My mother has moved to a new house and wants to establish some raised
beds for veggies.
The previous owner has left approx 30 - 6" x 2" treated boards - never
got around to doing it.
The area in question is all lawn. I'm a a towney and got decking (sad
I know!) outside my backdoor and know nothing about raised beds. I'm
going to fix the planks in place but what do I do from there on in as
to preparation??
Do I have to remove all the grass, dig it
What do I put in the bed in the way of soil, compost etc.
All help appreciated

Covey

On Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:54:09 +0000, covehithe wrote
(in article .com):

My mother has moved to a new house and wants to establish some raised
beds for veggies.
The previous owner has left approx 30 - 6" x 2" treated boards - never
got around to doing it.
The area in question is all lawn. I'm a a towney and got decking (sad
I know!) outside my backdoor and know nothing about raised beds. I'm
going to fix the planks in place but what do I do from there on in as
to preparation??
Do I have to remove all the grass, dig it
What do I put in the bed in the way of soil, compost etc.


We made life easier for ourselves by not digging out the grass. Get some
heavy duty cardboard boxes (try an electrical shop) and open them out on top
of the grass so that it is all covered. Pile in quantities of well rotted
horse manure (free from a local stables/friend with a horse) and then add
some top soil. The cardboard will rot down and the worms will do the rest.
You will have to top it up (ideally add some more manure over the winter)
because the level will probably sink.



--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

"Sally Thompson" wrote in message
al.net...
On Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:54:09 +0000, covehithe wrote
(in article .com):

My mother has moved to a new house and wants to establish some raised
beds for veggies.
The previous owner has left approx 30 - 6" x 2" treated boards - never
got around to doing it.
The area in question is all lawn. I'm a a towney and got decking (sad
I know!) outside my backdoor and know nothing about raised beds. I'm
going to fix the planks in place but what do I do from there on in as
to preparation??
Do I have to remove all the grass, dig it
What do I put in the bed in the way of soil, compost etc.


We made life easier for ourselves by not digging out the grass. Get some
heavy duty cardboard boxes (try an electrical shop) and open them out on
top
of the grass so that it is all covered. Pile in quantities of well rotted
horse manure (free from a local stables/friend with a horse) and then add
some top soil. The cardboard will rot down and the worms will do the
rest.
You will have to top it up (ideally add some more manure over the winter)
because the level will probably sink.

when I did my last raised garden I simply trated it as my compost heap for a
few weeks, every thing simply went in there rather than the compost bin.
Kitchen scraps, leaves, lawn clippings, newspaper and cardboard, twigs, even
turf I had dug up to make a path etc etc. That provided the material to
evertually rot down and make a nice balanced compost. It did take some time
for it to compost mind. I did cheat a little and put a layer of compost I
trucked in for the initial planting. As the plants put down their roots they
had a nice layer of home made compost ready to greet them. That was
definately the slow way.

You can essentially put anything in from already made compost to the raw
ingredients, some mushroom compost, any turf from around the garden (put it
at the bottom so it won't grow up), layers of straw and manure. There is no
secret recipe, at least in my experience, apart from making sure it is a
balance of nutrients (nitrogen etc). It all depends on how long you want to
wait before you plant.

The cardboard suggestion is a good one or old hessian floor underlay can be
quite acceptable at keeping grass out (an old house being renovated or
perhaps a carept layer. Avoid new underlays, carpets etc as they may have
toxic crap in them which may, note I said may, taint your veges) It will
eventually rot away.

Good luck.

"George.com" wrote in message
...

"Sally Thompson" wrote in message
al.net...
On Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:54:09 +0000, covehithe wrote
(in article .com):

My mother has moved to a new house and wants to establish some raised
beds for veggies.
The previous owner has left approx 30 - 6" x 2" treated boards - never
got around to doing it.
The area in question is all lawn. I'm a a towney and got decking (sad
I know!) outside my backdoor and know nothing about raised beds. I'm
going to fix the planks in place but what do I do from there on in as
to preparation??
Do I have to remove all the grass, dig it
What do I put in the bed in the way of soil, compost etc.


We made life easier for ourselves by not digging out the grass. Get
some
heavy duty cardboard boxes (try an electrical shop) and open them out on
top
of the grass so that it is all covered. Pile in quantities of well
rotted
horse manure (free from a local stables/friend with a horse) and then
add
some top soil. The cardboard will rot down and the worms will do the
rest.
You will have to top it up (ideally add some more manure over the
winter)
because the level will probably sink.

when I did my last raised garden I simply trated it as my compost heap for
a
few weeks, every thing simply went in there rather than the compost bin.
Kitchen scraps, leaves, lawn clippings, newspaper and cardboard, twigs,
even
turf I had dug up to make a path etc etc. That provided the material to
evertually rot down and make a nice balanced compost. It did take some
time
for it to compost mind. I did cheat a little and put a layer of compost I
trucked in for the initial planting. As the plants put down their roots
they
had a nice layer of home made compost ready to greet them. That was
definately the slow way.

