Serious question re raised beds.

[Johnboy]

Hi Peter,
My experiment with Carrots last year was in two 4'x4'
x1' raised beds. They were superb. I am not against raised beds only those who are new to gardening who rush into it without thought due really through lack of experience. I also experimented with a raised bed of the same size to produce early Potatoes which again was a success. I used 10 Maris Bard seed Potatoes and had a super crop.
I have a load of raised beds but they have got to the height they are simply by the addition of compost and manure over the years.
I find 4' too narrow and most of mine are 6' wide and I am a great believer of the use of the hoe.
4' was reckoned to be the best so that the bed can be hand weeded from both sides but I do very little hand weeding and 6' takes three Brassicas with good spacing which I prefer. I also have quite large areas that are not made into raised beds which sadly are now covered with black h/d Polythene and I will probably never use again. My raised beds started off with simply 4" borders and now they are mainly on 9"
with a few 6".
I have not imported any soil and by the way nor have you. By imported soil I mean bought in soil.
JB.
I have now voted.

[Mr Potato Head]

Not forgetting of course, that high raised beds also serve an additional purpose of making it easier for those with mobility issues to do a bit of gardening!

And no, I'm not suggesting that anyone here may or may not have mobility issues...

[Mr Potato Head]

Peter... it just occurs to me that I might be a prime example of your 'one plank fence' example of 'raised bed'...

Perhaps it's because the pictures are (like mine) of new beds, and that over the years the soil level (with addition of the usual muck) will rise up to the level of the plank, and the plank is to prevent the spilling out onto the neat paths...

(Mrs PH was quite keen that I had neat paths, so she could go and get what she wants without getting too muddy. Although she's quite the convert to gardening now... )

I should state, this is not an official KG answer, and I reserve the right to talk rubbish.

[Johnboy]

Mr PH,
I am a person with mobility difficulties and raising a bed to 12" makes little or no difference at all.
I know that there are those who have responsibly set about making raised beds but I suspect for most it is a fashion statement and has very little to do with growing. In this area we have the "Oh my dear you must grow in raised beds" and that is generally the very same people who also say "Oh my dear you simply must be Organic." I might add that they are the ones who rush into, what is now Morrison's, and fill their trolleys up with conventionally produced vegetables and don't even give the Organic section even a glance!
Raised beds should mature over the years and I know many who have to remove soil in order to keep them down at the 6" level. That is by good gardening practice and simply bunging the soil in an area bounded by a 12" high barrier is never right and does very little for growing.
JB.

[Trevor Holloway]

My growing beds are edged with boards, the reasons are ;
they keep me walking on the straight and narrow
any compost / manure goes where I want it
I only dig where absolutely necessary
the different crops are separated
the grass paths are contained and can be strimmed easily
weeding seems to be reduced

I'm not advocating it as aclever method, it helps keep me disciplined and seems to reduce the effort needed or just direct what effort there is more efficiently.

[Compo]

I too have raised beds, and have been one of teh few people on my allotment site to be able to get on and do a bit over this extremely wet period. Why? because the paths are bark on landscape fabric, and the beds are raised six inches allowing me to walk alongside the cultivation area and use my nice sharp swoe to weed with.

Secondly it allows those of us with little time to wander around our plots very easily and apply labour to small areas.

It doesn't work for me, I don't profess to be organic, and I do buy the best veg i can afford in the supermarket, preferrably organic or local produce if I can. Some people like to patronise or put down methods that they do not endorse, good luck to the 'flatties' but I am a 'raisie' and will remain so.

[Allan]

The phrase Raised Bed has come to have three diiferent issues lumped into one, namely elevation of the growing area and its seperation from the path, addition of a large amount of organic matter and no-digging techniques. There is undeniably a link betweeen the last two, generally you would not have either in isolation. I find that I sometimes have to use 6 inch boards merely as a physical barrier, sometimes it is merely a device to terrace a slope in order to improve drainage and give a level bed for summer irrigation. Regarding the large amounts of organic matter, fine if you can afford it or can get it free but there are usually restraints both ways. I practice no-digging on some crops by spot treatment of the planting positions, it works on the cucurbits and tomatoes which can manage very well without the luxury of the full raised bed.
I hope this puts some overall perspective on the issues, it it not an all-or-nothing situation.
Allan

[Piglet]

I have both, one plot is raised beds and fruit in traditional beds and the other is traditional beds.

