veg plots

We're going to create a new Veg plot and was wondering if there is any advantages or disavantages to having raised beds? Why do some people have raised and some dont? As a kid my dad grew veg on a flat plot, Gardeners World have raised and so does my cousin

Which would you recommend please and any other tips

Thanks alot
Kirst

 

Raised beds for the bone idle, you don't have to 'improve' the existing soil, just break your back humping in good stuff. You don't have as far to bend down to weed or pick crops. I've got an all raised bed veggie garden made from 2' paving slabs on edge. Cheers, Tony.

 

Raised beds also warm up quicker in the Spring and can be an advantage if your on heavy clay as it can drain better.

Steve...

 

Or at the moment, can help keep your seeds/seedlings/plants from drowning is more of the case on my heavy, waterlogged, clay soil, which unless raised (or covered with polythene sheet awaiting sowing/planting) is either covered in puddles or like sloppy pudding.

 

I have "lazy" raised beds - I dug the soil from the "paths" and heaped it on the "beds" raising them by 6" or so. The lower paths improved the drainage of my heavy clay, and I have added manure and compost, but only what I would normally use on a veg patch, not to build the beds up significantly. For disabled people etc. having much higher beds, that avoid bending, can make a significant difference of course.

Raised beds, on sandy soil, will need more watering, (mine are clay though and benefit from the increased drainage) but I personally think that the main benefit of raised beds is the reduced digging. I dug my beds thoroughly (i.e. "Double digging") initially but have never dug them since. They get some "digging" when I harvest leeks, parsnips and spuds, and I do sometimes run the little Mantis tiller through them, but I absolutely NEVER walk on them so they never get compacted - and I think that is the key.

For a conventional veg plot you walk along the rows picking veg and hoeing, which compacts the soil, and then you dig the whole lot the following winter, which I think is a waste of energy!

I have now put some timber edging on my raised beds, and they look a lot smarter (and I have a bit more "width" than when they had sloping shoulders/edges) but I managed without for 5 years.

 

So good to read all this advice
Jenny namaste

 

Our soil isnt clay but isnt sandy, it will be easy digging when we get all the slabs and tarmac out of it. We have an excess of soil ( a mound we are flattening) and I have back problems, so might look at building 3 beds then it will help with rotation too

If we make them out of wood what would you treat the inside of the bed with to stop it rotting or wont it matter to much (will it take along time to rot )

 

Hi.

I have raised beds, made from Tanalised wood. Some may say it's possibly toxic, but from what I gather, the risk is very low, so I'm not that bothered. They've been in place for four years now, and they're still very sound. I guess I could have lined the bed with polythene or something, which is something you could consider.

Cheers...Freddy

 

I put damp proof membrane on the inside of mine - keeps the soil off the wood, and any possible issue with toxicity from the tanalising (sp?) chemicals out ... assuming that the plasticisers from the DPM don't get me!

Either way, I don't think its worth over doing the treatment of the wood - putting more preservative on it will probably cost more than the increased life that it gives the wood, and thus the cost of replacement.

 

I just lined the inside of one of our raised beds with old compost bags stapled onto the timber, keeping the plastic short from the top so it does not show once ot's full.

After all, it;s outside and will get wet whatever you do but I felt that keeping the wood away from constantly wet soil was a good idea.



Steve...

 

cracking idea - particularly for anyone planning to fill the raised bed with compost - they will have plenty of such bags!

Monstrous extension handle on your trowel there eh? !!!

 

That made I

 

Don't be put off the idea of raised beds because they involve hard work, once they are finished they take minutes to maintain and our crops produce 3 times the yield of a normal garden.

 

I'm looking at doing 3 so I can rotate, leave enough gap to get the wheel barrow round and make them out of wood about a foot high. If we have some sleepers left then might see if we have enough to make one or two beds with them

Thanks for all the advise xx

 

Unless you are raising the beds high enough not to have to bend down, I recommend you consider making the paths wide enough to kneel in - i.e. no narrower than the length from your knee-to-foot. If grass then consider the width of your mower too. And you are right about being able to easily get a barrow down them.

I'm not mad about sleepers for this job. They are relatively thick, so you might get 4 beds, rather than 3, if you use thin timber rather than sleepers - three beds sounded by a 6" sleeper on each side will consume 3' width just for the sleepers, and an ideal raised bed is no more than 4' wide [so you can reach the middle from either side] - hence 3 beds with sleepers takes up very nearly the space of 4 beds with thin retaining sides.

Also, old sleepers (which you were probably not considering anyway) will leak tar / creosote into the beds, which is probably not ideal for food crops! and will muck up youtr trousers when you sit on them on a hot day :(

Sleepers look the business though ...