Raised beds/frames

[HunkieDorie23]

Thanks! I am going to become a lasagna gardener!

It makes for a easy start. I really like how my herb garden turned out. I am redoing it, making it bigger and adding a premanent brick border since my german shepherd tore out my black plastic one. I am going to use the lasagna method though because I am cover over a small amount of grass and I won't have to be all muscles to fix it, plus the existing soil is very poor and has a ton of shale (maybe 2 tons).

 

[catjac1975]

Last summer I gave the Square Foot Gardening thing a try and we built 2 beds that are 4' by 4', 6" deep, and 4 1' by 6' beds (also 6" deep). They all worked really well for what I grew even with just 6" of soil. I didn't grow any root vegetables though.

Of course you can always make them deeper if you'd like, but if you can come across one of the books (or just look it up online) there are great ideas for adding things to your raised beds such as a chicken wire cover to keep bunnies & deer out (which we did, and it worked great!), and ideas to make season extenders & trellises & such.

I finished my first one yesterday, made it out of pallet lumber and scrap 2X4's, It's 4X4 and 7 1/2" deep, it cost me only the 8 screws I used to put it together with. Can't wait to get some soil in it. The season extender you mentioned has me interested! Hmmm...I have some 1/2" and 1/4" PVC pipe that I could probably bend into a hoop shape and then I can get some clear/opaque plastic and have tomato's in the winter time in my Zone 8a??

Make sure you put down newspaper or something to smother the weeds.

 

[joz]

I think I'm gonna make "raised beds" in my garden. Kinda. I'm going make borders out of 2x4s or 2x6's (whatever I have around), to divide my "garden" from my "lawn". To give my boyfriend a clear border for the weedwacker and lawnmower. To contain the fluffed up soil and plants, and to give me some clear edges for my square-foot-ish planting. Without the lines and borders and grid, I'm'a forget where I direct sowed my carrots when I go to transplant my tomatoes, particularly if the lawn (bermuda, ugh) starts creeping in again.

So I'm'a make some 2' x 6' rectangles, and brace the corners a bit, and place 'em on top of my tilled/dug beds. I'll mound the soil in the centers, then spread it back out once the rectangles are set in place. This will also help me level the tops of my beds... As it is, my beds are mounded ~6" higher than the surrounding ground.

I'm also bordered by chain-link fences, so having a solid border will help keep out the lawn from those sides also. I hope.

Then, when a bed is "finished", I can remove the wood, amend and till, re-set the wood, and start again.

Right?

 

[lesa]

Sure, Joz. The wood is really just for decoration...All the rows in my garden are raised, with no border around them. Works just fine...

 

[The Mama Chicken]

I'm starting a brand new garden this year. I have 18 4'x8' raised beds that will one day (hopefully) have borders. I know you don't NEED them but it helps give the kids and dogs a good visual clue on where not to step. For now we just tilled the whole garden and shoveled the topsoil from the paths onto the beds. I'm thinking of reseeding the paths with clover instead of mulching them, but I'm not sure how feasible that would be.