You can essentially put anything in from already made compost to the raw
ingredients, some mushroom compost, any turf from around the garden (put
it
at the bottom so it won't grow up), layers of straw and manure. There is
no
secret recipe, at least in my experience, apart from making sure it is a
balance of nutrients (nitrogen etc). It all depends on how long you want
to
wait before you plant.

The cardboard suggestion is a good one or old hessian floor underlay can
be
quite acceptable at keeping grass out (an old house being renovated or
perhaps a carept layer. Avoid new underlays, carpets etc as they may have
toxic crap in them which may, note I said may, taint your veges) It will
eventually rot away.

Good luck.

ps I also chucked in all my 1/2 composted compost. It acted as a good filler
and broke down over time. My dad did the same thing when he built raised
gardens. The advantage of adding an entire working compost heap is that it
seeded the new garden with bucket loads of worms. The worms did a very nice
job of spreading the organic matter through the garden.

rob

In message , K
writes
George.com writes


You can essentially put anything in from already made compost to the raw
ingredients, some mushroom compost, any turf from around the garden (put it
at the bottom so it won't grow up),

The previous suggestion of simply building on top of the lawn also
leaves a layer of turf to rot down to humus.

layers of straw and manure. There is no
secret recipe, at least in my experience, apart from making sure it is a
balance of nutrients (nitrogen etc). It all depends on how long you want to
wait before you plant.

The cardboard suggestion is a good one or old hessian floor underlay can be
quite acceptable at keeping grass out (an old house being renovated or
perhaps a carept layer

Wool carpet only

. Avoid new underlays, carpets etc as they may have
toxic crap in them which may, note I said may, taint your veges) It will
eventually rot away.

Obviously any carpet which isn't 100% wool or other organic matter
won't rot, nor will most underlays apart from hessian
I used to have one of those pretend Persian rugs that were in fashion 20
years ago on top of our compost. It was wool and lasted for years until
at last it developed mould and had to be thrown away.
--
June Hughes

"K" wrote in message
...
George.com writes


You can essentially put anything in from already made compost to the raw
ingredients, some mushroom compost, any turf from around the garden (put
it
at the bottom so it won't grow up),

The previous suggestion of simply building on top of the lawn also
leaves a layer of turf to rot down to humus.

layers of straw and manure. There is no
secret recipe, at least in my experience, apart from making sure it is a
balance of nutrients (nitrogen etc). It all depends on how long you want
to
wait before you plant.

The cardboard suggestion is a good one or old hessian floor underlay can
be
quite acceptable at keeping grass out (an old house being renovated or
perhaps a carept layer

Wool carpet only

you are meaning using wool carpet only as far as carpets are concerned? As
opposed to using wool carpet at the expense of hessian type underlay?

The more modern underlays I have seen are mostly a spongy reddish material
and look a bit like ceiling/wall insulation. Obviously in vege gardens or
areas people are worried about toxins they will think seriously before using
that as a mulch. In areas where a permanent mulch is wanted however I would
consider using that before I would plastic. Plastic sheeting isn't high on
my fan list and the underlay gets used another round. It can be very good
(as can synthetic capret) for weed suppression in areas which have been left
to go to weed. It can be layed over a patch of weeds for several
months/years to suppress the weed growth and then be moved on elsewhere.
Some care needs to be taken (like periodic lifting/inspection) to ensure the
weeds don't grow through the fibres of the underlay/carpet.

rob

Thanks to you all for your very helpful and detailed replies. I started
today in laying out the wood for the beds. There was some old hessian
carpet that was removed from the house, they were, luckily one of the
last things to go in the skip.
Again may thanks

Covey.

George.com writes

"K" wrote in message
...

Wool carpet only

you are meaning using wool carpet only as far as carpets are concerned?

Sorry, yes - wool carpet as opposed to synthetic (cotton or silk rugs
would also be OK)

As
opposed to using wool carpet at the expense of hessian type underlay?

The more modern underlays I have seen are mostly a spongy reddish material
and look a bit like ceiling/wall insulation. Obviously in vege gardens or
areas people are worried about toxins they will think seriously before using
that as a mulch. In areas where a permanent mulch is wanted however I would
consider using that before I would plastic. Plastic sheeting isn't high on
my fan list and the underlay gets used another round. It can be very good
(as can synthetic capret) for weed suppression in areas which have been left
to go to weed. It can be layed over a patch of weeds for several
months/years to suppress the weed growth and then be moved on elsewhere.
Some care needs to be taken (like periodic lifting/inspection) to ensure the
weeds don't grow through the fibres of the underlay/carpet.

The context here was as a buried weed suppression layer to lay over an
existing lawn before adding a layer of soil to make a raised bed. In
this context you'd need something that would rot down over the years.
Modern underlay would be as bad as plastic in this respect.

No problem with synthetics used in the way you describe, as a layer
which will be removed after a few months or so.
--
Kay