raised beds?

[vegtable newbie!]

I only have a small garden, if anyone remembers me from last year you will remember that i just had a couple of pots with veg growing in. This year we have decided to make 2 small veg beds - only going to be a meter square each. I assume we can make them into raised beds by just using old planks of wood rather then buying the kirs can we? Do you think the size that we will be doing is worth doing?
Thanks
Sue
x

[zazen999]

Hi Sue

Yes you can. I used wood from a reclaim yard at 50p each. My first raised beds were a metre square each.

[allotmentlady]

yep that will be fine, scaffolders have to repplace their planks every so often and want to get rid of old stock, just for peeps info

[Snadger]

Some of mine are surrounded by bricks, some by breeze blocks, some by football crossbars (don't ask!) some by concrete 'sets' some by scaffold boards, some by slates,some by nothing at all etc etc!
I have stuck to the true tradition of allotment gardening thats 'Make do and mend'

Eventually they will all, about 30 beds I think at last count, be surrounded by cemented bricks that I have scrounged out of skips etc and look the way I've always envisaged it i.e a true potager.

That's if I don't kick the bucket before I finish it!

[Diva1983]

I was thinking of raised beds this year too. How deep will you be having them Sue?

[BrideXIII]

bit like Snadge me, i have 3 beds, larger than yours admittedly, but not by much, all bodged together by anything i have managed to scrounge that will hold soil in, one day it may look as pretty as it is (hopefully) productive, in the meantime i couldn't care less

[mattfee15]

qiuck question and dont want to start a new thread:

i to am also cosidering building raised beds and was wondering if you are supposed to line them.

cheers,
mattfee15.

[vegtable newbie!]

we were planing to just do one plank high - does that help at all?

Sue
xx

[BrideXIII]

we were planing to just do one plank high - does that help at all?

Sue
xx

it will help, especially if your soil is not that bad ( try to dig over underneath), mines only 8 inches before it hits solid clay ( and i mean solid i have made pots from it), so mine are 2 planks high, for most stuff 24 inches is good, 12 inches is enough for a lot of crops.

[allaboutliverpool]

Go for it using 4 pieces of wood it is dead easy.

It helps though if you have a plan like I did where every bed is the same size and shape and has modules that move around as the crop rotates.

Polythene, netting and fleece are all useful and different heights protects different crops.

My allotment in Liverpool

For details of construction :-

allaboutallotments_Deep_bed_building

For the video :-

YouTube - Raised bed allotment Summer 2008

Good luck!

[FionaH]

Oh thats just what I needed a step by step idiots guide, believe me I can be a prize idiot

Snadger I read on an old post that you have raised beds without wooden walls. How does that work?

[FionaH]

I assume we can make them into raised beds by just using old planks of wood rather then buying the kirs can we? Do you think the size that we will be doing is worth doing?
Thanks
Sue
x

I have just this minute finished reading all about them! Do a search for raised beds on here. Lots of pics of all sorts of sized bed, including little ones

[Storming Norman]

Hi George in Liverpool,

I just loved the allotment video - a fantastic amount of work has gone in there. It is very encouraging to see how the plants have responded and how you supported them. I have learned lots - thank you.

I am just building my first raised bed with treated timber purchased from a local timber merchant. Not expensive wood, but the fittings were so I will be looking closely at your ideas. How long do you think the timber will last?

I wanted to use scaffolding boards but someone else got there first.

The rest of my raised beds were made for me last year by the guy who laid my patio at the bottom of my garden - with double thickness of the timber railing that fits under fencing. That seems to work as well and has made a vast improvement to the use of the beds. I now get two crops per year, and the grape vine just went mad and produced bunches galore on the fence.

Definitely the raised beds are the way forward - what ever they are made from.

Thanks again - And I would encourage all to see this video on you tube. It may not be possible to do everything that George has done but I bet there is something for every one there to consider for the future.

Ann

[vegtable newbie!]

Thank you everybody for your responses.

I agree the video was fantastic - very inspriational.

sue
xx

[KayleighM]

We are going to do raised beds too, and I was thinking sort of 60cm deep. Is that too deep? I have no idea