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Old 08-06-2010, 05:48 AM posted to aus.gardens
terryc terryc is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Sep 2009
Posts: 135
Default My Own Organic Garden ;Thanks to EzyVegies

On Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:30:50 +0000, 0tterbot wrote:


i think (based on what people do & talk about doing) that the point of
raised beds isn't raising them to a height that's actually convenient -
it's more for drainage, or in order to hold new soil (not from one's own
yard, imported soil, if one's own soil is pretty miserable). if you
really wanted a hip-high bed i think you would construct a no-dig garden
on a tabletop, wouldn't you? - you wouldn't have a raised bed that's
more than a metre high, i don't think! the cost of the soil would just
be nuts.


Generally drainage, but there is no reason why you can not build them up
to a convenient high to save bending over. You do not have to buy soil,
just scrap an inch over the yard and throw in all your organic matter.

Hint, the bottom doesn't have to be soil, if could be rubble. Ours
started when we put in 200' of drainage channels that I back filled with
bluemetal and we had to have ten piers under part of the house re-
leveled, so we had a mountain of basically heavy clay.

The gotcha is the width of the walls. We have three genuine railway
sleeper side one for ours, but that is 12" of growing space you loose all
around. OTOH, it was the cheapest and strongest raised bed construction
we could get. i never priced any steel bin construction as there was
nothing suitable at the local steel suppliers.

Another thing with raised beds is you really have to keep the nutrient
going into them as that improved drainage can impoverish them rapidly.
And they always seem dry. It isn't uncommong for use to spend 4x$4 on
compost/manure and $20 on mulch each time we plant one out.