Each has a place. Parsnips for example I grow on the flat as they have a deeper dug root run (raised beds are no dig)as I do brussells and corn. The beds are brilliant for dwarf beans, onions, salads etc. The lists are by no means conclusive but certain crops do seem to lend themselves more to one than the other, although they can of course be grown in either.

To pick up on JB's point about the beds becoming raised over time, there are some fine examples of that on my site where some of the old boys who have been about for years. Several have raised beds without sides that have just "grew" over time with the addition of muck and compost. Mine are instant beds and work very well but there is no comparison to those built up over years. One day mine will be like that I am sure.

[Johnboy]

Hi Piglet,
I happen to know what went into your raised beds and it sounded wonderful.
Certainly both types of bed have their place. I too have both and I have 5 flat beds of 90' x 30' beds covered up and two going with 8 raised beds 6' x 30' (average)
I think it a great pity that people with clay soil simply grow on top of the clay rather than trying to incorporate it into the raised bed. I mean use at least 2" of the original or more into the raised bed.
Clay holds such a wealth of nutrient that it seem a terrible waste not to try a use at least a little of it.
I now have no clay here but when I lived in Hertfordshire it was fearful stuff but after the years I was there it became quite good, Sharp Sand and manure and compost and although it takes a little hard work to begin with but after a few seasons it becomes quite reasonable. After I used my method for growing Carrots on clay soil evolved I never had any more difficulty.
I have a permanent Runner Bean bed which is enclosed in 4" sides and I think this may be the 15th season.
In Autumn after removing the poles I clear any weeds
and spread quite well rotted manure on the surface and allow the weather to saturate it then cover with
H/D Black Polythene and leave it for the worms to do their bit and about a fortnight before I want to plant out my beans I simple give it a very light forking over and erect the Trellis and I have automatic watering system and they are never allowed to dry out and the results have been superb over the years. I never remove the old bean roots they simply die down and add to the fertility. I have had to take soil off this bed in order to keep it down to the 4".
JB.

[Piglet]

When building the beds JB I did dig them over first and then dug into it loads of manure to bring it up into the raised part of the bed and to help break it up a bit. Some others though havent as like you rightly say, it doesnt break down over night and they want soft friable soil immediately. They forget that clay holds onto moisture and as raised beds dry out quickly its a boon to have a bit mixed in.

Clay is hard work but raised beds are not the only solution to working it.

[peter]

My method was pretty much the same as Piglets.

In fact you could almost call it double-digging without digging the trench and importing the tops spit from the dung and soil heaps elsewhere on the plot.

[Barry]

The most interesting thing for me about raised beds is that when you make them from scratch, the height of the soil actually drops over a season as settlement takes place. So, I can start off with 12" of soil and end up with half that! Also, at the allotment I held for 10 years, my beds all required topping up, or risk going down to the flat all over again. I never figured out why that happened. However, this had the good result that I had to pile on the manure each and every season, which upped fertility enormously.
For me, sweet corn grow best in raised beds; nobody else on the former allotment ever got even remotely close to mine in terms of size of in the number of cobs per plant. This I put down to the tons of plop incorporated, which in turn retained moisture during even the hottest summers.
I am once again introducing raised beds at my new plot, using recovered roof tiles to make the side boards and then dividing beds with wood chip on top of old carpet. As Compo pointed out earlier, you can work 365 days a clear on that surface.
I should point out that I use beds simply to force me to maintain my plot in a reasonable fashion. When you have weeds coming up here, there and everywhere on a conventional plot, it can be rather intimidating, whereas cleaning one bed per session is easier, at least for my mind!!!

[submariner]

My raised beds are 2ft 6inches high! They have to be that high because of my disability. I have always gardened, once had a 10 perch alotment, so the beds are wonderful, otherwise I would not be able to garden at all. The only problem I get, is having someone carry the manure etc to the beds, once there I can plod on to my heart's content.
Submariner

[Carole B.]

I have fertile humps.......I wouldn't go back to being flat again for all the tea in China!

[oldherbaceous]

Just look at how well behaved i can be.