On 10/16/11 9:51 PM, 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?

TIA

HB

I used cinder blocks -- two on each side -- to create a small, square,
raised bed for a dwarf tangelo tree. Tangelo is a citrus (a cross
between a tangerine and a grapefruit or pomelo) and needs excellent
drainage, but my soil is heavy clay.

As I described earlier in this thread, I dug down about a foot, stirring
superphosphate and gypsum into the soil. I then placed the cinder
blocks with the holes facing up around the hole. Since I was only
placing a single course of blocks, I did not anchor them. I then
stirred ample amounts of course sand, peat moss, compost, and wood chips
into the hole to raise the soil level to the tops of the blocks.

After allowing the tree to get established for a few months, I began a
regular feeding program with high-nitrogen fertilizers since all the
organic matter tends to remove nitrogen from the soil. The tree is
doing well now and has even bloomed, but it has not yet set any fruit
after some five years.

I packed potting mix (per my own recipe at
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_potting_mix.html) into the
vertical holes in the cinder blocks and planted wax-leaf begonias in the
holes.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary