Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1   Report Post  
Old 11-06-2005, 02:45 PM
Allan Matthews
 
Posts: n/a
Default Raised garden width

How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.
  #2   Report Post  
Old 11-06-2005, 03:57 PM
shazzbat
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Allan Matthews" wrote in message
...
How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.


How long are your arms? Make the beds so that you can reach to the centre,
assuming you have access from both sides.

Steve


  #3   Report Post  
Old 11-06-2005, 03:59 PM
The Cook
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Allan Matthews wrote:

How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.



How far can you (or whoever else is working) comfortably reach to
work? That should be the half way point.
--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral, 48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)
  #4   Report Post  
Old 11-06-2005, 04:17 PM
Allan Matthews
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 09:59:57 -0400, The Cook
wrote:

Allan Matthews wrote:

How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.



How far can you (or whoever else is working) comfortably reach to
work? That should be the half way point.

I think I could reach in that far..might be a little
difficult..actually my present one is 48 inches...three concrete
blocks wide and the new one would be 5 feet inches..another block.
Just wondered what others were doing.

  #5   Report Post  
Old 11-06-2005, 07:05 PM
Len Brauer
 
Posts: n/a
Default

g'day allan,

around 1meter mate, that way you can reach in from both sides.

len

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1

snipped


  #6   Report Post  
Old 11-06-2005, 08:24 PM
LJ
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I have 4 ft and 4.5 ft and regret it. Wish I would have made them 3 ft as
I'm finding it quite painful to plant in the center.

"Allan Matthews" wrote in message
...
How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.



  #7   Report Post  
Old 11-06-2005, 09:49 PM
Lorenzo L. Love
 
Posts: n/a
Default

LJ wrote:
I have 4 ft and 4.5 ft and regret it. Wish I would have made them 3 ft as
I'm finding it quite painful to plant in the center.

"Allan Matthews" wrote in message
...

How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.





Last fall I replaced my 44" wide beds that were framed with 2 x 12
lumber with 48" wide beds framed with 8" concrete blocks. So the outside
width is now 64" vs. the old beds which were 48" outside width. The
width of the framing material makes an enormous difference. I could
reach easily with the old ones, but the new thicker walls puts the
center out of reach. Kneeling on the blocks I can get to the middle,
which was the plan, but that's killing my knees. Plan better then I did.
Once you put several tons of soil down, you are not going to want to
move it.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
Cicero

  #8   Report Post  
Old 12-06-2005, 01:58 AM
simy1
 
Posts: n/a
Default

You can have 8 feet wide beds, under certain circumstances. If you
plant pick-once veggies, like garlic, onion, beet, parsnip, and you
already have your mulch, compost and driplines in place, you will never
have to work on or around the plant again until harvest. And I do have
certain beds which are 5 feet wide and which I try to use that way.
But you have to plan. Some pick-once veggies actually need attention
during the season, for example cabbage and its green worms. For
pick-often veggies, like peas or tomatoes, 4 feet is best, if you have
access from both sides. Access on one side, 2.5 feet, no more. Most of
my beds have sides made with old sidings, so there is really no extra
distance. The few beds made with cinder blocks, yes, the block
thickness counts (or should count) in those 4 feet. You can always
plant an extra chard or carrot in the blocks holes.

  #9   Report Post  
Old 12-06-2005, 03:11 AM
DigitalVinyl
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Allan Matthews wrote:

How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.


simy makes a nice point. I planted an extra wide bed--relly just used
up all the space. I planted onions in the center and while I expect to
do litte with them, I do need to weed them, which is torublesome.

You really want to base it on comfortable reach. Weeding can be a
regular occurence so you don't want gardenign to become a bothersome
chore.
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
  #10   Report Post  
Old 12-06-2005, 02:14 PM
Dwayne
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I do something different. After getting my garden area plowed or
roto-tilled I rake my loose dirt into rows about 12 inches high. If I don't
have enough dirt, to get it that high, I use the tiller between the rows
after raking it, and then rake it again. Then I start at one end of the row
and "rake" the top of the row, length wise. This removes old dead weeds
that may have gotten into my dirt, and it flattens the row top, making the
row approx 8 or 9 inches high and 4 to 5 inches wide. Then I lay my soaker
hose down the center on top of the row and plant along the soaker hose. I
can usually make a row of onions, beets, carrots or radishes on each side of
the soaker hose and doubling my crop in a small area. I make the raised
rows far enough apart to till between them as the weeds come up, and long
enough to use a 50 or 75 ft soaker hose, depending on the room I have.
You can shorten or lengthen the soaker hoses to fit your rows with fittings
from a hardware store.

Dwayne

"Allan Matthews" wrote in message
...
How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.





  #11   Report Post  
Old 14-06-2005, 10:23 AM
Nicole H
 
Posts: n/a
Default

the ones i use (garden at an elementary school) are 4 x 20 ft
"Allan Matthews" wrote in message
...
How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.



  #12   Report Post  
Old 15-06-2005, 12:46 AM
JonquilJan
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Depends on who is using it. Can you reach comfortably for 2 feet - 2 1/2
feet? Double that for your raised bed width.

I am older (66), disabled and overweight - mine are 3 feet wide.

JonquilJan

Learn something new every day
As long as you are learning, you are living
When you stop learning, you start dying
Nicole H wrote in message
...
the ones i use (garden at an elementary school) are 4 x 20 ft
"Allan Matthews" wrote in message
...
How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.





  #13   Report Post  
Old 16-06-2005, 05:20 AM
Nicole H
 
Posts: n/a
Default

5 - 12 yr olds use it... there's walkways on both sides as there are over 20
plots this size

"JonquilJan" wrote in message
.. .
Depends on who is using it. Can you reach comfortably for 2 feet - 2 1/2
feet? Double that for your raised bed width.

I am older (66), disabled and overweight - mine are 3 feet wide.

JonquilJan

Learn something new every day
As long as you are learning, you are living
When you stop learning, you start dying
Nicole H wrote in message
...
the ones i use (garden at an elementary school) are 4 x 20 ft
"Allan Matthews" wrote in message
...
How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.







  #14   Report Post  
Old 16-06-2005, 07:18 AM
peter
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Len Brauer" wrote in message
...
g'day allan,

around 1meter mate, that way you can reach in from both sides.

len

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1

Hey dude, that's a cool site. Thanks heaps.


  #15   Report Post  
Old 16-06-2005, 02:18 PM
B.Server
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I like 4' which in my case is two blocks (pavers) wide. I have long
arms and can reach to the center of a 5' bed, but if I am growing
"vertical crops" (pole beans, asparagus beans, cukes, cantaloupe, etc)
in the center of the bed, it is much more difficult to reach higher
fruit with the wider bed. And by the by, I think that is 25% more
space....

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 12:45:19 GMT, Allan Matthews
wrote:

How wide do you make your raised gardens? I have one that is four
feet wide but am building another..consideering five feet....33% more
space but I have doubts. Thanks for replies.


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Greenhouse width considerations Andrew United Kingdom 4 09-01-2017 11:34 PM
large width horticultural fleece or mesh? prologica United Kingdom 2 16-04-2005 10:48 AM
Any one know a link to calculate a weir width for a fall I can't find my link. Mickey Ponds 2 16-08-2003 04:22 PM
[IBC] trunk width Colin Lewis Bonsai 9 10-02-2003 07:55 AM
trunk width ss Bonsai 0 08-02-2003 04:51 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:02 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 GardenBanter.co.uk.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about Gardening"

 

Copyright © 2017