New raised beds

Hello all!

I'm totally new to gardening but have moved into a new house with a 8x40m garden to look after. I'll be starting a project thread soon with photos.

One of my first jobs will be putting in some raised beds down the side of the lawn. Do I need to dig the bit of lawn out underneath the top soil I'll be putting in? I'm reluctant to cover with plastic or weed suppressor because that will leave a shallow root for any plants we put in wont it?

 

Hi and welcome to forum,
Are you planning to growing vegetables or just making a raised bed for plant and flower? plus , how high do you planning raise the bed?

 

You can dig it up, turn it upside down and put soil on top it will compost itself naturally giving it's nutrients back into the raised bed. But if there are dandelions, bindweed or couch grass in the turf they will survive and find their way to the top.

that's couch grass. The roots grow if you snap them !

 

Hi!
Ive bought a set of raised beds from a garden centre so theyll be about 9" high. I'll be growing plants and flowers.

There are 4 raised beds for veg further down the garden the previous owner put in which have become overgroen with brambles and nettles so Im clearing that with ground clear and will dig it over in the Spring once everything has died off.

 

Was worried about the weeds more than the grass. Swines.

Ill have to weedkill before I put the soil in then?

 

One of the older trick on the book is the carpet of the soil , dig it up, turn it upside down and put soil on top (as revin as suggested) , then manure and compost inside the raised bad , make it nice and level , then cover up with old carpet or similar , it will stop weeds to grow and keep the soil ready for spring.
use the same system in the walk path , carpet and then cover with gravel or similar .

 

Don't know if you are aware, but if you are using Ground Clear you shouldn't plant anything in that area for six months

They advise : "At least 6 months should pass between treatment and any replanting. Then dig thoroughly to make sure there is no adverse effects on subsequent planting."

If you are aware then just ignore me

 

Not keen on carpet, personally. Nighmare to remove once it has started to rot, and not sure about the chemicals in the foam backing, particularly for vegetable crops.

Personally I only use carpet as a mulch for new hedges, where there isn't any risk to food contamination. Definitely keeps them moisture in, and prevents the weeds though.

 

I am aware but thanks for taking the time to point it out. The area I'll be treating will be left til the spring then I'll dig it over before planting anything new next Spring/ Summer.

 

I made a lot of raised beds last year out of wooden pallets. Stained them dark and they look fine. I dug a spades depth turning over the soil after marking where the raised beds were going (you need to anyway to spike it in the four corners). I then added some partially composted compost then garden soil then compost from a bag. Veg, fruit, and flowers all doing well in it. You still need to weed as raised beds do not eliminate weeds, but the loose soil makes it easy to pull them. I would encourage anyone to give raised beds a try, especially those with heavy soil.

 

Hello boyoh,
Welcome to the madhouse of gardener's delight.
If you are thinking of getting those raised beds to look more permanent try this out.
Get some old railway sleepers to build the base of the beds, as I did to start my veg patch. I have six beds, but that is going to be reduced to accommodate the compost bins. So one has to go.

 

Personally I wouldn't use railway sleepers. They are wide, so by the time you've made 4 beds the sleepers have used up the space that could be a fifth bed, and old ones may have horrid chemicals in them that will leach out (they have a habit of "bleeding" in hot weather, so you run the risk that they muck up your clothes when you go to pick something ...). But you could line the beds with something to keep the soil away from the wood (which will lengthen the life of the wood too), and for ornamentals it probably doesn't matter.

 

The reclaimed sleepers are generally full of oil and other nasties, though there are plenty of suppliers of pressure treated new sleepers. I love the way they look but we bought some raised bed kits on a discount deal and I've fixed the long lengths together to form one large bed. I'll post pics in due course.

I've put a load of half rotted leaf and lawn compost in there with a compost accelerator and covered with plastic. I'll turn it a couple of times before march then add some shop bought manure and topsoil before we start planing in March.

