[tweeky]

Beegly.

Being a disabled gardener, in this new house we are in I am going to have to construct some raised beds for growing veg in.

My question is. What do I fill them with....I know its going to cost a few bob because they will be about 2 feet high. But I cannot imagine life, without growing my own veg...sad eh.

Top soil mixed with compost (as in bags) or just compost?

As I will have to rotate them, I need to fill them with a general type of mix??

I have been considering a mixture of cheap compost, some small size gravel and a heavier compost such as John Innes.

Would appreciate some advice.

Cheers.

[FCG]

You might want to make a layered bed, where all you have to do is just chuck in various types of stuff in layers. I.e. Layer of manure, then straw, then compost etc. I'm not exactly sure that is the right way about it, but i'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me will pop along.

I've had success with one bed with some leaf mulch, potash, bags of compost & john innes and some lime. Worked a treat and still it, i use it to grow salads and beetroot. It was my first ever bed, i've not used this relatively expensive path again though! I've submitted the innes & compost for topsoil improver and local fully broken down manured compost

If you are planning on growing carrots/parsnips however you'll have to be careful what you use if you want to avoid forking.

[tweeky]

Beegly.

Cheers FCG.

Hate parsnips...carrots I love, so will grow those in tubs. Its funny but my neighbour couldn't grow carrots (in his soil) and I could, there were things that I couldn't grow but he could, so we used to swap veg. Worked a treat.

[woodburner]

Home made compost, rotted or unrotted manure. If you're making really high beds, I'd try and rescue the topsoil that would otherwise be well out of reach of all but the most adventurous parsnip and horseradish roots.

Unrotted manure will give off heat for a while so extra useful for hot country plants like peppers and aubergines, melons and so on. You'll need to put a thickish layer of topsoil or well rotted stuff on top to keep the roots from getting burned by ammonia though.

If you can get hold of enough topsoil, it has the advantage of not disappearing like organic matter. I expect that just about anything will do for the base of the bed but the top 12" will definitely need to be decent growing medium of some sort.

[tweeky]

Beegly.

Thanks for the input WB.

[woodburner]

you're welcome.
Hmm, if you like experimenting and have chickens, (the manure is the important bit actually ) you could try straw bale gardening. Sounds like instant raised beds to me.  :o  

[tweeky]

Beegly.

straw bale gardening

Erm....would you like to expand...

[woodburner]

It's not something I've actually tried but there's a lot of info out there.

Basically you keep a few straw bales so wet that they start rotting then you add feritliser (otherwise there's hardly any nutrients) and plant your stuff direct into the bale. Not so good for root crops but fine for leafy stuff apparently. More details available on the web

[tweeky]

Beegly.

[muddifoot]

we've made raised bed on our plot and the biggest problem was filling them up with any kind of soil we ended up with one with a clay base and some camelot compost mixed together of course and it is the most fantastic herb garden.   we love it and so does everyone else.-  then we went bigger 4x8 and the problem became bigger  getting the soil to fill it was a real pain but with the help of the smiths @98  we finally got the thing full enough this is our salad bed and wow it is brilliant-  so just to make things more difficult we went on ti number 3-and 4  now all i can say is it became a bit expensive   all that compost-  so keep that in mind when you decide to make plots into raised beds.   having said that they were worth every penny and buying lots and lots of compost- i like the layered idea - next time we'll try that.

thanks for all those interesting ideas--muddifoot

[agapanthus]

Have you tried your local council for compost?.....most councils now re-cycle green rubbish and the stuff that comes out the other end...so to speak is fine as a filler and/or soil conditioner. Failing that look in yellow pages for compost producers. We managed to get some for £6 per ton....mind you it was £30 for delivery, but that's the same for however much you want delivered. We had 10 ton delivered the other day and have found masses of uses for it

[tweeky]

Have you tried your local council for compost?.....most councils now re-cycle green rubbish and the stuff that comes out the other end...so to speak is fine as a filler and/or soil conditioner. Failing that look in yellow pages for compost producers. We managed to get some for £6 per ton....mind you it was £30 for delivery, but that's the same for however much you want delivered. We had 10 ton delivered the other day and have found masses of uses for it

Beegly.

Cheers and thanks for that idea...mulch (I know, heh,heh) appreciated.

[FCG]

A little thing i do when i am in need of top soil... there are many fields near me and i just pop out with a trowel and bucket and nick Mr.Moles Hills!

[polly nator]

I have also got deep beds, paretly for similar resons, but about 18" so not a sdeep as yours - I would love to have really deep ones.
At the bottom of mine is the turf that was taken off when they were built. It was put in upside down. I had  a load of topsoil brought in. You can get big loads quite cheaply - if you buy bags from place slike B&Q it will be expensive. With a two foot depth I am pretty sure you need soil as well as coompost, rotted manure etc. I chuck in all sort sof things in layers.
 One important point is that the beds will settle several inches over time and you will need to top up.
  Another tip is to contruct with a good ledge around the edges which you can perch, sit, or stand on.  If you are putting in poles for runner beans for example you, or somebody, will need to stand on the beds.
  The edges on mine were made with sawn up decking panels  but you could do it with any planks.
   If you want you can create zones for different plants by dividing the beds at right angles.
   I'll poswt some photos of mine once I have time to upload onto a website.
  Good luck!   Janet