On Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:17:25 +1100, "David Hare-Scott"
wrote:

Higgs Boson wrote:
On Oct 16, 8:27 am, "Bob F" wrote:
The Soul Patch wrote:
hello all, had such an epic day yesterday up at the soul patch but
was going to see if anyone had any canny and most importantly cheap
ideas of how to create large raised beds. i am thinking 2 20ftx10ft
beds so quite a lot of material needed. any thoughts well
appreciated!

Just slope the earth up to the raised level, with pathways in
between.

Or, use cinder blocks.

I would like to try this, as I'm tired of the Mickey Mouse job I did
of raised beds.

But I don't understand how sloped sides can maintain their shape.
Doesn't rain, or even watering, break down those sloped sides?


For sides with about a 30 degree slope and height of 30cm (1 ft) there is
very little movement due to watering. If you go steeper or higher the
problem gets worse.

With a 30º slope and one foot high why bother, may as well just garden
on the flat ground. With that configuration and nothing to contain
the earth everytime one cultivates/rakes or otherwise works the soil
within one season it'll lose at least half it's height... it'll need
constant reforming leaving little time for plantings to acclimate, not
worth the trouble... what you descibe is really like how pumpkins are
grown on a mound, but that's not nearly raised bed gardening.

I've tried true raised bed gardening, but unless one is willing to
spend a lot of money to have a number of them they won't be growing a
whole lot... probably makes more sense to do container gardening.
Raised beds are fine if all one wants is one or two very small growing
plots but for anything more I think gardening directly on the ground
in a large contained plot is far more efficient and economical. This
is where I doubled the size of my vegetable bed:
http://i55.tinypic.com/ofy3yx.jpg
http://i56.tinypic.com/hv79xf.jpg
I found this configuration far easier to work and infinitely more
productive than the typical raised bed. Walking on the ground creates
no problems, only a few very narrow paths become created between
planting areas. I really didn't need to make it larger, just that I
got carried away because I have unlimited space... soon after I
discovered that the garden is actually too large and produces far more
than I could consume (and even give away) I set aside 1/3 for
blueberry bushes. I paid $10 for each used RR tie at the local lumber
yard, my gate and fencing was more pricey. The RR ties were set and
held in place by drilling 1/2" holes through and pounding in lengths
of rebar. Nothing makes me cringe more than when someone asks for a
"cheap way"... the ONLY cheap way that works is don't do it... reminds
me of when someone shops for a boat and asks how far it'll go on a
gallon of gas, salesmen says you can't afford a boat.