raised bed heights

General tips / questions on seeding & planting

Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter

Laurie, Old severn bridge
KG Regular
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:04 pm

hey, what height of raised beds? do you lot recomend ,what works for you, 6-8" worked well last year for onions,10-12" worked well for sweetcorn and carrots, how deep can i go? peas failed at 20" ithink they dried out, soil mainly horse manure (hemp ) with bought compost on top. does any one irrigate theirs? i'm thinking of soil on top with a mulch....maybe some of that porous tube..... any ideas welcome only second year!
cheers Laurie
sandy_v
KG Regular
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:49 pm

I've only been using them for 2 seasons, so far. Mine are 9-10" high placed on top of solid clay. I also dug some sand into the underlying clay. They've worked very well so far for everything from carrots to leeks, courgettes onions beans etc etc I also grow chard and the enormous roots go down into the underlying clay, but not a problem.
Re Watering the beds, I just do it when they get dry, like an ordinary plot!
Angi
KG Regular
Posts: 168
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Southsea

Mine are 8" high, and like Sandy's, the roots just go down into the surrounding soil. I've grown pretty much everything in mine - all sorts of squashes, sweetcorn, brassicas, roots, spuds. I find if you get a good organic mixture in them they don't dry out so much. I give my whole plot a really good soaking once or twice a week in the summer and that seems enough.
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