Hi, Tootsie.

I don't know if this link contains all the answers you're looking for, but it seems to have some interesting information on building raised beds. Thought you'd be interested...

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Make Raised Flower Beds

Hi, again!

I found another site with slightly different instructions. Hope these are useful!

Here is a link that might be useful: Raised Garden Beds

In addition to my previous ramblings, I would just add a few things:

Yes definitely use 2" lumber, or it will bow. Cedar is good as mentioned before. Four feet wide is a nice comfortable width to reach into the middle.

Honestly, I don't think I would bother with a false bottom. It seems like more trouble than it would be worth. Just MHO. Maybe someone will have another idea. What I did when it seemed like it was going to cost a fortune to fill with purchased topsoil, was first I filled the beds with all the yard scraps I could find, dead plants and leaves and kitchen compost, then I added some old sod for bulk. The sod is far enough down that the grass won't start growing and I put it grass side down. Then I filled them with garden soil, then bagged manure, peat moss and topsoil. I think you would even be better with a layer of gravel or something than a false bottom.

My knee-high beds I find to be comfortable enough, but I could see going higher if you have a bad back. Three 2x8s or even four would be good. Another thing I didn't do but my neighbour did, is attach a board of some type flat along the top for a little sill that you can sit on and work.

I forgot to add, you will thank yourself if you leave 3 to 4' between each bed to get a wheelbarrow through.

And hello Doris, long time no see!

Northspruce has added some very good advice, Tootsie.

Gil, thanks for the greeting. My husband had open-heart surgery a couple of months ago. It's been a rough time, but he's on the mend and life is starting to return to normal.

Oh I am so sorry to hear that you and your husband have had a rough time Doris - I'm glad that you are both getting back to normal. Best wishes.

What is your purpose in making raised beds? Is it mainly to avoid back strain, or are there other reasons? (E.g. hardpan/bad clay, very high water table .....?)

Well, regardless of the overall purpose, I'd nix the false bottom idea...

If you end up going with a raised bed that is only 8 inches high, and then have some kind of false bottom reducing the soil thickness, I think you'll be very surprised at how quickly the resulting thin soil layer dries out. I think you'd also be surprised at how deeply many plants root, even annuals... not to mention root vegetables. If you are concerned about the "waste" of soil, seriously, a great deal less will be "wasted" than you think. If you are only going with an 8" height, many of your plants will be rooting down into the soil below the planter anyway... and there is nothing wrong with that, but I am just pointing it out in case you hadn't considered it. So, if part of the purpose is to get away from lousy soil, then I would consider making the beds taller than 8" for the reason just mentioned.
(By the way, we have/had raised beds of 2' height, 18" height, and also a two-tiered one with one 8" level and one 16" level - all work, or worked, fine for our purposes.)

Adding a layer of gravel would also be problematic in a shallow bed since you will soon be mixing it up into your soil as you dig in the bed, and as you pull out plants that have rooted down into the gravel.
More importantly, a base layer of gravel would be pointless (and an unnecessary expense) since the mere fact that you have made a raised bed (i.e. elevated the soil level above the surrounding) will have already created all the drainage you need. (That's assuming that it gets filled with anything other than potter's clay.... ; )

No matter how high you end up making the sides, filling the raised beds up with soil will be the best thing for your plants, as well as the cheapest thing to do.

So, yes, "just fill the whole thing and be done with it", LOL!

And...
Welcome back, Doris!

We made raised beds using logs..as they were handy and free..lol..2 logs high they range from 16 to 20 inches in height..a nice place to sit to weed or when I'm weeding on my knees its nice to lean over. We lined ours with heavy plastic so the soil inside the boxes didnt rot the wood.The soil stays nice and loose in the beds as it isnt walked on..I can take a spading fork in the spring and turn them with no problem..savona
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Savona,

What a beautiful garden and your logs are neat! I'm going to consider logs, because we are building a log house and that would match! lol What's the tree behind the beds? Are they pinned somehow to each other or is they're weight enough to hold them in place?

Abgardeneer,

I was thinking of a bed high enough to stand beside and work, hence the false bottom idea. But even so I think you're right and it would dry out and just restrict the roots even if it were 16" deep. You guys have me convinced on that subject. I'll only have to fill them up once anyways!

My reasons for building raised beds is for comfort mainly (I'm too young for this achy back!:( ) And I would really like to enjoy the garden to the end of my days! Also I'm hoping to have warmer, dryer soil sooner in the spring and thought it would be easier to work with row covers. I don't think I'd be putting root veggies in them, except maybe onions. My soil is great as far as texture goes (sandy silt as far as I can tell) and my root veggies like it, but very poor in nitrogen,organic matter and potash. It may be easier for concentrating my fertilizing to one location for things that need it more (like greens etc.) rather than a widespread application tilled in adn risk the root crops.

Besides all that I would like to have them just for structure in the garden. Right now things are pretty flat and featureless! Thanks for the advice.

Cailinriley,
I had been to the 2nd site , and will have to check out the e-how site ( I might find lots of stuff to build there!) Thanks.

Tootsie

Another question on raised bed...I was just chatting with my neighbor who has raised beds, so I told her my plans for knee high or hip high beds and she said her higher beds (roughly 24")dried out way too fast. We never got into more detail about her dirt or how often and how much she waters, though, as our chat got cut off.
I know they will definately have more drainage, but does anyone else find their higher beds drying out to really be a problem? How about your knee high beds, Northspruce?

Tootsie

If you want to cover all the bases, you could do what we (that's the royal we... DH actually does all the real work around here) did with our acid/neutral/? beds... which is to line the sides with sheets of styrofoam, cut to fit. By the way, the single tier one is 17" tall (not 18", as I said previously...pretty close guess though**), made of 4 stacked landscape ties, pinned together with immense spikes.

**For me, that is... not for DH, an ex-bricklayer, who can detect 1/4" out in a 45' length by eyeball. (In fact, that was his allowed tolerance when he built the fence, without survey equipment, but just using lines....whew!)

Oops, sorry, I realize I didn't actually answer your question but I will now. We didn't find our taller raised bed to dry out too quickly - it was about 8' long, 3' across, and 2' tall, and gone now, since the greenhouse had to be moved for more sun. (The acid/neutral/? bed contains peat which is pretty hydrophobic anyway, hence the efforts to minimize drying out with the styrofoam liner.)

I'm not sure yet if my knee-hi beds dry out too fast - it's only been a month since I built them and it's only drizzled two nights in that time - so everything's pretty dry. I have been watering every day where I planted my lettuce and peas, and the moisture seems to be staying pretty even. I also have a lot of manure and peat moss in the top layer of soil so that likely helps retain it.

I imagine that you could mulch with something to keep the moisture in, if you have a really dry spell.

Tootsie that is a honeysuckle bush behind the raised log beds..smothered in beautiful pink flowers in late spring,great foliage in the summer and red berries in late summer and early fall..they are very hardy. I dont think my raised beds dry out any faster then any of the other beds I have..I suppose it might depend on the type of soil you have..how much wind and how often you could water..once the veges fill in, there isn't much soil exposed to dry out quickly...savona