Raised beds?

[ellend]

If you are planning large raised beds, remember that you will have to hand dig all the grass runner roots out, constanty, every year. My 3x20 raised bed boards are giving out (linseed oil coated untreated, around 2" thick, after about 6? years. Expensive. I have perennials in the beds--roses, peonies--but if I were doing vegetables again, I'd stick with ground-level beds with permanent walking path areas, so I could roto-till. Unless your soil is bad or too wet, of course.

 

[ShrekDawg]

If you are planning large raised beds, remember that you will have to hand dig all the grass runner roots out, constanty, every year. My 3x20 raised bed boards are giving out (linseed oil coated untreated, around 2" thick, after about 6? years. Expensive. I have perennials in the beds--roses, peonies--but if I were doing vegetables again, I'd stick with ground-level beds with permanent walking path areas, so I could roto-till. Unless your soil is bad or too wet, of course.

Thank you! This thread is actually older now but this is still really good advice so thank you!

I’m gonna try the walking path idea because one year I way overcrowded the garden and it was a nightmare to get to anything and I had a huge problem with giant crab grass clumps cause I let it go for a while. Was a nightmare to dig out. So maybe the walking path idea will help.

But anyway, that first year I ended up buying some of the black fabric type raised beds from Amazon but then I didn’t really like the look and stuff so then I ended up doing in ground ever since. Stuff grew amazingly well especially the year before last when we moved the chicken run. it was amazing!

All that said though, I actually do my pepper plants in pots now because I find for some reason, they do way better that way than in ground. I’m not sure why. But they get all eaten up or just sickly and small in ground but huge in pots.

But the rest I’ve been doing in ground the last few years and it definitely works better! I’ve been trying to add all sorts of stuff to it too to improve it even more. Like I’ve bought potting soil and mixed it in or peat moss and just different stuff.

Have yet to try walking paths or even tilling though! So that will be something I’ll try this year I think!

Anyway, sorry for the huge novel and thanks for the advice because it gave me something new to try!

 

[Acre4Me]

I have 11 raised beds, I’ll post pics later.

@BReeder! also has raised beds, but with galvanized sides, and taller than mine. He should post some pics too.

getting soil analyzed can be very helpful. I buy a “kit” from my county Ag office. I paid $11 for each kit. I send it to the lab, they mail me back results with recommendations for the purpose I’m using the soil (in my case, it’s a “mixed veg garden”, but I had other choices on the firm). So, I’m battling high pH. It will take another year or two for me to optimize my soil. I also have my first batch of compost that should be useable this year...enough to add to planting holes at least.

good luck, gardening is fun!

 

[BReeder!]

@Acre4Me I sure do have raised beds, although they are currently buried in snow.

Here's a pic from the Fall. We we're already clearing the garden when I took this.

I actually use raised beds and in-ground beds. I really like the raised beds because my yard tends to flood at the beginning of May due to torrential rains. The raised beds ensure the plants and their roots are out of the standing water. I use mounds in the in-ground beds to try to keep things up a bit to. It also helps with irrigation, changeling rain water during the drier and hotter summer months right to the roots of the plants. I'm considering established permanent raised mounds with mulch between them. It would be less worth each Spring and less destructive to the soil biome after established. I lose the ability to reshape the in-ground needs each year to suite my plantings though.

As I browsed through this thread I noted some mentions of grass spreading into raised beds and the need to establish walking paths. I don't have much problem with grass. Some deep rooted plants push up through the mulch, but pulling and chopping keeps them at bay pretty well. Small seedlings of weeds will start to grow in mulch as they blow in our are dropped by birds. A steel rake or hoe takes care of them swiftly. I do recommend mulching the walking paths though. I put down about 3 inches of mulch. It keeps weeds and grass at bay, and keeps you from walking in mud. I haven't mulched paths between in-ground rows/mounds in the past extort for dropping clippings and uprooted weeds in the valleys between rows. This year I an going to mulch with straw between the mounds best I can. The straw may contain seeds, so I'm letting 4 bales sit stacked in a pile since November until I use them in April/May, hoping that any seeds rot or sprout in early Spring before I break the bales open.

