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View Full Version : Raised beds - how tall should they be?



Mouse
14th April 2010, 04:38 PM
I didn't want to distract the other raised beds posts. I am building beds right now, just 2*12 lumber. I planned to make 4 beds of 4*12 with two sections high of 2*12s (22.5 inches high). I am looking at other pictures and I can build 8 beds with the same lumber I have only 11 1/4" high, or a combination of two tall beds and 4 short beds. What height should garden boxes be?

I have gophers so will be putting the 1/2" hardware screen under them. I am not sure how deep the root systems need to go, but when I look at just one of the boxes mocked up to 22" tall, it looks like over a truckload of soil required for each box, so between the wood and the dirt, it's pretty spendy for 200 ft. of growing space. I have enough area in my garden area for as many boxes as I want to put in, so space isn't an issue, but I am tight on funds.

What do the experienced raised bed people think? Please advise.

Thanks!

Saul Mine
14th April 2010, 07:36 PM
My beds are cinder blocks. That gets the plants up where the neighbor's chickens will leave them alone. Except the rooster: he likes my lettuce and he's tall enough to get some.

silverblood
14th April 2010, 08:42 PM
I used two courses of 2x8 on my main beds, so 14.5 inches tall. It's more than enough. Two courses of 2x6 would have been fine. I have another one that is a single course of 2x10, so 9.25 inches tall. Plenty for the bush beans and the row of pole beans I have planted there.

Mouse
14th April 2010, 09:57 PM
Thanks all, I will postie some pics when I get em in. I think I am going with eight. Ima, this is your old neck of the woods here, PM any other suggestions on soil, etc. Especially if you know good sources around ozarks for delivered or picked up dirt.

Thanks again,
M

Son-of-Liberty
14th April 2010, 10:16 PM
One 2x12 high is plenty, since roots can go through the screen. I only did one 2x6 last year, didn't even fill them up all the way, and had no problems.

Mouse
14th April 2010, 10:21 PM
Thanks again. I have some areas on the property with sandy dirt, and some with the clay. The sandy dirt isn't too bad, the clay is unusable. I might try to work in some of the sandy with a load a poop from the neighbors cow ranch if he will let me come fetch some (he said it was fine, he has 300+ acres of poop). Maybe mix that up with a couple loads of "amended" soil. I am quite the noob to this. Last year we were square foot gardening in 30 sq. feet in L.A. !!!

Tomorrow is chick day too! got 27 little peeps coming in for duty!

Celtic Rogue
15th April 2010, 05:37 AM
Damn you guys make me feel jeolous! :)

I am stuck in an end unit suburban town house. While I do have my raised bed veggie garden and an assortment of berries. I would really like to raise some multi purpose chickens. But there is no way as the county zoning and HOA forbid it in my type of housing and location.

My raised beds were made with 2 x 10 lumber. This my second year and I think this year I will be able to judge how well they work for the bush beans, tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, carrots, onions, lettuce, zuchinni, peppers hot and mild, peanuts and potatoes. But from my haphazard last year I got pretty good yeilds.

Mouse
19th April 2010, 10:27 PM
Got the boxes done, each is 12'*8' with hardware cloth underneath. Had 12 yards of remediated soil brought in today. Soil tests looks nice, but needs organic material and will need nitrogen in the future. The guy that brought the dumptruck was really cool and gave us a lot of good tips:

On untreated boxes, he says he sees people that "paint" them with crisco or veggie oil and they last for years. Drazzle it on there. Most people aren't using pressure treated around here for worries about the chemicals and he has a number of his customers doing oil paint on the boxes who say they last a long time.

He also like the idea of lazagna style stacking in cardboard and leaves on the bottom, with some layers of compost. He directed me to the local recycling center (local = 50 miles away:) where they compost the leaves and grass clippings for the city. I can get super compost for like 25 bux a full size truck load. He suggested mix a bit of that on the top, about 1 and a half.

