[Dominic]

A lot of people have said use pallets to make raised beds, but how can you get hold of them?

Do local businesses tend to just give them away if you'll come and get them?
Anyone know of any that do in or around Greater Manchester, preferably east or south.

Then of course, what to put in them.

I'm using my back garden rather than an allotment, and the soil is very bad, maybe 2 or three inches of what could loosely be described as soil, giving way to what can, being generous here, only be described as hard clay, so hard the spade bounces off it.

My first set of beds, a single bed split into 4 mini beds I just completely filled with a peat based compost/soil improver I bought from B&Q.

I'm a little worried that I should be growing in "improved soil" not "soil improver" if that makes any sense.

Should I be mixing what I dig out of the bed with the compost using my rotavator, or just start from scratch with the new stuff?

Just one more qustion, I'm probably digging down a foot and raising the beds another half, is this sufficient depth?

[WhippetMaster]

Just built four in my back garden. I used:

70% topsoil (part of lawn and turfs)
10% 2 year old cow manure (well rotted with own worms) well mixed in and chopped up. Most was used to line the bottom of the bed 2 feet down.
20% Organic "Zoo Poo" Elephant and other exotic animals Doo Doo. Nice black rich compost.

Oh and I emptied out my two composters that have been rotting for 2 years plus-400 litres capacity.

This produced a Ph neutral mixture good for growing most things I need it for. Also seems to drain/hold moisture well.

Beds are built onto my lawn which was a topsoil dump when they built my estate 16 years ago.

Emquire about "dung boards" at any agricultural retailer they are 7 inches high, 1.5 inches thick and are tongue and groove fitting. They slot well together and last for years. Works out at £1 per foot. I used 3 inch posts for the corners and rustproof screws. Took me three days to built, dig and fill.

Im fortunate to have a farming friend a quarter of a mile down the road with unlimited topsoil, cow/sheep manure and buckets of poulry manure to hand for free!

Best of luck

[Ice]

Dominic.  I built a 10x4 foot raised bed last April.  I removed the grass and dug the soil.  Then I used some topsoil from another part of the garden, loads of bags of cheap compost and  several bags of rotted manure from my garden centre.  It's not full yet but I will keep on adding.   I grew some amazing salad veg on it.

You can get pallets easily.  Go round some industrial estates and just ask.

[Kerry]

We did very similar to Ice hockey mad, soil / compost wise, although Hubby didn't use pallets. We also got loads out of it. Each year since, we just top it up with soil improver.

[moggy]

i was planning on using topsoil, manure and cheap compost to fill mine

ps kerry that looks amazing and is how i want mine to look eventually, but for now ive just used thin planks and done them one plank high.

[Kerry]

Cheers Moggy,

Hubby did the hard work. I just float around in my floppy sun hat with a trug. Only joking. Neighbours helped with the hard stuff, just cost us a few lagers  

[Tinbasher]

A lot of people have said use pallets to make raised beds, but how can you get hold of them?

Do local businesses tend to just give them away if you'll come and get them?
Anyone know of any that do in or around Greater Manchester, preferably east or south.

Then of course, what to put in them.

I'm using my back garden rather than an allotment, and the soil is very bad, maybe 2 or three inches of what could loosely be described as soil, giving way to what can, being generous here, only be described as hard clay, so hard the spade bounces off it.

My first set of beds, a single bed split into 4 mini beds I just completely filled with a peat based compost/soil improver I bought from B&Q.

I'm a little worried that I should be growing in "improved soil" not "soil improver" if that makes any sense.

Should I be mixing what I dig out of the bed with the compost using my rotavator, or just start from scratch with the new stuff?

Just one more qustion, I'm probably digging down a foot and raising the beds another half, is this sufficient depth?

Ha, you've got exactly what I've had to deal with and being as how I'm also in Lancs (Gtr M/cr by compulsion) it's no surprise.  Good old Lancashire clay, good for cricket pitches and combined with our rain, good for a cotton industry.  Hard work for gardening.

I had at most a spade's depth worth of probably grittyish 'topsoil', before I hit the dreaded clay.  Dig down and you'll find in some places it is blue or blue-veined.  Absolutely pure and seems to go on forever.  You can get some nice pebbles from it, some large ones, perfectly smooth and almost 'washed'.

Digging a foot out is a task but a good move.  Do you have transport as in a van, preferably a flatback?  Getting rid is a problem cos we need a permit here now for a van to go to the tip and can only go once a month max.  I went mad but over about 3 years admittedly and dug out a 27 x 8 foot bed to a depth of 30 inches all over.  A hundred tons minimum it must have been, probably several hundred, and all had to be moved 3 times - once out the hole, then off a barrow onto the van, then off the van to its destination, most of it the tip luckily before all these restrictions on waste started coming in.

I didn't raise the bed at all, but a foot dug out and a foot added by raising should be good enough.  The clay removed does hold nutrients I would have thought (clay can be quite fertile if broken up and mixed) and does have good water retention properties.  But to be honest, what I removed and at those depths, I was dealing with subsoils and didn't want to put much back except the partly-clay poorish top layer.  This can be well broken down with the addition of a good bit of grit sand (ask for grit sand at a builders yard) and also rotted manure breaks it up well.  It is maybe worth keeping if you can break it up in this way, and saves on buying new soil altogether.  Maybe mix the top layer with a bit of the clay inevitably present, some grit sand (you'll need a fair bit), some manure and the extra soil you'll need to top up.

[Dominic]

I've got a split level garden, theres a 20x20x3 foot dip at the end of my garden, along with multiple other holes scattered around so I'm just throwing the rubbish I dig out down the hole at the moment.

I'll try mixing some of the clay in with my compost then after beating it senseless with the rotavator.

[fibilou]

On the "where to get pallets" question, try either large wine wholesalers or builders merchants. My Dad is in the building trade and gets us loads of pallets.

[noshed]

plumbers merchants have big ones that baths come in

[nwalch]

We did very similar to Ice hockey mad, soil / compost wise, although Hubby didn't use pallets. We also got loads out of it. Each year since, we just top it up with soil improver.

Nice raised beds. What did you make them from

[Kerry]

They were tanalised planks from B&Q I think. All the wood and posts cost us about £100. Could have been done cheaper, but as it's part of the garden we wanted it to look fairly neat.

[nwalch]

They were tanalised planks from B&Q I think. All the wood and posts cost us about £100. Could have been done cheaper, but as it's part of the garden we wanted it to look fairly neat.

It does look really nice.

[Kerry]

Cheers  

[Ice]

I'm jealous, that's how I want mine to look eventually.  Have to go over to all raised beds soon for practical reasons.  Can I borrow hubby?  Promise to send him back in one piece.