Overall, I love raised beds and would have them across my entire garden. They are costly to build though. My beds are made of 2x3 and 4x4 lumber and galvanized corrugated steel sheets that come 12ft long and 26 inch wide. It takes 1x 10ft 4x4, 6x 8ft 2x3s, and 2x 12ft corrugated steel sheets to make one bed. It's around $80 per bed. I also use a Craig jig for joining the lumber, scraps of wood to stake in the side of the beds and a cross member of wood or conduit to prevent the long side from bowing in the middle. Each of these beds can hold about 2 1/2 yards of soil, which comes at a cost as well unless you use native soil you have. I use native soil and amend it with compost. I have soil from mounded flower beds that I removed and some other landscaping work in our yard. I did bring in some soil though, and will be bringing in more this year likely as I'm build raising the twi shorter beds I have in the photo (building two more galvanized beds in their place) and repurposed the lumber from the short bed to make two long, narrow beds for perrenial herbs and strawberries.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Thank you! This thread is actually older now but this is still really good advice so thank you!

I’m gonna try the walking path idea because one year I way overcrowded the garden and it was a nightmare to get to anything and I had a huge problem with giant crab grass clumps cause I let it go for a while. Was a nightmare to dig out. So maybe the walking path idea will help.

But anyway, that first year I ended up buying some of the black fabric type raised beds from Amazon but then I didn’t really like the look and stuff so then I ended up doing in ground ever since. Stuff grew amazingly well especially the year before last when we moved the chicken run. it was amazing!

All that said though, I actually do my pepper plants in pots now because I find for some reason, they do way better that way than in ground. I’m not sure why. But they get all eaten up or just sickly and small in ground but huge in pots.

But the rest I’ve been doing in ground the last few years and it definitely works better! I’ve been trying to add all sorts of stuff to it too to improve it even more. Like I’ve bought potting soil and mixed it in or peat moss and just different stuff.

Have yet to try walking paths or even tilling though! So that will be something I’ll try this year I think!

Anyway, sorry for the huge novel and thanks for the advice because it gave me something new to try!

The peppers probably like the warmer soil in the pots.black plastic or black weed fabric can help keep the soil warmer for any in ground peppers.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I have 11 raised beds, I’ll post pics later.

@BReeder! also has raised beds, but with galvanized sides, and taller than mine. He should post some pics too.

getting soil analyzed can be very helpful. I buy a “kit” from my county Ag office. I paid $11 for each kit. I send it to the lab, they mail me back results with recommendations for the purpose I’m using the soil (in my case, it’s a “mixed veg garden”, but I had other choices on the firm). So, I’m battling high pH. It will take another year or two for me to optimize my soil. I also have my first batch of compost that should be useable this year...enough to add to planting holes at least.

good luck, gardening is fun!

Thanks!! This is great advice!! I might try that testing idea. cause it’s weird, I have different results in different parts of the garden. I also might have used up all the nutrients from the old chicken run by now. That reminds me, I need to dig out the current run and put it on there or at least in a pile somewhere.

 

[ShrekDawg]

@Acre4Me I sure do have raised beds, although they are currently buried in snow.
View attachment 2520285

Here's a pic from the Fall. We we're already clearing the garden when I took this.
View attachment 2520297

I actually use raised beds and in-ground beds. I really like the raised beds because my yard tends to flood at the beginning of May due to torrential rains. The raised beds ensure the plants and their roots are out of the standing water. I use mounds in the in-ground beds to try to keep things up a bit to. It also helps with irrigation, changeling rain water during the drier and hotter summer months right to the roots of the plants. I'm considering established permanent raised mounds with mulch between them. It would be less worth each Spring and less destructive to the soil biome after established. I lose the ability to reshape the in-ground needs each year to suite my plantings though.

