Raised Garden?

[SkunkedAgain]

My wife and I have a bunch of extra dirt and a desire to build a garden. I was thinking of elevating it a foot or so off the ground, outlined by a brick retaining wall.

Are there any growing/garden problems that we might run into with an elevated garden? Would it not retain water as well?

[waskawood]

My wife and I have had a raised bed for a number of years and like the concept. It does need to be watered more often. My only other suggestion is to make it only as wide as you can reach the center. Why have a raised bed if you have to crawl to the middle to weed or harvest your bounty. Ours is made from retaining block.

[SkunkedAgain]

Good points. That was my thought too about not making it too big. Even in my thirties, I was thinking that it would be better to sit on a raised retaining block than work on my knees (they've already taken enough beating).

[LightningBG]

One thing I've done in a number of gardens is put in an irrigation system. I use 1/2 thin wall pvc going under the garden with 1-2 ft risers every 8-10 ft. Then a little sprinkler head on the top. If it doesn't make sense to hard line it into the water supply, I put a fitting on the end of the pipe to hook a garden hose up to it. This way i can walk the hose to the garden, hook on a (i use quick connects), turn on the water and walk away for 15 minutes. The heads have a nice gentle flow that doesn't wash the dirt away. Just make sure you plan on a way to drain it out before winter (capped end coming out of the bed at a low point, or they have release valves that drain when there isn't any pressure in the line. A 10ft section of pipe runs about $1.5, T fittings are under a buck, heads are under a buck.

[Tom7227]

I think you need to make sure that you build it correctly. I would think that drainage would be a big issue. Build it too tight and you're going to end up with a mess. I haven't studied the 'how to' info at all but I would think that some gravel on the bottom covered by a product that would let water through but not the soil would be a good idea. If you build it high enough to be able to sit on a chair and work you're going to need an awful lot of material to fill it up.

As for the question of watering it you may want to check out some of the mini-irrigation systems sold by places. I think Toro has a line of them. The use a small hose and a wide variety of sprinkler heads. Check that out and it may be a worthwile investment. I have even seen a device that measures soil moisture and will turn a system on at the level of moisture that you chose.

[lovebigbluegills]

I'm looking at growing some of my vegetables in raised beds this next year, as a fair amount drowned out last summer.

What size(s) do you make your beds (other than not too wide to reach the middle)?

Do you grow multiple vegetables in the same bed? Or have a bed for each one?

When the soil becomes compacted from rain etc, do you use a tiller to loosen it back up? or do it by hand?

[foulpole18]

My parents have a book they found call Square Foot Gardening. I looked at it and it sounds pretty interesting. This guy has been doing this for over 30 years and has some interesting ideas. Check it out and see if that answers any of your questions.

[Steve Foss]

All my veggies are grown in five raised beds, because we live on ledge rock and the soil is shallow and rocky. I just used old timbers and treated pine and it's all doing fine. They range from 6 inches to a bit over a foot high.

Four are 4x8 and one is 6x12. The smaller ones are easy to reach into the middle, the larger one doable but a bit of a stretch.

Drainage is no issue at all. We water from barrels stuck below our roof downspouts or from the garden hose as needed. We also mulch with grass clippings to retain moisture during the warmer months.

We plant whatever we want in each bed. Rarely is it all one veggie per bed. I turn them by spade/hand every spring before planting, and again every fall (after top dressing with composted manure or 10-10-10 granular fertilizer). They don't need any tilling or soil aeration over the growing season, since you're never walking in them like you do between traditional garden rows. We don't own a tiller because we don't need one. And, honestly, the older I get the more I enjoy a quiet interaction. There's enough noise in the world without introducing more in order to garden a few vegetables.

Raised beds allow you to jump the planting season by a week or two as well. They warm up faster because the soil is above ground, and they are ready-made to lay cold frames over to allow for planting even earlier. Old storm windows can work very well for this, and if you hunt a bit you can often find intact ones given away for free.

And I have subscribed to the square-foot gardening concept for a long time. There are garden fads coming and going every season, it seems (like those stupid topsy-turvy tomato hangers), but the square-foot idea has stood the test of time. I first tried in about 25 years ago and have rarely moved away from it since.

[pureinsanity]

I use to be a landscaper and we always built raised gardens. You should have no problems at all. If you want you can run drip lines through out the bed. Water as you normally do. Use crappy dirt for fill, maybe even some clay and than put 6 inches of so of good dirt or a mulched variety in there. You should be fine.

Also depending your set up, maybe sure if you are doing the retaining wall idea that you dig out and put some good base under the blocks and do it the right way so your wall doesn't push out or heave.

do you know how to properly do retaining wall block?

