need help with new raised beds
coeng
12 years ago
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barnhardt9999
12 years agotoxcrusadr
12 years agoRelated Discussions
need help with raised beds!
Comments (2)What kind of black mulch? If it's the wood chips, you can still hand water. Maybe lay a soaker hose or drip irrigation before laying down your mulch. I don't use drip cause I have tons of minerals in my water and they tend to clog. I prefer to hand water (therapy) or use the soaker hose and the oven timer or my watch (or cell phone) timer. Nancy...See MoreNeed as much help with wood help and building raised beds ASAP
Comments (8)"My largest bed is 4' x 25' x 14" deep, and is made with rough cut cedar that a friend with a small sawmill operation cut for me. This is the cheapest source that I know of, and you might be able to find a similar deal in your area. I would expect the boards to last at least 15-20 years, and no additional protective coating is necessary. Mine are supported by 4x4 posts cemented 18" deep in the ground, but I tend to really beef things up that are built on the property. Hope this helps. EG " EG, Where does one find such a sawmill? I also forgot to mention the tools I have on hand and my situation. I'm currently unemployed and funds are very tight. The veggie garden is my freedom for healthy foods and saving traveling costs AND I CONTROL IT so I know that there are NO PESTICIDES. Sorry for the caps there. On a ventage over that. I only have a cored circular saw (old, likely dull, spot rust, and can't find it right now), corded Borsh (sp?) hand drill, 12v Mikita cordless drill (both batteries dead, would wiring it to a 12v car battery straight make it work?), cheap hand rotary tool w/~100pc kit, corded jig saw, small hobby belt/disc sander (belt ~1" wide and disc ~5" diameter), large range of socket set heads, large set of hand tools +/-/[]. I have access to Lowes (not far from me), Home Depot (not far from me), and Rona (not far from me)....See MoreNew to raised beds please help.
Comments (2)I think it's physically easier to garden to have an actual raised bed than just an in ground one. I throw down paper grocery bags to discourage weeds (initially anyways) and encourage worms. It will eventually break down. Then fill the bed with a 3:1 ratio of top soil to compost and done. May be more work in the beginning but easier to deal with than hard clay....See MoreNew Large Raised Bed - Please help me plan it (Zone 5B)
Comments (9)I wrote this out yesterday before I read Yardvaark's response, so some of what I have written may repeat or contradict what he said. Though you may not want to hear this, I have a few concerns, some practical and one aesthetic. I live in an area that looks fairly similar to yours. I don't know how long you have worked on gardening here, so forgive me if I bring up things you have already considered. For the aesthetic, you want to remember that this is the front of your home, and while the flowers pictured will give you summer interest, you will want some evergreens or other plants with winter, spring and fall interest such as interesting branches, colored bark, etc. to help provide structure and form to the bed in the 7 or so months of the year that your flowers aren't blooming. An evergreen groundcover could also work. You can most likely have flowers but you will also want some year-round plants; otherwise you will have an empty bed for about 2/3 of the year, and while some of the time that is under snow, something like 4 months of the year in my garden are both cold and snowless. Plants that need to be dug up like most of the bulbs pictured (not the lilies in the last photo) need to be planted in a separate part of the bed from shrubs or plants like the lilies that are true perennials in zone 5 so you aren't creating root disturbance. Most of the plants you pictured really like all day sun and good soil, and I am not sure that even having taken down the marked trees and improved the soil you will find they grow well due to the conditions. Some of your trees may be species which don't share space well, so I would take good photos of buds and branching to get them IDed if you don't know what they are. That will allow you to judge how likely you are to get a fair amount of roots growing into the bed from nearby trees (whether the bed is raised or left at grade.) I think that while the trees currently may not shade much of the bed once the marked ones are down, the remaining trees will extend their branches to some extent to take advantage of the newly available sun. In a bed alongside a treed area like this, I might focus on plants that I know will do well with a mix of sun and shade and are relatively tolerant of dry conditions and are hardy enough to not need to be dug up annually. They also will look more natural against the tree line to my eye as the transition from a mass of flowers to native woodland might well look quite abrupt. Dogwood trees (Cornus kousa or Cornus florida), mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), hardy rhododendrons, silverbell (Halesia), Epimediums (there's a world-class Epimedium nursery in MA) are some flowering plants that do well along wooded edges for me, but none of them will bloom all summer like those pictured above. I think I would put the flowers in your photos up closer to the house, pehaps enlarging the current bed and replacing part of the lawn (which likes similar growing conditions), including something similar to what I mentioned above for winter interest. I think having a bed at least 8' deep and with at least a foot between plants and the house for maintenance would look better. If you have deer, you might want to consider a high fence or a regular spray program to keep them from eating your flowers since many flowers are quite attractive to deer....See Moregardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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