What dimensions of wood do you use for your raised beds…..

[Rhys]

I have just been doing some research online into sources of wood, as I’d like to work out what it would cost to make ten 2.5m * 1.4m raised beds surrounded by wood which would fit nicely into the area of soil we have available.

Railway sleepers sound a bit prohibitive, but I’ve found some wood recycling centres whose prices seem more amenable.

They charge per metre of length for a variety of thickness and heights, so I was wondering what thickness and height the wood you use for your raised beds are?

You can pretty much get a 100% difference in price, depending on what sizes you choose, so I’d rather not add a thickness that really isn’t necessary based on experienced practitioners’ findings.

Appreciate any insights.

[charles]

 The most solid softwood bed I have is made from two inch thick planks (6" wide) but they, like most softwood on offer, are showing some rot, even though treated with Osmo when new, five years ago. Then the woodlice and slugs get involved in the rotting wood, as a base for foraging on the beds. But hardwood is too expensive.

One wood I have not used is scaffold planks and perhaps someone else has thoughts on their value and durability, or other recommendations.

In the greater scheme of things, growing without wooden sides is easier but I appreciate that in some situations one needs a frame, as I do for certain experiments, and hotbeds.

 

[Rhys]

Thanks for the insights – i”ll limit my wooden surrounds to the potato towers (one of which I am going to use to grow carrots).

By the way, I did a test this morning of a small area of border (probably 2ft square) of how effective the autumn mulching was. The mulch was spent potato and tomato haulms buried under soil with a topcoat of 2 or 3 inches of horse manure which had plenty of straw in it. I wanted to see how many worms were in it and was amazed to reveal 4 or 5 absolutely giant worms, the biggest I’ve seen – about 12 – 15cm long and 1cm diameter when I dug the spot up (intention is to put a potato tower there). Similar numbers of worms were found in the ground when carrots were harvested on an undug bed, but their size in comparison was fairly weedy. Also the soil dug very, very easily, indicating that the bed is of a fine quality.

Safe to say that the mulch and manure appears to be fantastic for worms and hopefully the area will be productive this summer as I sow a few ‘extras’ like half a dozen celeries, one courgette and a few beet, alongside two potato towers placed at the sunniest spot we have in the garden.

There’s nothing like personal experience to ingrain what was simply a faith in your wisdom to date, is there??

[charles]

 You are right rtj, nothing beats the power of witnessing something. Nice that you take my word for it too. And that those worms are so large!

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