time to amend your soil, so your plan isn't a bad one but I'd probably add some kind of aged manure as well.

[Kirk]

Compost tends to be easy, not overly sure about grass cuttings simply as mine seem to take ages to break down. Suppose if dug in they should disappear fast.

I would add a bag ot two of manure also.

I have at times added just about everything and the bed is good, although have found it drains fast, I am on chalk however, hence the adding of manure to hopefully retain moisture a bit better as well as for the nutrients.

[lolie]

Compost tends to be easy, not overly sure about grass cuttings simply as mine seem to take ages to break down. Suppose if dug in they should disappear fast.

I would add a bag ot two of manure also.

I have at times added just about everything and the bed is good, although have found it drains fast, I am on chalk however, hence the adding of manure to hopefully retain moisture a bit better as well as for the nutrients.

Grass clippings break down faster if they've been dried out for a while. If they're green, they take a while even if you dig them in. It's fine in a climate like mine where you can dry them out quickly in summer, but I don't even bother with them in winter.

Everything is a bit of a trade-off. Cheap will generally take time, one way or another. "Best" will often take both time and money.

Those two beds are going to need about 12 cubic metres of soil to fill so now would be the best time to get the starting balance right.

Drainage is definitely an issue to consider, and it's one which is easier to fix when first filling the beds than by trying to dig stuff in later (vermiculite is cheap and goes a long way).

I'm actually starting new beds myself this summer and I'm going to aim for "OK" rather than "great" because I know it will take a year or two for nature to do its thing and getting the soil right will be an ongoing process.

[Jungle Jane]

If you do a thin layer of grass cuttings then soil,in layers it should be alright. Ive never added manure but I would if I had horses etc when I plant I add some blood fish & bone fertiliser which is a good balanced feed,a box lasts for ages. My beds are soil with a bit of compost added. You could gather leaves from your garden & add them in too.

[ESBkevin]

if you haven't put anything it there yet i would take the opportunity to fork in some compost or whatever you have available in the bottom now. This will be the equivelant to 'double digging' and it's easier now than later and will help with long term soil development and drainage.
Then as others have said mix in all the organic materiel you can lay your hands on and let it break down over winter. Putting a thick mulch on the top would also be a nice to have so that spring will see you just planting straight into the weed free surface.

[monkeyboy]

I've made two raised beds of a similar size. What I've done is remove the soil and then use a soil sieve to remove large stones etc and mixed in compost in a 50/50 ratio. I planned to add vermiculite but couldn't find any at the time.

[1Bee]

Grass clippings seem to be magic for our soil, the worms go crazy for them, and any plants I've mulched with clippings do superbly.

There's a man on our site who grows potatoes in raised beds. He lays the potatoes on the base, covers with grass clippings, and tops up each time he mows his grassed area, which is quite large. No soil at all. He gets amazing yields of beautiful potatoes...

I'd fill with the soil you've dug up, picking out any weed roots, then add any spent compost or cheap composted manure you can lay your hands on and top with the grass clippings. But there's lots of ways of doing it.

[Saadn]

Hi guys, thanks you all for your advice. I've taken advice on board and have used some of the soil I've dug up and layered it with grass clippings. Going to mix some more clippings in before filling the top with some mulch.

I have left the soil in the beds for a week and have noticed some stuff growing inside the beds. I did my best to rid of any large stones and roots before putting the soil in the beds. Attached is a picture of what is growing.

Can anybody tell me what this may be (I assume clovers?) and if I should remove these growths? If so, what's the best, and easiest, way to do so?

http://i65.tinypic.com/2jb7d4y.jpg

[veggiechicken]

The seedlings could be anything - its too soon to tell. Either pull them out or hoe them off. You can leave them to wilt on the soil, no need to clear them away.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

I’ve just built two beds the same size as yours. I got my raised beds from Quickcrop and ordered two bags of their vegetable soil mix, which is a 50/50 mix of sandy screened topsoil and good quality compost. It’s nice stuff. It settled a bit after a few weeks so I topped each bed up with a bag each of Gro-sure vegetable compost.

Because I’m doing the square foot gardening method, the idea is to replenish each square with a couple of scoops of good quality compost every time I replant a square.