[Crow Hunter]

We have had a raised bed garden for years,built it with retaining wall blocks; it is probably 8 inches high, rounded at each end. It is 30 feet long, the actual dirt bed is 4 feet wide or a little more, you do want to be able to reach the middle from both sides. Once I got the blocks in, I spread newspaper thickly over the grass inside, then filled the bed with black dirt and compost. The newspaper kills the grass, then decomposes, so you don't have to bother to dig the sod out. I top dress it with compost each spring, then turn it with a shovel. We grow tomatoes, beans, carrots, radishes, lettuce, peppers, herbs, and get great yields. I did have to install a fence around the dirt because the rabbits will eat almost everything right down to the dirt, so we have to stand and lean over the fence to weed.

[Get'n Jiggy]

I've had raised beds for years, IMO they're the only way to go. Call me

lazy but I built mine 16" high so there is no sqatting or kneeling

involved, mine are 4'x12', I'm always amazed how much we harvest from

such a small plot. I have 2 beds am thinking of addin one more, soaker

hose is my method of irragation. Wit the square foot method and mulching

weeding is kept to a minimum. I'm putting PVC hoops on my beds turning

them into mini greenhouses with plastic covers. There's a lot of info on

raised beds on Y-tube, they're something of an investment the first

season but well worth it in my book.

[Crm7290]

Try using those big railroad ties stacked up. Fill them in with dirt and go from there. Its a bit easier than those big blocks if you have a few guys it can be done very quickly.

[Steve Foss]

Try using those big railroad ties stacked up. Fill them in with dirt and go from there. Its a bit easier than those big blocks if you have a few guys it can be done very quickly.

Railroad ties can hurt a garden rather than help. Most are preserved with creosote, and enough of that will stunt/kill other plants. Really old used discarded ties have weathered enough that there's less creosote to leach into the soil, and I have had some success using them as retaining walls and for raised beds.

It's tough to find them in good shape when they are that old, and most people want them to look better, so they tend to want to use new ones. If new ties are used, the bed should be lined in heavy poly that goes up and over to the outside of the ties to prevent contaminating your garden soil.

[pureinsanity]

As an old landscaper stay away from railroad ties and landscape timbers. THEY ARE A PITA. Down the road if you ever want them gone they are a PITA to get rid of.

Basically if you want a raised garden and use them, don't ever plan on replacing them or tearing it down. If you use blocks, at least you can re-use them down the road for a retaining wall or planter some place else.

And good luck getting rid of railroad ties, if you have em, go bury them someplace and never mention them again

[upnorthvoice]

Check out "wide row planting" in raised beds also.

[lovebigbluegills]

Great information, thank you.

One more question...what did you guys use for soil?

Regular old top soil?

Did you use the prescribed mixture of potting soil, vermiculite, and compost? If so, where did you find it in large enough quantity?

[pureinsanity]

Great information, thank you.

One more question...what did you guys use for soil?

Regular old top soil?

Did you use the prescribed mixture of potting soil, vermiculite, and compost? If so, where did you find it in large enough quantity?

Typically when I would do a planting bed for a client I would get a bunch of pulverized dirt to put in the bottom of the bed just to fill it up and than I would get a mix of 50/50 pulverized & compost and fill the rest up for that. You should be able to get this mixture and ratio at any landscape supply company.

[Steve Foss]

Great information, thank you.

One more question...what did you guys use for soil? Regular old top soil? Did you use the prescribed mixture of potting soil, vermiculite, and compost? If so, where did you find it in large enough quantity?

What I typically use for raised garden bed soil up here would be different than where you are. And are you in the Red River Valley? If so, regular old topsoil is mighty good stuff right there, some of the best soil in the world. Bringing in soil can be as complex or as simple as you want to make it. If your topsoil looks nice and dark and rich, go ahead and use it and see how it does. Might be all you ever need. Over time, any garden soil benefits from either granular 10-10-10 fertilizer or top-dressing with composted manure each autumn. Both these products can be bought in bags from nurseries or garden centers, and since raised beds tend not to be huge, it doesn't break the bank.

If you're talking about buying topsoil, you can get it in bags at garden centers (expensive) or have it delivered and dumped in greater quantity near the beds. Most garden centers have their own piles of bulk topsoil, and many mix it up themselves. They're all going to be good garden soil.

Finding good topsoil up here in the boreal forest is nearly impossible, so after I put in all those new raised beds last spring we had a big truckload of Organic Gold topsoil trucked in from Embarrass. Wonderful stuff. Rich, light, well drained. The veggies loved it, and I didn't have to amend it at all. I just had them dump the soil on a massive tarp in my driveway since they couldn't get the truck to the beds, and wheelbarrowed it over.