Very Raised Beds for disabled, elderly etc - Ideas Please!

[Sheepie]

Hi all,

Some of you may know I'm disabled and my OH is building me some very high by comparison to normal raised beds.

I need some ideas of quite what to fill them with. They do need to be bottom heavy as well.

Dimensions are 160cm long by 80cm wide by 75cm high.

I was thinking cheap rough gravel type stuff in the bottom - but how high to go with it?

Plans are to grow all salad crops in them, and root veg but not the tatties, maybe some brassicas (cabbage,etc) and herbs (not mint cos it's invasive!).

Top soil, well rotted manure, grit, coir (from compact blocks), ABSOLUTELY NO PEAT....

All comments and ideas welcome!

[andrewo]

Hi Sheepie,
We are in the same boat, do you want the beds to be portable e.g. on wheels? or solid? If so, what are the sides being constructed from. I have discovered that sleepers are the best for wooden structures over a certain heights, as boards bow quickly due to the pressure, even with pegs, I have also discovered that concrete paving slabs in end are good too, or even the construction of walls. Though I am not in the same boat, I have spinal damage and had to raise my beds to fir my lifestyle, I know you could fill the bottom with a mixture of hardcore/gravel for weight or polysterene for lightness. You will need roughly 18" to 2' of soil, but this can be added year by year as it sinks, add worms too. Feel free to PM me and we can compare notes.

[Sheepie]

Hi Andrew,
Beds are fixed, OH Limpet has 'designed' them with pressue treated decking boards with plenty of screws and additional support in the centres of the sides. Good point on the bowing though. It may be a problem.
I think hardcore may be the answer in the bottom.
I'd forgotten about worms (duh).
Will PM you soon - thanks.

[poultrychat]

Here's where I get all my worms from http://www.wormsdirectuk.co.uk/default.php

[SueA]

Hi Sheepie,
We built a couple of raised beds from a bricks years ago ,for ornamentals though, not veg. We filled the bottoms with stones & rocks which we had dug out of the rest of garden & some broken bricks, probably about 6-8ins then topped them up with topsoil & finally a few large sacks of compost. Be careful where you get your topsoil from though if you do use it. We bought some from dealers who knock on the door & push leaflets through & although very cheap it was a bit 'weedy', think they'd just driven up the moss near here & dug up the first patch of land they came across! Luckily it wasn't too bad but I guess you get what you pay for.

[nick the grief]

Hi Sheepie,

Wonder where abouts you are in Gods county If you are using pressure treated timber you'll need to lines the sides with plastic. The stuff the uses to pressure treat is quite nasty It used to contain Arsnic, don't know if it still does. so thats the first thing.

Secondly, if you live anywhere nr Coventry can i suggest you go to Ryton Organinc Gardens. They have a "disabled" garden there on display that might give you Ideas (I'll probably get murdered by your OH now for putting Ideas into your head)

As to hardcore, I wouldn't have thought you need to bother, the fact that you are raising it 30" will giv it all the drainage it will need, you could mix a bit of pea gravel with the bottom 6" if you want.

Plants, you've forgotten Beans!! I knew someone who was in a wheelchair that grew in beds like your & he had a path down the middle & a tunnel over the path that he grew his beans up. Just wheeled himself down & picked them as they hung down. Failing that you could grow one of the dwarf runners like Hammonds Scarlet, Pickwick or better still Hestia as this has red & white flowers on so looks good too.

[Sheepie]

NTG,
don't need 'more ideas' - OH thinks I have qute enuff of those!
Been to Ryton once - it was too cold to wander too far but want to revisit.
Beans - don't worry - they are going elsewhere in the garden but thanks for the reminder...

Poultry - worms, ah yes, an essential part of the garden experience. Did you know they do dog poo wormeries too? Not god for veg areas / children areas but otherwise OK.

[smallblueplanet]

..... If you are using pressure treated timber you'll need to lines the sides with plastic. The stuff the uses to pressure treat is quite nasty It used to contain Arsnic, don't know if it still does. so thats the first thing......

I've seen lots of people say this but never seen any 'evidence' to back it up - got any links nick?

[andrewo]

I have been told that the new treatment takes this into account and any leaching from the wood is minimal and has no effect. I think you would find this more with recycled railway sleepers.

[nick the grief]

It depends what they are pressure treating it with. If it is tanalised then this may interest you

http://www.iosh.co.uk/index.cfm?go=d...41&sr=4&page=1

As I said things may have changed now, but I haven't found anyone yet that will say waht they use. A lot of places atvertise as "enviromentally friendly process" so was Chernobyl till it went wrong !

Andrews right about the railway sleepers, if they are re-cycled then they were "pickled" in creosote and this is nasty stuff. I would be reluctant to use it in a veg garden at all.

[sewer rat]

You can get sleepers that have not been tarred or creosoted, but they are considerably more expensive. They use them to build platforms and stairs etc on kiddies playgrounds.

[andrewo]

You can get the old sleepers and this is neat trick, don't use them for a year and stack them somewhere hot, when the creosote bubbles get some cheap washing powder and sprinkle on, it draws out the creosote and you can in 12 months strip the old sleepers with a power sander and hopefully most of the creosote is gone.

[nick the grief]

doubt it Andrew, they are or rather were left in creosote baths for 12 months & contain somewhere in the region of 5 gallons of creosote each !!

[andrewo]

Just passing on a tip I saw on TV, supposedly if you repeat the process over the summer months they will leech out around 2/3 of the stuff, the washing powder coagulates it - if you have the patience to wait 12 months.

Personally, I will just buy wood from a reusable source, managed and replanted, ash is a good wood for raised beds even untreated you will get roughly 10 years out of it.

[smallblueplanet]

How much for 3.6m lengths of 6"x1" (don't know metric equivalent) out of interest?