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I've just had raised beds built, do I fill them with just compost?

Also, what do I put at the bottom for drainage, do I used sand? gravel? Can I break up old polystyrene boxes?

I'm new to all this and a bit lost!

Hi cakelover,

Welcome to The Vine.

I filled mine first ones with specially bought in topsoil but for my next one I'm filling it with a mix of multi purpose/topsoil and farmyard manure.

As for drainage, are your beds on solid/hard standing? if so the I would suggest a layer of stones/gravel or such like in the bottom.
Mine are on the garden so drainage isn't an issue.

Hope that's of some help, have fun!

__________________
Always aim for the best result possible not the best possible result

Peanut aka Joanna

Thanks Peanut! They have a solid base and have a plastic membrane/lining. Gravel, that's cool - I can find that easy enough.

As for the compost issue.... I ordered 35 bags of multipurpose peat free stuff last week for it and am getting worried that I have done the wrong thing! Unfortunately where the beds are located is not that accessible hence lots of bags rather than a bulk load.

My pleasure!

Multi purpose will be fine but I would bulk it up a bit with either Mushroom compost or homemade compost some farmyard manure and maybe a little topsoil, purely to add bulk and a bit more of a solid growing mix.
Multi purpose alone will dry out very quickly and is a bit lite for some plants.

__________________
Always aim for the best result possible not the best possible result

Peanut aka Joanna

My compost just arrived, all 33 bags of it..... I signed for it without really checking the bags (yes I am an idiot). They've gone, I've just been back down to move some and realised they've sent me the wrong ones. I ordered peat-free and these are just multi-purpose ones.

Hi Cakelover,

We built some raised beds last season and we filled them with all purpose compost B&Q specials. We just laid it on the top and using a fork turned it in, covering the beds with plastic (to deter weeds) until we were ready to plant up. We had great success and no further digging. This year we have filled them again with the compost that we have made and are hoping to have the same result.

Happy Gardening
Auntyrynam

Hi there

Im also looking to build a couple of raised beds at the top of our new garden, this advice on here is just perfect thanks also, other half going to let me loose with a greenhouse and raised beds which I have yet to get built so just trying to get it right, just trying to work out what sizes to get built.

this is my first spring trying to grow veg and so far im loving it, although the more threads i read the more i realise just how little i know!! :-)

I've been gardening for nearly 40 years and I'm still learning. There's no such thing as a gardening expert as changes happen almost on a daily basis. As Blaster Bates once said "The definition of an expert :- 'Ex' is something that has been and 'spurt' is a drip under pressure.
The day you stop learning is the one when they're nailing the lid on

__________________
If it ain't broke, don't fix it and if you ain't going to eat it, don't kill it

Built raised bed last month, size 1.8m x 1.2m, filled bottom with brick rubble then completed filling with soil from garden. Currently growing a few herbs, and lettuce, wondering what other plants grow well in raised beds.

I built mine on soil, broke up the hard pan bottom, and filled with Shredded paper, Horse manure, syived garden soil, Kitchen waste, leaves and any thing else handy.
Overtime the level did sink so I topped off with own compost. Crops have done well for last 2 years I just keep topping up the level and add a good layer of horse poo before winter.
Improvise, addapt and overcome.
All the best to all,
Fred P xxx

Thanks for asking this, I am in process of getting some raised beds. Am very new to all of this, but am loving reading this forum to find out info!

I was also wondering, is it okay to put raised beds directly on to a lawn? Then fill in with compost etc? Sorry if this is a daft question, but don't fancy digging up all the turf!

Hi Jodipodi. My husband bought me a Link a Bord raised bed a couple of months ago. It has been brilliant. Because I was limited for space we had to put it on a small lawn so took the advice of some of the grapes on here and just forked over the grass at the bottom. I filled it with a mixture of shop bought and home made compost, the little bit of garden soil that I could pinch from the other plants and a couple of bags of garden centre topsoil. As an experiment one section has three potato plants growing as the no dig method (again a method used by some of the other grapes) and the rest is down to salad stuff including beetroot and mini sweetcon. I didn't have any spare spuds and only had space for 3 anyway and didn't fancy going to the GC to ask to buy just three seed potatoes. I've had to cheat by growing some sprouted sections from my kitchen potato sack. I bought them in Tesco and they were East Anglian spuds so at least I know they aren't foreign!! To be fair, I am not expecting too much since they weren't even proper potatoes but hey, all life's an experiment anyway eh? All look excellent at the moment although it does have a tendency to dry out. This, I hope, I can rectify in future seasons by adding more of my own compost. I started off with nice neat rows, all sown using string to guide me but next doors bl**dy cats (or maybe a squirrel) decided to have a good old scratch around so now I am finding lettuces coming up where the radishes were supposed to be and some of the spring onions in among the sweetcorn, and the radishes for part of the row disappeared altogether!!Good luck to all grapes with your raised beds. Mine is only diddy but is full to the brim with goodies ~ even if I am only harvesting them one at a time

Thanks ever so much Sanjo! We are thinking of the Link a Bord beds too, heard some great reviews of them. Your advice has really helped, as I wasn't entirely sure what the best way of doing it was! We have so far cleared a space to make a raised bed, and are going to hopefully get the linkabords for another area of garden. (Got them on my birthday list, along with a greenhouse (proper one!) and some chickens!!)

I can't believe how hooked I am getting on all this gardening malarky!

Looks like I made hard work for myself.

I marked out the bounderies of my raised bed timber, then dug down one spade depth ( I'd say the horticultural term but I do so hate spitting), placed the frame back in place and then started to work in compost into the existing soil.

"Looks like I made hard work for myself."

I don't think so ... I don't think that just erecting a raised bed on top of a lawn, say, is going to work anything like as well as digging the area first (preferably incorporating some well rotted compost/manure/etc.), and then making the raised bed.

Nope Stacey Steve, I agree with Kristen - if a jobs worth doing it's worth doing well. Ahem!! I WOULD have done it your way but I am still nursing my (healing) fractured wrist so heavy digging was out and I was impatient. OH NOT keen on double digging as he suffers with his knees. Since he was buying the Link a Bord, I wasn't going to look the proverbial gift horse etc so went with the advice from the Grapes. I have just been down there doing a bit of weeding and it really looks good. OH also treated me to the canopy for springtime so that I can cover it with plastic or fleece. It fits into the Link a Bord but I have to say I'm not too sure about the stability of it as it is only thin plastic rods - we shall see. Jodipodi, there was another company doing the raised beds in plastic (the name escapes me) but I just googled "raised beds" and followed all the threads. Theirs do look chunkier than the Link a Bord, and also I did see on one of those threads a canopy for the Link a Bord raised bed that WASN'T plastic and came with it's own cover. Anyway. I am pleased with what I have but would possibly investigate the other company further if I was buying more. Link a Bord was extremely easy to erect, but the connectors aren't that strong. In fact one arrived broken and the company replaced it promptly but I was a bit concerned that it wasn't strong enough to survive the post. Hope these comments help. Sanjo

Having said all that, just putting some good soil / compost on top of the lawn will mean that when the turf rots down there will be good water retention etc. Its probably going to rob some Nitrogen, in the short term, while it rots.

Digging will improve drainage, let the worms work faster, but don't throw the turf away, bury it at the bottom of the digging process.

I have an official bit of garden now without turf!! So am going to put a bed there, and possibly try the "quick" route for another bed. We are lucky enough to back on to a field, and I have just been told I can possibly use a section for a chicken run and a larger plot if we want!! wooo!

Sanjo, will do some googling about the other beds you mentioned. Thank you x