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Raised beds
On 30 Jan, 22:48, Sacha wrote:
On 30/1/07 20:19, in article . com, "80/20" wrote: I have a small lawn that is not it's best because it is used in the summer as a patio area, the table, chairs and umbrella stand all turn the lawn yellow. I am thinking of digging it up and covering the area will gravel, after putting down a mulch sheet. I also would like to put triangular raised beds on the 4 corners to grow veg in. Questions: How high would you make the beds? I have plenty of home made compost, could this be used to fill the beds? What crops would you recommend? My first reaction would be that if you intend to gravel it and then put a table and chairs on it, you'll curse yourself to the end of your days! Pave it, perhaps but if it's gravel it will never, ever be an even surface for garden furniture. -- Sachahttp://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devonhttp://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/ (remove weeds from address)- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Good point Sacha. |
Raised beds
On 1 Feb, 21:17, "Mike Lyle"
wrote: "JennyC" wrote in message ... On 30 Jan 2007 12:19:28 -0800, "80/20" wrote: I am thinking of digging it up and covering the area will gravel, after putting down a mulch sheet. I also would like to put triangular raised beds on the 4 corners to grow veg in. Many thanks for all your replies, they certainly give me food for thought, if not the stomach straight away. Steve |
Raised beds
"Keith (Dorset)" wrote in message ... Steve, I use 6in by 4in treated timber boards just screwed together. I dug over the soil the first year and added compost. Every year I add a bit more compost and its gradually building up. You don't need to fill them all up the first season. Make three beds and rotate them with roots, brassicas and 'other' (look up 'crop roatation'). I have been thinking, and that is not easy!, about using raised beds, but they would be 30 feet by 4 feet, how would I be able to make those up to a reasonable level, of soil I mean! Alan |
Raised beds
"gardenlen" wrote in message ... g'day steve, best height is about 10 to 12"s you can go higher see our page for pics etc.,. on how we do our raised beds. Nothing obviously shown for raised beds! On 30 Jan 2007 12:19:28 -0800, "80/20" wrote: snipped With peace and brightest of blessings, len -- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand." http://www.lensgarden.com.au/ |
Raised beds
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 19:39:01 +0100, "JennyC"
wrote: "Pam Moore" wrote in message .. . On 30 Jan 2007 12:19:28 -0800, "80/20" wrote: I am thinking of digging it up and covering the area will gravel, after putting down a mulch sheet. I also would like to put triangular raised beds on the 4 corners to grow veg in. I always wonder, when you see pictures of raised beds, edged with boards, with nice cleangravel paths between, how you manage to dig and plant without getting soil on the gravel. You can sweep a paved path, you can't sweep gravel. Practical or not? Just a thought! Pam in Bristol I find that spilt soil washes down through the gravel.......... Jenny BUT that makes a nice bed for weed seeds! Pam in Bristol |
Raised beds
best height is about 10 to 12"s you can go higher see our page for
pics etc.,. on how we do our raised beds. Nothing obviously shown for raised beds! don't understand what you mean alan?? we have 2 pages with pictures and descriptions of raised beds that we have done. On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:26:55 GMT, "Alan Holmes" wrote: snipped With peace and brightest of blessings, len -- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand." http://www.lensgarden.com.au/ |
Raised beds
"gardenlen" wrote in message ... best height is about 10 to 12"s you can go higher see our page for pics etc.,. on how we do our raised beds. Nothing obviously shown for raised beds! don't understand what you mean alan?? we have 2 pages with pictures and descriptions of raised beds that we have done. Alan - look at http://www.lensgarden.com.au/straw_bale_garden.htm Jenny |
Raised beds
thanks jenny,
just can't understand how alan couldn't find that page and also this one: http://www.lensgarden.com.au/builds.htm ??? On Sat, 3 Feb 2007 07:42:56 +0100, "JennyC" wrote: snipped With peace and brightest of blessings, len -- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand." http://www.lensgarden.com.au/ |
Raised beds
"gardenlen" wrote in message ... best height is about 10 to 12"s you can go higher see our page for pics etc.,. on how we do our raised beds. Nothing obviously shown for raised beds! don't understand what you mean alan?? we have 2 pages with pictures and descriptions of raised beds that we have done. Well, I'm afraid they were not obvious to me! Alan |
Raised beds
"JennyC" wrote in message ... "gardenlen" wrote in message ... best height is about 10 to 12"s you can go higher see our page for pics etc.,. on how we do our raised beds. Nothing obviously shown for raised beds! don't understand what you mean alan?? we have 2 pages with pictures and descriptions of raised beds that we have done. Alan - look at http://www.lensgarden.com.au/straw_bale_garden.htm Thanks, that went straight to it. Very impresive but I don't think I could cope with all that straw. What puzzles me most about raised beds is, where do people get all the soil to fill them? Alan |
Raised beds
"Sacha" wrote in message . uk... On 31/1/07 23:38, in article , "Pam Moore" wrote: On 30 Jan 2007 12:19:28 -0800, "80/20" wrote: I am thinking of digging it up and covering the area will gravel, after putting down a mulch sheet. I also would like to put triangular raised beds on the 4 corners to grow veg in. I always wonder, when you see pictures of raised beds, edged with boards, with nice cleangravel paths between, how you manage to dig and plant without getting soil on the gravel. You can sweep a paved path, you can't sweep gravel. Practical or not? Just a thought! Hosepipe wash down? Whenever I read about raised beds, I envisage trying to get those going for myself - it's never going to happen but the concept intrigues me. I'm 5'10" and have quite a lot of back and neck trouble. By no stretch of the imagination am I disabled or whatever but I certainly can't dig, a visit to the supermarket leaves me with backache and the sort of stoop you have to do to empty a dishwasher is just the angle that gets me into trouble. So, if I wanted to have raised beds that truly saved me back ache I'd have to have raised beds that came to something around chest height which, for me would be around 4'or so. Does anyone actually do that? I'm genuinely interested to hear about this from those with experience. So, apart from the height, we appear to have quite a bit in common, I have all the same problems and I am not looking forward to digging at all this year, but someone posted about hiring a cultivator, and I might have a try at that. I was thinking of putting a notice in the local newsagents window asking for some energetic young 'person' to come and dig it for me! I have seen beds at about 3 feet high for people in wheelchairs. Alan |
Raised beds
On Sat, 3 Feb 2007 20:52:24 +0000, Alan Holmes wrote
(in article ): "JennyC" wrote in message ... "gardenlen" wrote in message ... best height is about 10 to 12"s you can go higher see our page for pics etc.,. on how we do our raised beds. Nothing obviously shown for raised beds! don't understand what you mean alan?? we have 2 pages with pictures and descriptions of raised beds that we have done. Alan - look at http://www.lensgarden.com.au/straw_bale_garden.htm Thanks, that went straight to it. Very impresive but I don't think I could cope with all that straw. What puzzles me most about raised beds is, where do people get all the soil to fill them? Alan, we have only one raised bed (for veg). We covered the bottom with layers of thick cardboard straight over the existing grass (I think this was a tip from Janet Baraclough), and then put loads and loads of horse manure in, mixed in with some of our own dried grass (we have lots of long grass which we cut twice a year and then we leave the dry grass in a large container to dry more and rot down a little). We topped it up with some bought in top soil, but most of the "filling" was manure and grass. We are lucky in that we live in a rural area and have friends with horses who are delighted to find a home for their horse manure. The second year, of course we had to top it up a bit since the level had dropped a bit - again, we dug in more horse manure. -- 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 |
Raised beds
"gardenlen" wrote in message ... thanks jenny, just can't understand how alan couldn't find that page and also this one: http://www.lensgarden.com.au/builds.htm I've bookmarked your excellent info pages for future reference. I hope to be able to put it to good use ....... Jenny |
Raised beds
g'day alan,
the straw bale one is of a temporary nature, if you go to the building a garden page you will see what other material i have used, the straw all breaks down anyway. and always looks bit chunky until it settles down. if you read through the text you will see that our main medium is mushroom compost. we don't bring any soils in. On Sat, 03 Feb 2007 20:52:24 GMT, "Alan Holmes" wrote: snipped With peace and brightest of blessings, len -- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand." http://www.lensgarden.com.au/ |
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