Hi,

My present plot is 6'x12'. The 6' side is up against a fence, and the
12' side is up against the house. Yup, I'm walking through the garden to
tend to the veggies. Not good.

I'm planning on installing some raised beds next year.

I'm planning two beds:
1) 2'x12', up against the house
2) 3'x12', set 1' away from the other bed.

This way I can access the 2' bed, from one side, and the 3' bed from both
sides.

However, this leaves a 1' path between in which to walk?

Does this 1' seem wide enough? Should I narrow my 3' bed to 2' and spend
the remaining foot widening the path?

Any guidance appreciated.

On 8/16/2009 3:20 PM, DirtBag wrote:
Hi,

My present plot is 6'x12'. The 6' side is up against a fence, and the
12' side is up against the house. Yup, I'm walking through the garden to
tend to the veggies. Not good.

I'm planning on installing some raised beds next year.

I'm planning two beds:
1) 2'x12', up against the house
2) 3'x12', set 1' away from the other bed.

This way I can access the 2' bed, from one side, and the 3' bed from both
sides.

However, this leaves a 1' path between in which to walk?

Does this 1' seem wide enough? Should I narrow my 3' bed to 2' and spend
the remaining foot widening the path?

Any guidance appreciated.

Use stepping stones to make a meandering path through your existing bed.
Plant tall vegetables to either side of this path and low vegetables
between the stones.

If you do make raised beds, leave at least 6 inches between the house
and the nearest bed. Otherwise, you might have a problem with dryrot or
termites in your house walls.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary

"DirtBag" wrote in message

My present plot is 6'x12'. The 6' side is up against a fence, and the
12' side is up against the house. Yup, I'm walking through the garden to
tend to the veggies. Not good.

I'm planning on installing some raised beds next year.

I'm planning two beds:
1) 2'x12', up against the house
2) 3'x12', set 1' away from the other bed.

This way I can access the 2' bed, from one side, and the 3' bed from both
sides.

However, this leaves a 1' path between in which to walk?

Does this 1' seem wide enough?

No, it doesn't seem wide enough TMWOT.

DirtBag wrote:
Hi,

My present plot is 6'x12'. The 6' side is up against a fence, and the
12' side is up against the house. Yup, I'm walking through the
garden to tend to the veggies. Not good.

I'm planning on installing some raised beds next year.

I'm planning two beds:
1) 2'x12', up against the house
2) 3'x12', set 1' away from the other bed.

This way I can access the 2' bed, from one side, and the 3' bed from
both sides.

However, this leaves a 1' path between in which to walk?

Does this 1' seem wide enough? Should I narrow my 3' bed to 2' and
spend the remaining foot widening the path?

Any guidance appreciated.

It's wide enough
for your arse to pass
but too narrow for a barrow.

If you want to stick to 1' paths to maximise bed space run them the other
way. Two paths and three beds across will make more of the beds closer to
where you can get the barrow at the end of the bed. Otherwise make the path
nearer 2'

As others have said be very wary of piling dirt against any structure.

David

Balvenieman said

DirtBag wrote:

Does this 1' seem wide enough? Should I narrow my 3' bed to 2' and
spend the remaining foot widening the path?

Any guidance appreciated.
Make the effort to go ahead and build free-standing beds.
Disregarding the possibility of damage to your house, you are almost
certain to need access to all sides of all beds even though they may
be only 2' wide. No, 1' is not nearly wide enough. You'll need room
for tools, baskets, flats, containers, wheelbarrow, cart, etc. not to
mention working room between beds of tall or trellised veggies. Been
the DW built our original raised beds many years ago and after the
first season we found ourselves rebuilding virtually all of them in
order to allow more room between. A needless exertion that could have
been prevented with a little forethought.

Ok, I'm coming around ... ;-)

I'm thinking of 4 beds, each 2'x5', each separated with a 1.5' path along
the 5' side

Alas, these beds are placed 1' from the side of the house.

This fits within my 12.5' x 6' rectange pretty well.

I guess when I start actually building these, things may change. ;-)

Thanks for all your guidance.

g'day dirtbag,

is this the only space you have for gardens?

a 1' path is enough to walk along so long as the garden plants don't
over hang, for me i like paths around 500mm nearly 2', so i can get a
barrow down there and if plants over hang they can still be walked
past.

where you live there are no termites to worry about? if so part of
termite managemt is not to have anything gardens shrubs what ever any
closer to your house foundations that 2 meters, this zone should be
kept basically as a dry zone with the first meter near the house being
stone covered and then maybe a cement path for the next meter, but no
plantings.

having said that and not knowing what you have to play with? for some
it may be better for you to grow in containers, + a garden no closer
than 2 meters to the house. we have a link to a site that does
container gardens on our site index.

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/



On Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:20:49 +0000 (UTC), DirtBag
wrote:

snipped