when is a raised bed not a raised bed ?

[farmer jon]

when will those in the gardening media that advocate the use of raised beds, actually show people & explain the way they should be made & used ? the reason for a raised bed is primarily to give extra depth for increased root run, yet how many times do you see them with soil levels at least 6 inches below the top of the boards ? kitchen garden magazine is just as much to blame as on page 37 of the jan 2013 edition it shows a shot of "raised beds" where the internal soil level is the same as that of the outside , yet with a 6" board all the way around. I see this on countless allotment sites,pretty little boxes serving no purpose whatsoever ! in some cases people use this idea to cut down on the amount of plot that they have to work by creating very wide paths in between. In fact on our own site we have had to act on this as one plot had 6' paths all around them. with the current waiting lists this is totally unacceptable.
I am no fan of raised beds but if you want to have them well please construct & use them in the way they were intended & soil them up to the top of the boards.

[Tony Hague]

Indeed. I think a lot of the popularity of raised beds also stems from some misplaced urge for tidiness and order. This is an allotment, not a potager ! The trouble is that it is much easier to get hold of a few boards than it is to get the huge amount of soil needed to fill one properly.

[Primrose]

I agree with Tony. I've seen any number of "raised beds" which have just been created to give an impression of tidiness and order when the soil would have been perfectly ok for normal beds to have been used. Sometimes in small gardens which need all the space people can find for growing their veg, they have created "raised beds" which decrease the amount of area available and their invention does nothing to improve the quality of the crops they produce. And sometimes they have spent so much money on the fancy wooden boards that they'd never recoup the cost by home growing vegetables no matter how many years they grow them for. People just get seduced by popular ideas sometimes.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Some people see the creation of raised beds as a long term project and just add what earth, compost, manure etc is available and gradually build up and condition the soil inside their wooden borders until eventually they get filled and achieve their full potential.

It is a waste to have very wide paths between them, but 18 to 24 inches is the minimum for safety - avoiding tripping - and access by wheelbarrow etc. I've found out by experience with very narrow paths that you don't have space to gain your footing again if you trip. Also not to leave bricks and other objects holding down fleece and netting on the paths!

I suppose that newcomers to gardening are less daunted by smaller sections and feel as if they are making a start on their allotment.

Most of my garden is open with no fixed paths between the veg, but with paths separating the beds and all round the edge, but I do like my two small raised beds for carrots and other things I want to protect and keep an eye on.

Gardening is for enjoyment and people should be left to follow their own choices. It is fun to experiment and if something doesn't work it is easy to change it.

[JohnN]

Apart from the greater root depth the benefit of raised beds is to us "creakies". In my garden I must admit I like to divide my produce up. I have 3 main beds, 2 slightly raised, and I usually sub-divide these with simple 6" planks, not buried but supported by short cane /\s, the tips held together by empty pill pots, of which I seem to have a lot! Carrots and radishes are grown in containers on a bench against the greenhouse.

[FelixLeiter]

I have twice constructed and tended a plot consisting mainly of raised beds. In one case they were installed on particularly heavy ground which was prone to waterlogging. They were edged with railway sleepers, nice and tarry, which stuck to your clothes but smelled nice. They worked very well because they were filled full, above any standing water. Another plot was built upwards rather than outwards, to occupy a tight spot. The soil excavated from the paths was used to fill the beds, mostly turf which turned into lovely loam.
I can't wholly recommend raised beds where soil conditions are good and space is available. I have tripped over them too many times to feel any sort of friendship towards them, and they do serve as luxury accommodation for molluscs. And beds with soil in them at the same level as the surrounding ground are laughable. If they're not filled full, they can't fulfill.

[vegpatchmum]

We have a mixture of raised and normal beds in our veg garden. That said himself is looking to 'raise' the flat beds next year to give better drainage. The water table under our garden is particularly high due to a natural spring and although we do ok with the veg in the flat beds 'lifting' the height by another 6 inches and filling to the top, will help enormously on those occasions when persistent rain causes water logging.

Also, our garden was covered with 6 inches to a foot of compacted hardcore when we bought the house and, although himself has chipped, pickaxed and sledge-hammered his way through quite a lot of it there are still areas where the sheer depth of the hardcore made it impossible to do much more than put in 'drainage' holes hence the raised beds, also filled to overflowing with soil and compost

I do only have 18" pathways between them though

VPM
x

[ken]

I seem to remember a KG article years ago by a columnist who pointed out that what started out as filled raised beds gradually ceased to be raised with all the soil that was taken out sticking to weed and vegetable roots and not replaced.

[glallotments]

On our site nearly every newcomer constructs a 'raised bed' but only consists of plank borders rather than raised to any level. Many end up removing them later.

[peter]

As I've said on previous threads, as a site agent I HATE raised beds. Renter of a five rod plot covered it with weed membrane, spent a year building 18" - 2' high raised beds, THEN wondered what to fill them with, "as general purpose compost is so expensive"

Perked up a bit when told a.cubic metre of topsoil could be had for around £100, but went right downhill when told each of his dozen beds would take about, - you've guessed right here -, one to two cubic metres, that he gave up.

His replacement used the beds as kindling for his wood burning stove, took up the membrane, got a delivery of manure, did some hard digging work and had crops the first season.

[Ricard with an H]

A very interesting thread for me, my partner had been encouraging me to build raised beds for a number of years. Unfortunately it all stemmed from 'twee' visions of convenient and tidy.

When I worked out the cubic area for the soil I had to buy she said, "You don't need to fill them, do you. "

I researched the reasons for raised beds and have raised beds for those reasons though it's entirely possible I may double the hight of the timbers which are nine inch by two inch treated boards but I won't fill them with soil because i'm using the extra nine inches for wind protection and to support other types of protection.

Hopefully, i'll be excused. Good point though Jon, my view is that most people are lazy and always looking for a cheaper or easier way. I can sympathise when the only way is back-breaking. The photo i'm showing is not a show-off, this will be the second time I piled it high with extra cow-poo and other composted material, it always seems go down so this last effort will hopefully mean the bed will finally level.

The other photos are an update for those of you who also encouraged me, I have winter salad, onion and garlic.