tvrchimaera wrote:

Im new here, so firstly...Hello to all.

Being new to vegetable growing I thought it best to ask some advice
before I start digging.
I have an 8ft x 6ft area to work with. I was thinking of a 8ft x 4ft
bed so I can easily reach from each side.

1. How deep should I make the bed and should I dig into the current
soil or build this bed on top and use a liner as I have seen suggested
elsewhere?
Can depend upon the plant. Tomatoes can use 18" deep. TYpically raised
beds are only 4-12". Rich soil makes up for a lot but the root zone
size adds to the plants stenght growth and crop. Heavily compacted
roots can dry out soil quickly, so big plants in small spaces leads to
greater frequent watering needs to support that plants. Deeper roots
and deep watering help.

I prepared my richest beds by digging up 18" of ground, sifting rocks
and debris out, mixing in composted manure(1-2yr old), humus,
peat/sphagnum moss, greensand, perlite/vermicullite, and a variety of
fertilizers (ammonium sulfate, phosphate, bloodmeal, bone meal, slow
release) and terrasorb(potasium based water retention crystals). I did
it throughout the root zone, not just the top 6 inches.

It was a tremendous amount of work with a 14 sq feet taking me pretty
much two days. But i have rock/debris-free beds, and literally no
clay. I've found huge stones just a few inches down. That is going to
limit root and plant size. I get great results in small areas. Adding
material with water rentention (peat, perlite/vermiculite,
terraorb/soil moist) in mind is important IMHO. Inconsistent watering
wekakens plants, enables diseases, and cvan mess up harvests. Anything
I can do to sheilds the plants from my neglect the better.


2. Are there any types of treated timber I should avoid or is this the
reason of using a liner?
Careful of treated lumber. Chemicals do leech both into the lumber and
back out and into the soil. If you don't like the idea of using
chemicals to treat your garden, you may feel the same about chemically
treated lumber. It should last longer though.

3. When should I prepare the bed for planting out next year.
Whenever you have time now. During the hot summer you can solarize it.
Black grabage bag the top and bake it for weeks during the hot summer.
I think you should water it a few time to try and force weeds to
propigate then die back under the plastic. It frys the weeds. If you
want to try and keep it weed free afterwards you can use landscaping
fabric till you set out plants in late winter/spring, or now for
onion/garlic overwinters.


4. What topsoil / manure / compost combination should I use to fill
it?

I believe in variety. Copy nature. A little of everything.
Manure should be well-composted, 1-2 years i've seen recommended.
Fresh manure is chemically hot and can burn plants.


5. Know of any good books to stop me asking what may be obvious
questions?

check out the square foot gardening website. It has updates to the
square foot (by bartholemew) book from twenty years ago. The book is
worthwhile, but has no updates since the 70's. The website does.

If you work with containers or not "Bountiful Container" stuckey &
mcgee is awesome. I constantly refer back to it.
Kind Regards
Brian

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
3rd year gardener
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/royalf...=/2055&.src=ph