Hi from The Netherlands

[HempieParticipant]

After a long period of no gardening at all, me and my wife are starting again with our garden and vegetable plot.
We were simply to busy with our business, but decided that life is not all about business and work. We also need some time for ourselves. So, we stopped working on Fridays so we now have a 4 weekdays to work which makes our weekend 3 days 🙂 Yeahhh.

So now i invested in some composite material (that last for a 40 years) and made a complete new compost corner. (the old one was back then made out of oak wood and rotted away) No more wood for me.
Also i am planning to create a beautiful kitchen garden and make raised beds from the same material.
But i am worried on how and with what material to fill these beds. I don’t have enough compost at the moment so i need a good alternative.
The main thing in the kitchen garden will be 4 raised beds of 4×2 meters each, and height of about 50 centimetres. All separated with a gravel path of 2 meters wide. It will be a large and open area so that i can always garden in them no matter the age i may become 🙂

I thought i ask here, maybe someone has some ideas.

Thanks in advance.

ps. I found Charles website through video’s on youtube, and i love them. No Dig in raised beds… that would be great.
ps. I will add some foto’s or video later, i like to share what we are doing.

[RhysParticipant]

Hi Hempie

Given the height of your proposed raised beds, one solution could be to make Hugelkutur beds, where the base is filled by larger logs, then smaller branches, twigs and leaves, then above that a more traditional lasagna set up using cardboard, grass cuttings, fallen leaves, some manure, some straw (if available), any spent crops (like potato or tomato stems), any green manure available (stinging nettle, comfrey, etc), adding in what compost you have to provide the soil life necessary to promote in situ composting. The lasagna should turn into a usable bed within 6 months, whereas the logs will release heat and nutrients over a several year timescale of breakdown.

It is probably cheaper than 16 cubic metres of pure compost, at least based on UK prices….it just depends what you have available where you are.

I have not done it, but plenty of videos are out there by people who have.

If you wanted to create 16 cubic metres of horse manure-derived compost, based on my experience you need around 70-80 cubic metres of fresh horse manure+straw (which compresses and rots down over 8-10 months (last November to now) and can then break down further in the new beds over a winter). That is quite a delivery!

[JDParticipant]

Welcome Hempie
A couple of other options:
Take the soil from your paths to the bottom of your raised beds so you need less material. Another possible alternative is to start with lower beds and then increase the height over the years as you make/buy in more compost.

I don’t think the entire bed needs to be of compost, just the top few inches, so if you have a cheap nearby source of topsoil you could use that for the lower parts of the beds.
Good luck!
Jan

[HempieParticipant]

Hi Rhys / Jan,

Thank you for replying.
Hugelkultur is something i was considering too.
I have a ton of old logs, twigs and bits lying around.

I already have one compostbin full with fresh material decomposing now and a selfmade composttumbler fullof material.
Also the topsoil (with grass) from the paths i will add as Jan suggested,
Then ofcourse during this fall i will collect all leaves.
I live in the country and have a lot woodland around, so i guess i have enough organic matter by spring next year.

Something i dont have is manure.

Can i do without manure?

Thanks,
Hempie

[HempieParticipant]

I forgot,

I also have a piece of land that is full with nettles over a meter high.
But they have a lot of seeds on them.

Is it wise to use these in the beds or compostbin?

[UdoSParticipant]

Hello Hempie,

if you use logs and branches and other decomposing material make sure you build a protection against voles. For example Chicken or rabbit mesh.
I built some hugelmounds 3 years ago and it is infested with voles now, they have eaten nearly all root vegetables like carrots, celeriac, beetroot etc.. Once you have the voles it is very difficult to get rid of them.
But an efficient protection is only possible if you build raised beds with wooden sides where you place the mesh on the ground before you fill the material. Open hugelmounds can’t really be protected.

Good luck
Udo

[HempieParticipant]

Hi Udo,

I was planning to do so, not for the voles, but for the moles 🙂
We do have a lot of moles in our plot. I catch 1 of them every 4 days.
So far, and i live here for over 18 years now, we have not seen any voles.

But thanks for ur thinking.

regards,
Hempie

[Author]

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