On Sat, 3 Feb 2007 20:52:24 +0000, Alan Holmes wrote
(in article ):


"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"gardenlen" wrote in message
...
best height is about 10 to 12"s you can go higher see our page for
pics etc.,. on how we do our raised beds.

Nothing obviously shown for raised beds!

don't understand what you mean alan??

we have 2 pages with pictures and descriptions of raised beds that we
have done.

Alan - look at http://www.lensgarden.com.au/straw_bale_garden.htm

Thanks, that went straight to it.

Very impresive but I don't think I could cope with all that straw.

What puzzles me most about raised beds is, where do people get all the soil
to fill them?

Alan, we have only one raised bed (for veg). We covered the bottom with
layers of thick cardboard straight over the existing grass (I think this was
a tip from Janet Baraclough), and then put loads and loads of horse manure
in, mixed in with some of our own dried grass (we have lots of long grass
which we cut twice a year and then we leave the dry grass in a large
container to dry more and rot down a little). We topped it up with some
bought in top soil, but most of the "filling" was manure and grass. We are
lucky in that we live in a rural area and have friends with horses who are
delighted to find a home for their horse manure. The second year, of course
we had to top it up a bit since the level had dropped a bit - again, we dug
in more horse manure.



--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk