Cardboard. A couple of layers thick. Comes up often for discussion over on the Soil forum. Works great.

Dave

card board like dave said has worked well for me put some down last fall covered with a foot of leaves looked a week ago card board like wet cereal now worms should come a wigglin come this spring.cant see why a few sheets of newspaper wouldnt work ethier.might poke some small holes in cardboard for drainage this part of the year.

Earthworms love cardboard. Use cardboard.

thanks very much! cardboard it is, would never have thought of that.

Before you fill the box, how are you going to reach the veggies in the middle of the box if it is 8' wide? General advice is 4' wide, unless you are very tall, less if you are short...

I would use cardboard or newspaper, whichever is easier to get.

I started a raised bed a couple of years ago by just dumping freshly raked leaves on the bottom, probably to about four to six inches in depth (the deeper the better). The leaves were a mixture of maple, oak, tulip tree, and maybe even a few walnut, although I tried to keep the walnut to a minimum.

I then covered all with a thin layer of purchased topsoil, with an added amount where I planted each tomato plant, so that there was soil beneath the plants all the way down to the origional soil. The tomatoes were really just to condition the soil, since I had read they would do this.

The tomatoes were planted close enough that they totally shaded the whole bed. I was careful to water a bit more than I usually would have.

By the end of the first summer you would never have known that there had been dry leaves put there--it was all soil, with no weeds.

I looked at it a few days ago, as I am now thinking of planting asparagus there, and it still looks pretty good. I will probably also plant cole crops to shade out any weeds, though.

If you have lots of leaves, a raised bed is a wonderful way to use them. They probably work just as well as cardboard.

Thanks for the info.

Good question Greenbean. I seriously have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to a veggie garden, this is my first. I have done no research, and I don't have a lot of time to do so. I normally am 100% focused on my flowers so the fact this was accomplished at all is a feat :-) Well, I now have an 8x10 cedar box that will soon be an edible garden...

so if you have any suggestions as to the order/how I should go about planting it all in this space, so that I can reach better, I'm all ears. Thanks! I'm pretty open as to what to plant.

You have to leave some space between plants anyway, so what I generally do is place some inexpensive pavers here and there to walk on--they also make an impermeable "mulch" around veggies that don't cast much shade.

Right now it's probably still cool enough for you to be planting peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and cabbages/brussels sprouts/broccoli/cauliflower, none of which enjoy hot weather. The peas and radishes will be gone first, and eventually the spinach and lettuce will also give up to the summer heat, so do your spacing with that in mind. Swiss chard and beets can also be planted now, but will last longer...chard will take some frost so is a good veggie to plant if you like it. Onion starts and green onions (from little bulbs) can also be planted early.

For your space allotment, you would be better with peas (and later, green beans, if not tomatoes) as climbers on tripods or netting on the side of your bed away from the sun so they don't shade other things.

You could plant your tomatoes (or green beans) where the peas were, as they should not be planted until comfortably after your last frost date, but a few weeks later will still get you tomatoes. You could plant zucchini where the lettuce and radishes were. Etc. If you plant peppers, which generally have a similar growth habit to tomatoes, but a bit smaller, plant then about the same time as tomatoes--when it is consistently warm with no possibility of a frost.

Plan to plant any vining crops like cucumbers, winter squash, zucchini, etc. on the edge of your bed which faces the sun the longest. The sun will draw them away from the bed so that they won't compete as much with whatever else you have planted. They are the most susceptible to cold, and are usually planted some time after tomatoes and peppers. Bush zucchini can also get quite large and cast a lot of shade.

Someone else will have to advise you about carrots, celery, potatoes...I am not experienced with those. If you like artichokes, though, you should try them.

You will have faster results if you purchase pregrown cabage family, tomatoes, and artichokes, but it's a waste to spend money for starts of lettuce, spinach, and most other vegetables...most of the vine ones do fine direct seeded asa the weather is consistently warm, which is when tomatoes also do best...but it does stretch the growing season to use plants for those with the longest times to maturity. Tomatoes will survive before the weather is consistently warm as long as there are no frosts, but not do as well as if you had waited. Ones planted at the optimal time will usually get just as large as those planted earlier, and be more productive.

If you plant full sized tomato plants, tomato cages are advisable, and they would also be helpful to pepper plants and Brussels sprouts.

Obviously, you will not be able to plant all of these, but will have to choose which you like the best and go from there. Tomatoes are usually a priority for most, and three or four well grown plants properly spaced can yield a good quantity of tomatoes. If you like hot peppers, the Thai ones make a small plant and produce quite a few little red peppers toward the end of the summer. Brussels sprouts take up quite a bit of room, but can be picked over a period of time, unlike cabbage. Some varieties of broccoli are especially good at producing side shoots when the main head has been cut off. You can get quite a few green onions with one short row, if you like them.

Peas and green beans, if kept picked when ready, will keep producing (peas only until it gets hot). Ditto with zucchini and cucumbers. The winter squashes are usually not ready until late summer, but if you pick some green for summer use it will sometimes stimlate more to be developed.

The vegetables that don't do well in heat either die (peas) or start producing seed (lettuce, spinach, broccoli, etc.) In some countries, radish seed pods are pickled, I have noticed. Also, I think radish leaves make a tasty vegetable, either steamed or stir fried. So do beet greens.

Thank you soooo much! This is very helpful and gives me a great start. I will update later on as to how successful I am :-)

I have a large raised bed that I plant my tomatoes in as well...about 9'x12'. Inside it, I put some slate pavers, that I just happened to have lying around. I put them in the shape of a "U", because the garden is in the corner of my yard. I plant a horseshoe shape of tomatoes on the outside, and smaller, less sun loving plants on the inside...any greens, cole crops, or root crops can be planted with tomatoes fairly successfully. The coles are usually gone before the tomatoes are too big, they can be replanted for a fall crop if you want, or replace with some root crops. I leave the root crops in place all winter, with a nice thick topping of mulch...they can be harvested throughout the winter on a warmer day. Some of them are actually MUCH tastier in the winter that way, than they are in the summer (parsnips, turnips and rutabagas all get sweeter with a little frost, they convert the starch to sugar).