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  • are raised beds a good idea

    I have just read an article in Saturdays i newspaper that questions the benefits of raised beds, while not agreeing withe the author I wonder what other people think, are there benefits or not in having raised beds, for myself I require them to avoid digging and bending, (although if I could dig I very likely would dig)
    it may be a struggle to reach the top, but once your over the hill your problems start.

    Member of the Nutters Club but I think I am just there to make up the numbers

  • #2
    It depends what you mean by raised beds.

    I believe in growing in beds that I don't walk on or dig, separated by paths. The beds end up a bit higher than the paths because the soil is more open and because of the compost etc that gets spread on them.

    I don't believe in messing about with wooden edges round my beds, this is what many allotmenteers call "raised beds". People do this to make it look tidier and stop the soil falling onto the paths, but unless you are going to spend a whole lot of money on expensive timber it generally looks tatty anyway before long as it starts to bow, sag and rot. Besides, the slugs and snails like to hide along it.

    If you don't have boards round your beds then if too much soil slips onto the paths, just shovel it back onto the bed, simples.

    If you actually need to raise the soil level up like half a metre or more, this takes a serious amount of heavy-duty construction and a serious amount of soil to be imported. It's really not worth it unless you are gardening somewhere with no soil, or maybe contaminated ground, or unless you are wheelchair bound.
    My gardening blog: In Spades, last update 30th April 2018.
    Chrysanthemum notes page here.

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    • #3
      Hello Rary
      Me and hubby use 4 raised beds - only small ones though plus an assortment of pots and ex pallet boxes.
      I think the main question about RB's is - how much do you want to grow and to feed how many people?
      As there are only the 2 of us our various bits and pieces give us ay least 1 fresh veggie a day - unless the cabbages have become huge over night and then there is more.
      Advantages - no digging - weeding is easier and you can make or buy beds the sizes you need.
      Disadvantages - not as much space as a patch or lottie.
      Being relatively old and decrepid we find life is alot easier with our beds than when we had a large patch.
      Hope this helps
      Sue
      I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. Thomas A. Edison

      Outreach co-ordinator for the Gnome, Pixie and Fairy groups within the Nutters Club.

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      • #4
        There are lots of reasons why we use raised beds. One is that we have very heavy clay soil, so carrots would be a bit of a struggle otherwise. It also makes it easy to apportion each bed for crop rotation, but the most important reason is that my partner is a director of a business providing day care for adults with learning disabilities and is planning to take them down to the lotty one day a week from next year. Some of them would struggle to bend down to ground level.
        What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?
        Pumpkin pi.

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        • #5
          Here's a link to the article that rary saw Anna Pavord: "Forget raised vegetable patches - veg are better off grown at ground level" - Gardening - Property - The Independent

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          • #6
            I'm hoping so!

            I'm in the process of building some beds, surrounded by old roof tiles. My allotment is slightly sloping, with one half a foot or so lower than the other, and it's a Northeast slope. I've noticed that some plants just don't seem to do well on the lower half, and I think part of it is the fact that they don't get a lot of sun when they're small. I'm hoping raising the beds up, just a foot, will help them get a better start. I had just done the edgeless beds until now, but I couldn't get a lot of height without the soil just falling off.

            The soil's also very thin there, mostly due to the previous plot holder, who apparently used to dig up the topsoil and throw it away at the end of the summer... Raising the beds means I don't have to increase the soil depth in the whole area, just the bits that will actually have crops in.

            I'm sure it will prove more sluggy hidey-holes, but it's not like they have trouble finding places to live now...
            My spiffy new lottie blog

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            • #7
              I can agree with some of the writers arguments, though she herself admits that raised beds are useful in an area with heavy soil.
              The only reason we can use as much timber as we do is because we can get 8 1/2ft lengths for 75p each.
              I build the frames with stakes attached and then stake them in position. They are pretty well made (if I do say so myself), so if we decide to rearrange the lotty layout, then we can simply lift them and relocate.
              What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?
              Pumpkin pi.

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              • #8
                More soil depth is always beneficial. If you live on a floodplain, for example, you could have a soil depth of 3 or 4 feet before you hit bedrock or clay or such, but in other areas you may only have a foot of topsoil. That's why people double dug beds, to try and increase workable soil depth.

                By using raised beds, you are adding an extra one, two or even three feet of soil that your veg can spread their roots into. A carrot will cheerfully spread its roots over a metre width and depth, given friable soil and no near neighbouring plants. The more space roots can occupy, the better the plant feeds and grows, and also, the less watering you have to do in dry times.

                My garden is too small for raised beds but the soil is gradually getting deeper with the addition of H/M compost every year, and like Martin, if it spills onto the path I scoop it up and chuck it back. It's not deep enough for carrots yet though, the Leicestershire clay is still not far down
                Location - Leicestershire - Chisit-land
                Endless wonder.

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                • #9
                  My plot is Similar to Martins but I have bed edging, bricks at 45 degree's to each other. I have a few beds that are about 9" higher than the rest mainly for roots
                  Last edited by Greenleaves; 26-10-2014, 07:03 PM.

