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the ultimate in raised beds
I've been losing roses that I've transplanted from pots
into the ground: the soil I've been putting them is in a mix of clay and sand, and as I've noted before, some of them have ended up in a couple inches of standing water. The rains go on, with heavy rain almost daily. I decided to make raised beds for them. It wasn't the expense that held me back so much as the obvious material for my neck of the woods, southern pine treated with CCA (chromated copper arsenate) at 0.40%. I don't really fear that arsenic will leach into the soil, but I hate having to cut treated wood: the sawdust seems to go everywhere, and if arsenic does leach out, it'll leach out of sawdust much more readily than out of a board or one of those landscape timbers milled out of a peeler core. (Peeler co what's left of a log that has mostly been made into plywood: a cylinder of wood about eight feet long, consisting of wood from near the center of a trunk and hence full of defects that may render it structurally unsound.) Chopping 8-foot boards or timbers into 32-inch lengths means two cuts. Concrete edging: more expensive and only six inches high. Concrete blocks: heavy and probably still not as cheap as treated wood. (Also, I avoid using concrete because Portland cement uses up a lot of fuel in its manufacture; even if the fuel is often old rubber tires. All the worries about greenhouse gases are probably overblown, but the fuel and the heating of limestone both release carbon dioxide, and unlike burned lime, which recombines with it over time, cement doesn't soak up carbon dioxide.) Plastic edging isn't usually designed for raised beds. What to use? How to confine the soil? Old tires might work, but they're ugly, and I have enough redneck charm around here already. (Redneck charm tip: if you need reflectors to mark obstacles along a driveway, use CDs, particularly those free CD-ROMs that AOL and the like send one in the mail.) Then it struck me: I had an "aha!" moment in the giant store full of home-improvement stuff (a Lowe's). I have acres and acres of land. I don't need twee little pieces of edging, I rarely have visitors, let alone a spouse. Does neatness matter? I'm buying a load of yard-waste compost, which around here is largely sand. I'll dump a wheelbarrow-ful of it where I want to plant the rose, dig a dimple in its top, and plant the bush in that. Even in heavy rains, I know from my experience adding it to my vegetable garden, this compost stays in its heaps, no roots to secure it, unless I actually flatten it on purpose. If the rains give out, I can run drip-irrigation lines and use short-lengths of spaghetti line to put the drippers atop the heap, at the base of the plant. Sort of the Zen raised bed: cheap, simple, environmentally friendly. And obvious once it dawns on you. Mark., now to try it, if my wonky left foot lets me |
#2
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the ultimate in raised beds
Mark,
You may be onto something! While I could forsee possible problems with other plants, where the roots might grow up rather than down, from what I've read that should not occur with roses. As far as neatness, you might think about compost paths between the rose "hills" although I suppose you'd have to deal with the weeds that come up in the paths (I'm assuming that you're not planning to nuke all existing vegetation with Roundup before you create your rose hills.) This also sounds like a good opportunity for experimentation, to see if the height or width affects the growth of the roses. Good luck, keep us posted, and send pictures! (Well, don't actually send them, you know what I mean!) Anne Lurie Raleigh, NC "Mark. Gooley" wrote in message ... I've been losing roses that I've transplanted from pots into the ground: the soil I've been putting them is in a mix of clay and sand, and as I've noted before, some of them have ended up in a couple inches of standing water. The rains go on, with heavy rain almost daily. I decided to make raised beds for them. It wasn't the expense that held me back so much as the obvious material for my neck of the woods, southern pine treated with CCA (chromated copper arsenate) at 0.40%. I don't really fear that arsenic will leach into the soil, but I hate having to cut treated wood: the sawdust seems to go everywhere, and if arsenic does leach out, it'll leach out of sawdust much more readily than out of a board or one of those landscape timbers milled out of a peeler core. (Peeler co what's left of a log that has mostly been made into plywood: a cylinder of wood about eight feet long, consisting of wood from near the center of a trunk and hence full of defects that may render it structurally unsound.) Chopping 8-foot boards or timbers into 32-inch lengths means two cuts. Concrete edging: more expensive and only six inches high. Concrete blocks: heavy and probably still not as cheap as treated wood. (Also, I avoid using concrete because Portland cement uses up a lot of fuel in its manufacture; even if the fuel is often old rubber tires. All the worries about greenhouse gases are probably overblown, but the fuel and the heating of limestone both release carbon dioxide, and unlike burned lime, which recombines with it over time, cement doesn't soak up carbon dioxide.) Plastic edging isn't usually designed for raised beds. What to use? How to confine the soil? Old tires might work, but they're ugly, and I have enough redneck charm around here already. (Redneck charm tip: if you need reflectors to mark obstacles along a driveway, use CDs, particularly those free CD-ROMs that AOL and the like send one in the mail.) Then it struck me: I had an "aha!" moment in the giant store full of home-improvement stuff (a Lowe's). I have acres and acres of land. I don't need twee little pieces of edging, I rarely have visitors, let alone a spouse. Does neatness matter? I'm buying a load of yard-waste compost, which around here is largely sand. I'll dump a wheelbarrow-ful of it where I want to plant the rose, dig a dimple in its top, and plant the bush in that. Even in heavy rains, I know from my experience adding it to my vegetable garden, this compost stays in its heaps, no roots to secure it, unless I actually flatten it on purpose. If the rains give out, I can run drip-irrigation lines and use short-lengths of spaghetti line to put the drippers atop the heap, at the base of the plant. Sort of the Zen raised bed: cheap, simple, environmentally friendly. And obvious once it dawns on you. Mark., now to try it, if my wonky left foot lets me |
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