More Raised Bed Questions

18 years ago

Hi All, Another question or two for all you experts if you don't mind!

As I've listed before here I'm going to be moving to raised beds next year (and doing a hybrid of the SFG).

My question is size. I have around a 30 X 50 plot to work with, and I'm going to build at least 5 or 6 beds.

My question is what would you guys recommend for depth and length? "Some" of the area is tilled (about 15X15 from this years current row garden), but the rest of the boxes I'll just be plopping down chicken wire (for the woodchucks) and some cardboard on top of the current sod. My soil is not very good (hard compact clay with rocks) - hence the reason for the raised beds.

I wasn't sure if it would be better to build them 8 feet, 12 feet, or 16 feet long. Also the depth, is 6 or 8 inches enough, or should I go up to 12 inches? I"ll be building them out of lumber, so any sizes that involved 2X4, 2X6, 2X8, 2X10, and 2X12 are the most convenient.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Featured Answer

oasis_226

18 years ago

Your setup sounds similar to mine. My yard was a horse rink with all the topsoil scraped down to hard red clay. No way to grow anything in that. I've got 6 (so far) 4x8 beds that I made with 2x10s with an assortment of smaller beds for corn and watermelon. I've also left an area to eventually get to putting a fence around the whole thing, but I'm still a work in progress.

I'll warn you now ... 6 4x8 beds is ALOT of veggies. I'm amazed at the level of production I've gotten. Much more than any traditional garden I'd ever grown. I'm a family of 5 and giving lots of veggies away (which I enjoy).

I definitely like the 8 foot length, as I seem to concentrate on one bed at a time when working out in the garden. It definitely shortens the walking time. If I ever need the extra planting room, I can always slap 2 boards between the two 4x8 beds and have an instant extension, so it's fairly easy to go longer later if you decide you want to.

It seems like you've got lots of room too, so the one thing I'd do differently from what I did (and may fix this winter, groan) is I'd go with 4 foot aisles if you have the room. I've got one aisle with zucchini vs. crookneck that I can't even pass through because everything grew out.

Another thing to think about with aisle width is trellises. You're area 4/5 so you might have some shading behind the trellises and if they're on a 4 foot aisle that wouldn't be a problem. I'm in Georgia and they don't shade much of anything at 'high noon'. Further north, maybe.

Oh ... and if you're not into composting yet (I wasn't) I found a landscape supply place to deliver compost by the cubic yard. It worked out much cheaper than buying bags at the big box stores. I just got them to give me a yard of 4 different types. For each 4x8 bed I wound up using 2 wheelbarrows of compost, 2 4cf bags of vermiculite, and 2 big bales of peat moss. It's settled some, so I'm going to add more compost in the fall to fill 'em back up.

You can check out some pictures of my garden at my blog.

Hope this helps.
David

Here is a link that might be useful: my blog - David's Folly

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Comments (8)

Melissa Houser
18 years ago
I have 6 inch deep beds and it is working out well so far. Mine are raised on legs at waist height and I have 1-4x8 bed, with 2-2x16 beds running out from it in a U shape. The only down side that I have found is that I must walk around the entire arrangement to get to the back of my largest bed, but, since I have beans and other vining crops there, it's not a problem.

I understand that your beds will sit on the ground, so you may wish to lay out the cardboard for your beds and practice walking around them and kneeling to reach into the middle of your beds. I'm fairly tall, so reaching across a 4 foot bed isn't a big deal. If you are short, or have shorter arms, it might not be comfortable for you. Of course, if you are taller or have longer arms, a 4 foot bed may not be wide enough for your comfort.

No matter what size you make the beds, be sure you leave plenty of walking area around them.
jwstell42
Original Author
18 years ago
Yeah I've considered that. I'm about 5'7", so I would consider myself on the shorter side. Walking around is one of the reasons I'm "leaning" towards 4 X 8, instead of doing 12 or 16 foot beds. I'll practice and see if 4 feet is too big.

As far as the depth, I don't mind spending the money and effort for a full 12 inches of top soil and compost, but if that's overkill obviously I'd rather not, if 6, 8 or 10 inches is plenty.
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jwstell42
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks David.

It's only myself and my wife, so I might be getting a little over zealous with the 6 beds - but I can't help it.

This was my first garden this year and I absolutely love it! (To the point of borderline OCD as my wife puts it).

I did start composting, but I won't have nearly enough for that many beds - but I do have a place that delivers compost by the yard which is how I am going to set up my original beds (and maybe get 1 load a year after that).

I'm leaning more and more towards 4 X 8, and I'll have to measure it out to see if I have room for 4 foot aisles - I'm sure I do.

So the 2 X 10's have worked well for you? You've found that's deep enough?

Thanks again for everyone's help. I can't wait to start building these for next year's garden!
wilkili_ga
18 years ago
David - I'm in the Atlanta area too. Would you mind sharing the name of the company that sells the compost by the cubic yard?

Thanks!
flatlander
18 years ago
I've tried several combinations over the years and finally have settled on a standard of 8'x4'. that's a good length for me and it's also standard dimension lumber so it's a little cheaper if you have to buy it. i've used 2x8's and 2x10's. either work pretty well.
jbest123
18 years ago
If it is at all possible, put an irrigation system in while you are building the garden. It will be much easier then and you will be glad you did. I have a description of mine in my journal.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal
chris_in_ca
18 years ago
I think a 6" depth is fine. We have horrible clay soil on our property. Raised beds did the trick. Our boxes are various dimensions 4'x4', 3'x8', 4'x10', etc.

The trick is to make sure that you don't walk on the soil. The cool thing about having a few small boxes (rather than one large raised bed) is that you can work them one at a time. We keep them covered in mulch through the winter and then remove it one box at a time as we begin planting in spring.

We also have two compost piles and add new compost to the boxes as they are replanted.

I did a little write-up on raised beds and square foot gardening in our family blog.

Here is a link that might be useful: Smith Family Blog