Permanent raised beds???

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I want to put in a few permaneant raised beds using old post, do you who have them make them permanent? Do you lay the black plastic down in the walkways then cover with wood chips or something, do you lay the plastic or grow cloth in the raised bed it self, I really can't afford a lot, dh has some black plastic he salvaged from somewhere it may have a few holes though as it's old. Our goat barn needs cleaning now, we used a deep bedding system this time so there is uncomposted hay/manure on top but should be lots of partially composted deeper down. In the archives some of you mention using the stuff straight out of the goat barn, is this uncomposted stuff/ partially composted/ or the visible hay/manure stuff, I have piles of the stuff everywhere around here, it's been so wet here lately we haven't turned it like we should have though. Our soil is all sand here. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

-- Carol in Tx (cwaldrop@peoplescom.net), March 11, 2001

Answers

I sided mine with rough sawn 2"x10"s, but I have seen friends use split logs just as effectively. I save old paper feed sacks, split them open, and spread them out between the beds, topping them with sawdust or wood chips that I get from the local power line tree trimmers, delivered free. In the beds, I mulch with grass clippings and/or leaves. The fall leaf rakings all go in them to overwinter, and I give each 4x8 bed a wheelbarrow load of barn cleanings over the leaves, then mix it all in before I plant in the spring. If you want to use the partly composted stuff, dig your beds out to about a foot deep, line the bottom of the hole with your compost, and put the dirt back on top. The raised sides will hold in the extra volumn, and you will be ready to plant. By fall, you should be able to dig in, mix it all up, and add your wintering over layer. Enjoy!

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), March 11, 2001.

Hello Carol, I use cinder blocks for my raise beds. I just lay down boards for my walkways. The boards can be flipped over to capture the rolly- pollies and slug that usually try to eat my plants. Sincerely, Ernest http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks

-- Ernest in the Ozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), March 11, 2001.

My raised beds are far enough apart to mow and weed eat between. I also didn't put down black plastic, but newspaper. My beds are really deep about 12 to 18 inches since they are made of channel drain roofing. My beds are about 10 to 12 feet long and just wide enough that I can reach the middle, from each side. When you clean out the barn or undue the piles, put all of the top (shavings hay etc) into one bed, then use this bed for planting plants, like tomatoes, you can make a small indentation and fill it with soil, then plant the tomatoe, corn you have started, cucumber etc. Then the bottom of the barn, and piles where the really nice compost is use this in another bed, where you will be able to plant seeds straight into. During the year the beds will continue to sink down and compost so you will be able to rake your barns weekly, putting the nanny berries, and hay into the garden. First as mulch but really as next years soil. I let the hens out every day to pick up any spilt grain, this way I don't have grain sprouting in the garden, but even if you did, you won't believe how easy it is to weed raised beds that aren't walked on! I use cattle panels as trellis and grow everything I can up! You also need to throw away in your mind all that you have been told about rows of neat little vegetables, and think clumps, also not waiting for that last tomatoe or cucumber to ripen, pull that sucker out and put in a new plant! You will simply not believe how much you can grow in these beds. And if you have fireants like us, you can also spread poison (oh the horrors :) around the edge of the bed, and not in your soil with your plants. The only thing I do compost is the hay and cleanings in the summer when the beds are full, start another bed!!! I also always compost the hen house rakings, mostly because it is just to gross to dig in with bare hands in the beds :) Good luck with this! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 12, 2001.

All good material there. I will add that in laying down path areas, I used salvaged cardboard boxes that I cut up to size and layered several thick over weed barrier and then the wood chips and it worked very well. One of the other raised bed gardeners around here used old carpeting that had a kind of 'felt' nap to it, not long shag stuff, and has had that installed for years with good results.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 12, 2001.

Hey Vicki, what is channel drain roofing?

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), March 12, 2001.


We use sawmill slabs for the bed sides. Sawdust goes between the beds, with the walkways the width of our rototiller. We dump all the weeds right onto the sawdust to dry out. Next Spring we till up the walkways to make new soil (mixed with wood ash) to add to the beds and replace with fresh sawdust.

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), March 12, 2001.

Just a comment on the area between the beds. We prefer a non growing pathway such as wood chips etc. When we had grass growing in the pathways and cut it , many grass and weed seeds were thrown in the garden making for more work.

-- jz (oz49us@yahoo.com), March 12, 2001.

Cindy, chanel drain is metal roofing that has channels in it, really just lips on each side of the metal that snaps it together. It comes in 20 foot lengths and is about 18 inches wide. Just cut it to length and screw it to 18" treat posts, and fill. The 18" is great because other than in a corner that isn't packed well enough, you have no grass coming up from underneath your beds. Makes weeding a breeze. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 12, 2001.

Vicki, so the sides aren't sharp like regular metal roofing? That's a good idea, would last forever too, wouldn't it. Probably comes in pretty green color too, huh?

I have dirt and hay walkways now, but when we move I want to go back to my grass walkways and just mow them. I was thinkin on cinderblocks but this would be nicer and cheaper.

If you wanted to put a bed into a corner, would the channel roofing slightly bend into a arch? Or even big circles? That would be neat. Make a circle, put a big, full, dead tree branch in the center, and have a cherry tomatoe tree! Or a green bean tree. You could walk all around it to get the goodies.

I had 2, 6 foot tall teepees for the cherry tomatoes this last year, but it was hard gettin em out of the middle. You really could cememt the branch into a 5 gallon bucket and it would stay there.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), March 13, 2001.


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