As I browsed through this thread I noted some mentions of grass spreading into raised beds and the need to establish walking paths. I don't have much problem with grass. Some deep rooted plants push up through the mulch, but pulling and chopping keeps them at bay pretty well. Small seedlings of weeds will start to grow in mulch as they blow in our are dropped by birds. A steel rake or hoe takes care of them swiftly. I do recommend mulching the walking paths though. I put down about 3 inches of mulch. It keeps weeds and grass at bay, and keeps you from walking in mud. I haven't mulched paths between in-ground rows/mounds in the past extort for dropping clippings and uprooted weeds in the valleys between rows. This year I an going to mulch with straw between the mounds best I can. The straw may contain seeds, so I'm letting 4 bales sit stacked in a pile since November until I use them in April/May, hoping that any seeds rot or sprout in early Spring before I break the bales open.

Overall, I love raised beds and would have them across my entire garden. They are costly to build though. My beds are made of 2x3 and 4x4 lumber and galvanized corrugated steel sheets that come 12ft long and 26 inch wide. It takes 1x 10ft 4x4, 6x 8ft 2x3s, and 2x 12ft corrugated steel sheets to make one bed. It's around $80 per bed. I also use a Craig jig for joining the lumber, scraps of wood to stake in the side of the beds and a cross member of wood or conduit to prevent the long side from bowing in the middle. Each of these beds can hold about 2 1/2 yards of soil, which comes at a cost as well unless you use native soil you have. I use native soil and amend it with compost. I have soil from mounded flower beds that I removed and some other landscaping work in our yard. I did bring in some soil though, and will be bringing in more this year likely as I'm build raising the twi shorter beds I have in the photo (building two more galvanized beds in their place) and repurposed the lumber from the short bed to make two long, narrow beds for perrenial herbs and strawberries.

Wow thank you for taking all the time to write that! This was extremely interesting and helpful! maybe I’ll try at least one raised bed this year! I actually might be able to have two gardens this year since I moved but still close enough to the other place

 

[ShrekDawg]

The peppers probably like the warmer soil in the pots.black plastic or black weed fabric can help keep the soil warmer for any in ground peppers.

Thanks!! That makes sense!! Maybe I’ll try the black fabric this year. I think we did actually use some last year on some of the plants, I’m remembering. The ones under the fabric did do better! Still not quite as great as the potted ones though so maybe it’s something with my soil too. Cause use this awesome bagged stuff they seem to love for the pots.

 

[Sally PB]

My raised beds are just mounded up soil. They're about 3-4 feet wide and run almost the width of my garden. I have about 3 feet between the beds so that I can get a garden cart through. I'm supporting the sides of the beds with rock; I have plenty of that and it's free!

Some of the beds are perennial, ie, the same thing there every year that comes up regularly. I have two beds of perennial onions and two beds of strawberries. The rest get some rotation of crops: tomatoes, beans, garlic, greens.

I've found that the soil warms up faster and I keep the beds weeded better. If weeds grow in the paths, I chop them off with the hoe, but I don't have to be careful, just whack 'em down. The beds I keep hand weeded and use a lot of mulch to avoid weeding if possible. I can "target" the compost to the top of the beds, or even to specific plants if I want to.

Since I'm not walking on the raised beds, the soil is getting softer and fluffier. In the fall, pulling out spent plants is a breeze. Then I load the beds up with whatever organic matter I have and let it sit all winter long. It's easier to amend the soil too, because it doesn't take much, and I can add what is needed for what I want to grow there.

 

[BReeder!]

Since I'm not walking on the raised beds, the soil is getting softer and fluffier.

This is a great point. Whether in ground or raised beds, avoid walking in the planting area as much as possible. Raised beds or raised rows also benefit from the crumbling activity of winter freeze and thawing. Ice expands in the dirt breaking up clumps and then melted away when the weather warms up. The raised beds and mounded rows freeze better and thaw faster too.