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Hello Charles
The garden we took over last year has 4 square beds, 1 double bed and a raised bed against a back fence. It was a bit of a mess, so I decided to start over. The beds were half filled already , so I cut everything back, dug up as much as I could (all before heard about no dig) put thick layers of cardboard and then manure and compost went out top, for a thick layer, followed by polythene. I plan on leaving them,down until the new year. The paths between have shale and still had plenty of weeds, so a black fabric layer has done most of the work to keep all but occasional weed at the edges at bay. I did originally start putting down bark but found it to be annoying to walk around and then learned the hard way about gathering autumn leaves for leaf mound laying over bark. I’m thinking of seeing out this next year as things are, with the bark disposed of, the beds in place and the paths left alone with the fabric cover, but the ‘How to create a veg garden’ book talks about using sides, I believe until the planting area becomes compact and established and then you take the sides away. I don’t yet know if the shale is just on the paths but I’m happy to have a crack at clearing all that and getting rid of the wooden of the beds completely. the beds seem to habour slugs. Is it worth just leaving things as they are with the raised beds or is there a distinct advantage of having no wooden beds? Also, what can I do with the bark? Would I be better off clearing aside the existing soil into buckets/bins wheelbarrow/etc, laying down a thick layer of cardboard all over and then plotting out my growing area directly on top, with the set aside soil? In the same book, are you literally laying wood sides to help form the bed edging and then filling the paths with sawdust/wood shavings?
You sound well organised.
Wooden sides have their place, it depends what kind of set-up you like. If you have wood edges already, and they are not causing problems, I would leave be.
Here I did indeed use temporary wooden edges of old fence posts, until the compost had settled by the end of the first year. Now most beds have no sides, and less slugs! A layer of soft humus now lies on paths there wood shavings have rotted in, and some compost falls on them from the beds.
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