Had some other interesting ideas about growing wheat in fallow boxes and composting with it, a neat recipe for chemical free bug control which I will try, and based on looking at the nice open space where we set up our to be garden, suggested a couple of martin bird boxes to attract birds for insect control.

Really cool guy. I am sure I will be dealing with him again.

The recipe for the bug juice was:

1 gallon water
1 cup tabasco sauce
a couple teaspoons of dish detergent
some ammonia (I forget, don't have the thing in front of me)
and....this ones a trip
Get a bag of beechnut chewing tobacco and boil it into tea, add about a quarter of a bag's worth of tea into the juice

wait till mid morning for dry leaves on your veggies and spray it on there. He said the bugs don't die, they just leave....as fast as possible.

Oh and crappy pic. These will be getting leveled out a bit and moved around some more, but here's the boxes.

and chicks, man!

big country
20th April 2010, 08:06 AM
Any reason one shouldn't use the "new" PVC or plastic or composite lumber (whatever you call it) that is around now? Common on picnic tables and decking?
I would think that would last a long time without ever needing to paint or stain or maintain it ever again?

Thoughts? more expensive but maintenance free...

beefsteak
20th April 2010, 11:50 AM
THANKS, MOUSE for the Anti-Bug juice recipe. I'd heard from other sources about how nicotine from tobacco leaf "tea" was most helpful. But, I think the combo of what you have along with the "beech-nut" is just terrific.

I assume you still will wash your veggies before you consume, yes?

Somehow fresh strawberry with a hint of Marlboro just doesn't put a smile on my tastebuds...LOL

beefsteak

Mouse
20th April 2010, 04:03 PM
Beef:

I am a newb at this. I haven't tried that recipe yet. I had a plot of about 25 square feet last year (about all the dirt areas in my back yard in L.A.). That garden did pretty well, in spite of me. This is my first real garden and we are trying to do it right, but I am not counting on having super success. I will let you know how that bug juice works, but right now we only have seedlings inside and nothing planted yet.

We put cardboard on the bottoms of all the boxes. The recycling place was cleaned out of the compost, so I ended up grabbing a few truckloads of leaves and forest compost off my property and dumped that on top of the cardboard. We managed to shovel two boxes in today, six more to go. I wish my neighbor would come over with the tractor, but I hate asking him for favors.

Andy9999
23rd April 2010, 07:44 PM
These boxes look very familiar to me ;D

Mouse
29th April 2010, 12:39 AM
yours aren't wonky like mine from being un-level :)

Pretty much the same thing. It's a lot of dirt in there.

Better check and make sure yours are still there, I might come over and steal them.

so 12 yards of dirt later and I have about one box that needs soil still. I am going to see if the dirt farmer dude will let me come up and get a pickup load as opposed to having him come down with his dump truck.

This stuff is painful. So much dirt, so little time. I still need fences and etc. It's like a damn full time job.

Andy9999
1st May 2010, 08:16 PM
I did make my own soil/compost.
put some coffee grids,straw leaves,and compost,doesn't have to be ready,cover with 2-4 in of soil and plant, in 4 -8 weeks you got beautiful soil,
I have 16 boxes and for my first 4, I bought soil,every thing after that- I filled with my own compost,
In late Oct, I put in old plants,flowers , pumpkins after Halloween....neighbours leaves,and by spring I have 1/2 full box of compost,some call it lasagna bed I think.
Then before planting I use ozaga hoe to dig soil in the box .Then I put fresh half done compost and cover it with older compost .I can have 3 crops in one year from one box,if I plan sometimes 4, & I 'm in growing zone #6

Mouse
5th May 2010, 02:17 PM
Good tips andy, thanks!

bellevuebully
27th May 2010, 08:43 AM
Mine are around 24'' high. Much higher than most, but I had the material to both build and fill them, so the amount of dirt was not a concern for me.

I like to sit on the edges when I'm weeding so the height is nice for that. It also retains moisture a bit better than shallow beds.

