How deep does a raised bed need to be

[rootball]

Hi Andraste. thanks for the reply and the push on the soil mix part

I was thinking of the topsoil you get in bags which come with nutrients. Also i thought a mix of topsoil and compost as now days we never can be sure what's in the bags of compost, some good some like dust. Just a small bed about 7 feet by 4 feet.

I will have a look for Charles Dowding, thanks for the suggestion

[rootball]

Hi Snoop Puss, thanks for the reply.

To be honest, you know how it is. Now I have thought of it i wont be happy till I do it

Just want to make sure I get it right with depth and soil mix and so on.

[Nicos]

Before I decided to build my first permanent raised beds I tried digging down paths about 6” and turned that top soil onto the side of the ‘path’ , basically creating 3ft wide ridges of top soil with angled sides with lower walkways on either side.
I guess we could have put bark chippings onto the paths, but it worked well just mowing the grass which eventually grew on them

Trying it this way helped me plan the layout without needing to buying and fixing wooden sides initially.

Might be another approach?

[Snoop Puss]

Hi Snoop Puss, thanks for the reply.

To be honest, you know how it is. Now I have thought of it i wont be happy till I do it

Just want to make sure I get it right with depth and soil mix and so on.

Yes, I'm the same. Think a thing and just absolutely have to do or have that thing. The only problem is that your soil level is likely to drop a fair bit early on. Not necessarily so good for plants rooted in it? I still think you might do better to use the land as it is now (using Charles Dowding's method or something similar) and to start your raised bed in autumn so the soil has a chance to settle during winter.

In my case, I have an adapted version of Charles Dowding's beds. Rather than tapering off at the sides, my beds have very low 'walls' at the edges made of clods of earth that I've raked to the sides, as they're not ideal as a growing medium.

Good luck whatever you do.

[rary]

Possibly too late for contributing to this post, but as you said you were going to dig the bed to remove the grass, I would simply turn the grass over, this would provide some feeding for the plants, remove any perennial weeds if you can, then if you have any grass cuttings spread those over the top of the soil, then cover this with cardboard, if the ground is dry soak the cardboard before covering with a mix of soil and home made compost or old compost if you have any, I would recomend mixing some bags of washed concrete sand with the soil and adding chicken pellets for feeding the veg Almost forgot to give an aswer to your question about depth, I reckon 4 or 5 inches above the cardboard would be sufficient as with the cardboard being soaked by the time the plants touch it it would be soft enough to allow them to go through it

[rootball]

rary, thanks for your reply and sorry for the late reply back, i got distracted with my team winning the FA Cup
I decided in the end to dig the soil to a forks depth under where the bed was going and remove weeds/grass. Put raised bed on top, added a mix of top soil and compost. Okay i know after digging the soil the raised bed was not really needed, i had already made it so i used it i like the order a raised bed brings and i can keep telling people I made that

[Nicos]

Well done rootball

Any chance of a nosy of it at some point…maybe when it’s growing things inside?

[rootball]

Yes sure, when the sun is out and it stops raining i will add some photos.
Now to work out how to add photos to a post sure i did it before so can't that hard to do