[Bitter & Twisted]

Sorry if this topic has been done already, (I couldn't find it).

I'm a little confused about raised beds. Basically I am new to growing and take advice from my father in law, I like the idea of having raised beds on my allotment but he sees them as a waste of time and space?

I have lots of spare timber boards and planned on building plenty of beds about 4m x 1.2m and about 12 inches high - not necessarily covering the whole allotment but maybe a third of it

Any advice most welcome!

Thanks

[Clampit]

I tried raised beds once but now I just have dug beds with grass paths separating them.
I found raised beds a pain in the bum. First you have to make them, then you have to treat them against rot if made from timber(an ongoing job), if you have grass paths inbetween your raised beds they are a pain to cut with a lawn mower (I couldn't cut right close to the timber). I seemed to have an overwhelming number of woodlice and slugs that lived down the sides of the wooden boards and the beds dried out very quickly in hot weather. If you want to grow in beds, why not just dig your beds 4 foot wide, you still get the benifit of being able to plant closer together and you still don't have to walk on your soil, it's the same thing in my eyes, just a lot less hassle.
That is just my opinion, most of the people on my allotment have raised beds so there must be something good about them that perhaps I missed. :?

[crowndale]

I have a few raised beds at home, mostly for permanent or semi permanent crops (soft fruit in my case).  The ones that I haven't yet filled up with fruit have garlic in this year but are a pain to dig over.  On the other hand if they weren't raised they'd never grow anything coz of poor drainage so its a catch 22 really!  On the plot I will have only one proper raised bed for the asparagus, again coz its a permanent crop and is in a fairly poor draining part of the plot.  some plots on the site have only raised beds but they are also in the part of the plot that floods so its a bit of a survival strategy I suspect.  Personally for my my main crops i prefer the flexibility of being able to change the bed sizes to suit my needs year on year (not that I've had my plot for years but that is the plan!).

[moggy]

ive just finished these today

here are a couple of pics of my finshed beds that i finally got chance to put the gravel in today




i think the boards were about 15cm high and 2cm thick. the 3 parallel beds are 3m (ish) by 80cm ish and the big bed is about 4m long by 1m wide.

in total its cost me about £70 for....the wood, screws, compost, gravel and membrane...although ive still got a roll of membrabe and lots of gravel left, also managed to make the planter below



total build time....a few weeks...mainly because of time and weather....oh and its my first time doing anything like it so it cant be that hard lol

[Eristic]

It's a purely personal thing and each to their own but I believe them to waste an awfull lot of space, they are fiddly to dig and always create problems for follow-on crops that may require different spacing.

Consider digging the whole area and use a few boards to access sowing areas as required. There is no need to create long rows the full length or width as long as sown crop positions are marked.

Edges of boxed beds are always a source of weed troubles, and provide good accomodation for many pasts.

[Earl Grey]

I have 4 raised beds about the size you mentioned, and I  will be doing another 4 the same this year. Because of work/ family etc I can't get down as often as I would like, so for me the allotment needs to be fairly low maintenance. The raised beds have helped me with that. I have made the paths in between the width of a paving slab and used a few slabs with bark chippings in between, the idea is to have more slabs as and when I get them. The plot seems more managable in bite size chunks. My plan has been to really dig & weed the soil well for each bed and then adopt a no dig method, just adding organic matter to the top and leting the worms do the work. The only problem I have found is trying to eath up potatoes
in a raised bed , maybe othe forum members could advise on that one?

[shaun]

unless you have a realy bad waterlogged plot i cant see the point with raised beds,give me long straight rows of crops anyday  

[Bitter & Twisted]

Thanks all, appreciate the advice.

[deezkatz]

Hi
I'm pretty new to this allotment stuff so i've been reading through raised bed threads
I was/am considering using some, due to been told about carrot fly etc and that parsnips, carrots etc are better off raised.
Is that right! I really have no idea

I've ordered Johns book though so hopefully that will come in handy too

[CZ Silhouette]

I've ordered Johns book though so hopefully that will come in handy too

I'm a noobie here & I keep seeing "Johns book" quoted & never any info, can someone give me a link to it please.

[littlelisa]

I'm also a total newcomer to this - got my allotment this week, and am planning to do raised beds. Can anyone point me to a site/book with good instructions for how to build really basic raised beds (as basic as possible!)

Lisa

[deezkatz]

Hia
Heres the link for you for the book
http://www.allotment-garden.org/book/index.php

[CZ Silhouette]

Thanks Dee  

[compostqueen]

I think I found the instructions on Crocus, on the Alan Titchmarsh bit. I made mine 12 foot long by 4 foot wide with 1" gravel boards (though not Wicks cos they snap like Crunchie bars   ) You live and learn

On my plot I've a raised bed made from the top section of a pergola, just laid on the ground and filled with muck and compo.  Those pallet top make neat little raised beds too

[diggerjoe]

I thought i would go for one raised bed as i want to try and get some carrots this year - last years carrots a wash out - my soil is very heavy and stony as this is first year its been worked for the past five so i thought they might like a softer bed to grow in Interesting about the wickes boards as just bought some, hope they last the season!