I've got a separate at the back of the garden with beds for veg next to a greenhouse and shed. See my other thread: http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/my-first-large-project.46969/

I've given the veg beds area a good dose of ground clear which seems to have done the trick with most weeds, though I turned some of the soil Saturday and there is still a fair bit of bindweed through it. Think I'm going to have a battle on my hands over the next couple of years with that!

There is still a large area of bramble around the back of the shed which the ground clear has has no affect on so I'll also be doing a fair bit of digging that area through the winter too!

I can't plant anything veg until April because of the ground clear and I may just plant green manure until late Summer.

What plants / flowers / seed can I start off over the Winter or Spring in the greenhouse that I can then transfer to the raised beds in the lawn area?

 

Jut pedantically dotting-Is and crossing-Ts:

When you say "lawn compost" is that lawn clippings or compost made from lawn clippings? Just want to check you haven't used Verdone Plus or similar selective weed killer on the lawn (because it persists in the compost)

If you can apply Roudup/Glyphosate-based weedkiller to the bindweed leaves next year, once it is actively growing, then repeated applications will kill it. It can be tricky if the weed is in & amongst other things that you want to keep. It won't poison the soil, so safe (IMO, but you/others may have a stronger view) to use, even amongst vegetable plants.

In addition to that the old adage "Never let it see a Sunday" will help - hoe it down as soon as new leaves appear, successively weakening it.

yeah, an amateur-strength total weedkiller is unlikely to kill brambles. Worth having a look at the herbicide SBK (but that may also require the plant to be in active growth - if so suggest you treat any re-growth next year)

Not a lot needs to be sown earlier than that, and if you are able to raise plants in small pots, and then plant out, you can delay planting out until May, or maybe later. (Or if you don't want to do that / don't have space / greenhouse/conservatory you could buy plants in May at the garden centre - they will be 4 - 6 weeks old, so same as seeds that you would have sown in April and at least you'll get a crop in the first year )

Broad Beans in 3" pots - I start mine early in the new year. Don't start too early if you cannot plant out until May.

Personally I start my Parsnips in tubes made from newspaper (rolled around an aerosol can); many people use Loo rolls. Plenty of debate about direct-sow vs. transplant but in your case direct sow isn't an option early next year

Leeks - I sow mine in a polystyrene box (fish box type) each seed neatly spaced at 1" apart, they are then good to grow on in that box until planted out late May or early June

I raised Runner Beans and Climbing French Beans in 3" pots (most people use [smaller] modules) and plant out after last frost - so sometime in May. Ditto for things which are more tender such as Courgettes and Winter Squash.

other things that many people might direct sow but which I start in 3" pots include Leaf Beet, Lettuce, Celeriac, Beetroot, Kohl Rabi, Cauliflower, Winter greens - Sprouts, Cabbage, Sprouting Broccoli and I use the newspaper tubes for Sweetcorn (dislikes root disturbance, and needs a much deeper root run than a 3" pot provides).

So if you are able to start stuff in pots then you can do pretty much whatever you want. Potatoes need to be planted direct (well, you could grow them in Bags / Large pots), and I can't be bothered with trying to transplant Carrots (I can hack doing 50 Parsnips, which is more than enough for us, but we need 100's of Carrots by comparison ... I did it one, way too much hassle IMHO) but pretty much everything else will be fine.

There are differences of opinion over starting things off in pots. People who sow direct think I'm mad and I have yet to meet a sow-direct person who sees any merit. I sow my seeds in Spring when I get home from work, in the dark (and warm!). I have heavy clay, getting a seed bed early in the year is impossible (I could probably cover it with plastic sheet though ...). So I "delay" needing to have my soil ready for 6 weeks by raising things in pots first. When I plant out I have no gaps, exactly the number of plants I need, and they get away in a weed-free bed with no competition - whereas sown-direct the weeds come up quickly and it can then be a challenge to find the seedlings, worst case, or at best fiddly to weed them.

 

Brilliant reply Kristen thank you! By lawn compost I mean from the mower. I haven't treated the lawn with anything but thanks for the tip!

So much to read through & plan for. I do have a greenhouse which needs a good clean before I start using it, but also have a conservatory I can use for planting.... as long as our toddler leaves them alone!