Staycalm wrote:
After battling couch in my garden beds for what seems like forever I've
decided to change my approach to the garden. I want to put in (or have
someone else put in) some raised beds. However I have some questions:
What wood is best to use? Railway sleepers? How high should the beds be to
be effective?
Would you first try to kill the couch where you are going to put the beds or
just put it all straight on top?
What sort of fill/soil mix would you then use?

Thanks

Liz


Don't use railway sleepers - they will rot within a reasonable period
(like around 6 years). Use treated pine - sleepers or other sized
planks. Had mine in for some 15 years now without any signs of damage.
And use galvanised bolts/nails/coachscrews/whatever to hold them together.

Re depth. Depends on what you want to grow in the beds. At least a spade
length deep but preferably deeper especially if you are going to grow
deep root vegetables.

Re the couch. Leave it but cover the area with newspaper, 10 sheets
thick, then put the soil over it. The couch will be killed.
Alternatively, spray area with Roundup but covering with 'paper is
cheaper and you don't use any chemicals.

Soil. You can buy good quality soil at garden suppliers but please be
WARNED that some sell soil which 'they' call "veggie mix" and it could
be made up of a lot of sand and organic material which quite quickly
becomes impervious to water- the water does not penetrate past 5mm from
surface and one needs to use lots of surfacant to make the water
penetrate some of the way :-(. I speak from experience: I bought this
"The best, mate, for your garden!" 'veggie mix' - it WAS expensive, at
that time (8 years ago) it was $47/metre - and a total waste of money
:-(. Even mixing in bulk cow manure and mushroom compost at the time I
bought the stuff did not help.

Cheers.


--
Sound that shatters silence is called noise. Sound that enhances silence
is called music.