Here is a pic from the year they were constructed. I will be posting pics from this year as things fill out.

Bullfrog
26th June 2010, 11:04 AM
I wanted to throw out as an option, something I just started using this year, and it looks like it is going to be a success. It's not a raised bed, but it wasn't enough for a new thread.

The main garden is on a hillside slope that gets sun all day long. When it gets real hot the lettuce fails.

So I dragged an old bathtub that used to be used as a watering trough for the horses, down into the gully. Threw a lot of loose shale and dirt underneath the tub to hold the heat at night.

Put in a mix of dirt and potting soil into the tub. And then planted rows of different lettuce and chard. It gets a lot more shade and looks like it is really gonna do well.

And, it would be really easy to build a top for it to turn it into some sort of coldframe.

beefsteak
27th June 2010, 09:23 PM
Hope this isn't too dumb a question, :oo--> but I'd truly like to hear from the more experienced gardeners with raised beds.

Do any of you have any guidelines besides "eyeballing depth" in order to determine what gets planted in which depth bed?

For example, we all know how long carrots can get. However, I bot "short carrot" heirloom seeds for my beds, so I'm not looking to put dirt in for "long carrot" needs.

And I've seen hydroponic, iceberg lettuce root bundles as they float -- via their "styrofoam??" floats --all the while their root bundles are submerged in nutrient solution. They don't need much depth in a soil bed from my observation perspective.

Any other anecdotal clues from you all in regards to how much "depth" is truly needed? Not trying to be too frugal here, but, I like to work with more information than trying to grow "one of everything" and then whipping out my tape measure and making notations as to length of
root bundle, so that I'm "more successful" next year. It takes TIME to make one's own topsoil as you all know, and I do want to do this "smart" and not just work from "oh, about 8" should be good enough" type advise.

Besides, if the raised bed is shallow, doesn't the root bundle spread out laterally when the root bundle becomes "depth challenged?"

Thanks to all who respond. Looking forward to reading and learning from your responses!!!

StackerKen
27th June 2010, 09:35 PM
beef;
All my raised beds are on build on the ground(dirt) with chicken wire and cardboard on the bottom...so I figure the roots could keep going down though the cardboard and chicken wire if they needed to.

ie see the OP here
http://gold-silver.us/forum/gardening-and-farming/bad-planningtomatoes-out-of-control-7227/

But I'm sure there are a many here with more experience than me that could give you a better answer..

beefsteak
29th June 2010, 10:57 AM
Thank you both, Ken and Ima.

I'm sorry, I should have been more clear. My raised beds are truly raised off the ground, as in 36" off the ground to the base, and 48" across. They have "solid bottoms."

Does anyone else have these kinds of raised beds with which they are
working? I have a very small plot of ground to work with, and going vertical was my best optimization for the space.

beef

Bullfrog
3rd July 2010, 09:55 AM
Peas have a very short root system and can be planted closer together than the seed package says.
Garlic, beans, and corn go 6 - 10 inches deep.
Broccoli and cauliflower can get real close to a foot deep.
Potato, various squash plants, and tomato roots can go deeper than a foot.

I don't do raised beds, that is what I have noticed from my garden.
Things to look out for with shallow root systems, are heat waves. You can dry out the soil and the roots in a hurry.

beefsteak
3rd July 2010, 02:07 PM
Thank you, bull frog!

I never thought about heat waves drying out both top and bottom of soil in my raised beds. VERY GOOD POINT!

Thanks also for your specificity by plant type.

I was kind of surprised to learn about corn being 10"...guess it's been too many years since I raised corn on the farm "back in the day."

Have a great and safe 4th.

beef

Bullfrog
3rd July 2010, 02:18 PM
Mostly the roots on my corn are around 6 inches deep, but I know they go deeper.
The rest breaks off when I pull them up.

EDIT: Garlic and beans are gonna be closer to 6 inches too.