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                  • #10
                    Veg may actually grow or do better in "flat" ground but raised beds are a good idea for people growing their own veg.

                    The artical doesn't actually seem to have much against raised beds: Wood rots, (well yes it does), it fixes the shape - agains yes it does, do you really want a square bed one year, round the next, star shaped the third etc?, changing the shape means work recutting the shape in the ground and the associated digging of the new bits. About the same work as constructing the timber edging I guess that she complains about.

                    To me they are convenient, and being convenient they likely encourage people to grow more.

                    It also says:
                    you may find that in a hot summer (such as the one we've just had)

                    OK I missed that, where did the hot summer go, who got my bit ????

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                    • #11
                      Mine started out as flat beds separated by paths but over the years with the me adding compost out my bins they're now sort of mounds.
                      Location....East Midlands.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by skeggijon View Post
                        I can agree with some of the writers arguments, though she herself admits that raised beds are useful in an area with heavy soil.
                        The only reason we can use as much timber as we do is because we can get 8 1/2ft lengths for 75p each.
                        I build the frames with stakes attached and then stake them in position. They are pretty well made (if I do say so myself), so if we decide to rearrange the lotty layout, then we can simply lift them and relocate.
                        Hi Skeggijon
                        any chance of a piccy of these beds of yours with stakes attached, cannot seem to figure it out cheers Peter

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                        • #13
                          I'll try to take a pic this week - don't have any that give a clear view at the moment.
                          Basically I make 4 stakes, screw my lengths of timber to these, ensuring that I leave a decent amount of stake at the bottom (I leave 6inches), which is then hammered into the ground.
                          I was a bit OCD at first about it being totally level and using a spirit level, but now I just go by eye lol.
                          What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?
                          Pumpkin pi.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Martin H View Post
                            It depends what you mean by raised beds.

                            I believe in growing in beds that I don't walk on or dig, separated by paths. The beds end up a bit higher than the paths because the soil is more open and because of the compost etc that gets spread on them.

                            I don't believe in messing about with wooden edges round my beds, this is what many allotmenteers call "raised beds". People do this to make it look tidier and stop the soil falling onto the paths, but unless you are going to spend a whole lot of money on expensive timber it generally looks tatty anyway before long as it starts to bow, sag and rot. Besides, the slugs and snails like to hide along it.

                            If you don't have boards round your beds then if too much soil slips onto the paths, just shovel it back onto the bed, simples.

                            If you actually need to raise the soil level up like half a metre or more, this takes a serious amount of heavy-duty construction and a serious amount of soil to be imported. It's really not worth it unless you are gardening somewhere with no soil, or maybe contaminated ground, or unless you are wheelchair bound.
                            Martin that`s basically what the author was implying, but as you have pointed out there are good reasons to have raised beds
                            it may be a struggle to reach the top, but once your over the hill your problems start.

                            Member of the Nutters Club but I think I am just there to make up the numbers

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I started out with "lazy raised beds" (no fancy wooden edges). I'm on heavy clay and there is no doubt in my mind that it has made a huge difference to my veg (been growing veg since my teens, in various houses/gardens all with heavy clay, never used raised beds until we moved here 8 years ago), and to the speed with which the clay "improved" compared to previous gardens - I guess the bugs / worms / etc. preferred not being waterlogged too, and thus I got them working harder / longer hours / breeding faster as a result.

                              My beds aren't so much raised as the paths lowered - I dug the paths out a spades-depth and put the soil on the beds; they've been topped up with manure annually since, so I suppose that has added to the height, but I haven't imported topsoil to "fill" the raised beds.. I never walk on the beds and don't dig them (other than when harvesting Spuds and Parsnips etc)

                              I have since put fancy timber edges on them. I got a bit fed up with having to shovel the soil back onto the beds every year or two, and a lot more fed up because I couldn't realistically grow anything on the "shoulders" of the bed, so I lost perhaps 6" growing space either side of the bed - that's getting on for 25% of a 4' wide bed.

                              I see the "soil dries out quickly in a hot summer" as being the same thing as "soil in raised beds heats up more quickly / sooner at the start of the year". I'll live with having to water more in summer for better drainage and faster soil warming in spring. Different criteria will probably apply for people on soil that drains well / isn't clay.

                              I agree with the "fixed shape beds" being a disadvantage, but I don't see flat-beds as a suitable alternative. There are some crops, e.g. widely spaced Brassicas, where a bigger area might suit me better, and I could then choose not to have the exact same space for each of the 4 zones of my crop rotation ... but ... I cannot see how I would adopt "Never walk on it" and "no dig" if the paths moved to different places each year for the changing bed shapes. That's the old style of allotment where you dig the whole think in autumn, and then plant the crops (with paths forming between the rows / section) just for the season.

                              My solution to that is to have 8 zones, and a 4 year crop cycle. I have two beds for Brassicas (so twice as much space as, say, Peas and Beans) and my Roots is only Parsnips and Carrots, as Potatoes are grown in the other zone - rotated with Sweetcorn and Cut Flowers.
                              K's Garden blog the story of the creation of our garden

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