Raised Bed Help, Por Favor

[Jellybean]

So I've decided to experiment with a raised bed. I'm just not 100% sure what the right way to do it all is.
I found a couple helpful articles (Here: http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyar...0400000011938/
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home...garden/4308264), but I wanted to ask here as this is the forum with all the picky people obsessed with doing things right once.


A couple of the big questions I have so far are

- Construction methods-
Are the methods as laid out in the previous articles pretty much gtg? Is there any reason to go with wood, vs alternatives like cinderblocks?
Another couple I know is using some black plastic on top to ward off weeds- I hate the stuff, as it seems a royal PITA. BUT is it worth doing?


-Soil-
Seeing as how I live in VA we generally have red shit for dirt. Not sure whether to just go dig some out of the woods, or order/ buy?
If buying, then where and what?
Fertilizer?


I have some materials to start- cinderblocks for the base and the metal mesh for the bottom.

I would really just appreciate some overall "how to" help on what you guys have done that worked, or any applicable web sites/threads that would be helpful. Preferably with visual aids, if possible.

Thanks in advance.

[mallowpufft]

I posted a bit about my raised beds in the daily prep post but for anyone looking here and not there, I'll post it again.

I'm not expert but I've been using raised beds for about 4 years now. I was renting a house for a couple years and just cut down some scrap plywood from construction sites to build my first two beds. By the time we moved out last spring the wood was pretty well rotten so I just pulled it off and threw some grass seed on top.

The construction methods outlined in those articles are great. I'm too cheap to use Cedar so I used pressure treated and landscape fabric.
I spent as much on the hardware for my beds as the lumber, if not a smidge more. I kind of overbuilt them due to size and not wanting them to break. If I had cinder block laying around I would have been all about it. Mine look a lot like the ones from PopMech minus the trip on top because I want to do that in Cedar but I'm waiting till I find it cheap...

I'm on the edge of WV near the middle of VA and our dirt is pretty decent. I just ordered topsoil from the local landscaping and nursery place and it worked fine last year. Now that the soil has compacted a bit more I'll be adding some compost and peat moss to it this year. I also got a good lead on horse manure but I'll be tossing some of that in the compost bin for some good compost next year.

I currently have two 7'x3.5'x10" raised beds and just purchased the supplies to make one more that size and two half the size.
I didn't get started until late last summer due to house purchase and new baby but I still grew probably 10 gallons of beans without really trying (10 plants in one bed);I could have fit more plants in there and fertilized the soil but I used it as it was for the first go round. I was picking beans until late September. The raised beds really help with soil warmth and can extend the season quite a bit.

One thing to keep in mind is positioning your plants and remembering the limitations of your bed. I plant my tallest plants furthest to the E of the beds so that they don't shade my other plants too much. Except squash. I put those in the corners and let them grow out of the bed. If you use cucumbers and smaller squashes you can get them to go up trellis or frames and the like.

I didn't do a watering system last year but once the other beds are in place I plan on running a soaker hose through each bed to help make my life easier. I'm also planning a few water barrels to help with watering/emergency water storage.

I'm concentrating on easy to store items as well as foods my kids like so it's mostly tomatoes and beans along with yellow & butternut squash with an expiremental run of brussels sprouts, okra, and corn.
I'm planning to do an asparagus bed next year.
I'll try to remember to snap some pics of my beds to put up tomorrow.

I don't have a fence yet but I'll be doing a chicken wire fence to keep the neighborhood cats from using it as a litter box.

Squarefoot Gardening has some good advice as do the hippies over at Rodale (Organic Gardening magazine has great advice for container gardening)

Gardeners Supply (.com) has decent (and overpriced) products and while I don't purchase a lot from them I do use their website for ideas.

*****Pictures Added*****

As you can see the landscaping fabric is still visible but it's on my list to cover when i find a good deal on some cedar to trim them with.

[Jellybean]

Nice!

Just out of curiosity, how tall are the sides?
Did you dig them into the ground at all, or just sit the box on top?

[mallowpufft]

Sides are 9.75. I just used 2"x10"s to build them.

Before I put them up I scraped off the sod to try and keep most of the weeds out. The sides are sunk 1/2-3/4" from doing that. The corner posts are cut on a 45 degree angle and are 6" into the dirt for stability.

[montanadave]

I built my raised beds about 15 years ago using railroad ties. There are three tiers with each individual bed about 8' x 8'. After I leveled and spiked the ties together with rebar, I dug out each bed approximately 3' deep, passed all the dirt through a mesh screen to remove all the rocks, and augmented the dirt with a mix of compost, peat moss, and manure to fill the beds.

Total overkill and a ton of work. But they are NICE beds and will grow anything you put in 'em. Then I cobbled together a drip irrigation system which I reconfigure each year as I change up what I'm planting. I used black landscape fabric for a few years but ultimately decided to just use a decent mulch. It keeps the weeds down, helps retain the moisture and I can just till it in in the fall.

[mallowpufft]

I built my raised beds about 15 years ago using railroad ties. There are three tiers with each individual bed about 8' x 8'. After I leveled and spiked the ties together with rebar, I dug out each bed approximately 3' deep, passed all the dirt through a mesh screen to remove all the rocks, and augmented the dirt with a mix of compost, peat moss, and manure to fill the beds.

Total overkill and a ton of work. But they are NICE beds and will grow anything you put in 'em. Then I cobbled together a drip irrigation system which I reconfigure each year as I change up what I'm planting. I used black landscape fabric for a few years but ultimately decided to just use a decent mulch. It keeps the weeds down, helps retain the moisture and I can just till it in in the fall.

I didn't know garden envy was possible till now... That looks like a sweet set up. I really like the irrigation system. I was planning on using soaker hoses this year but that's just impressive.

[tb-av]

Although it's been a while.....

Just use 2 x whatever. It depends on what is your base. Sounds like you have red clay so the taller the better. We used 2x6or8 and they were fine but had a deep loamy base under.

I would not put anything inside the frame like cloth. Make it wide enough to run your roto tiller in and be able to turn it around in ( two tillers wide ).

Get some bales of peat moss. then go to a mulch seller. they are everywhere. Tell them to make you a mix of top soil, leaf mulch. They can mix it pretty good with their front end loader.

Mix that with your moss and some sort of clay breaker. If you have a big area to work, roto till the clay up, then add all the rest and till it some more. It would be best to pay someone with a small tractor to do the initial grinding and mixing. Then scrape it into piles about the shape of your frames then throw the frames over the mounds. and fill in.

Add whatever fertilizer you like. If you can get several coolers full of fish guts that would be fantastic. Just grind all that mess in. Chicken manure. Lots of lime too. You will pretty much know just by looking at the result. It will go from red clay balls to loose rich soil that shovels easily.

Once you do this right once. It is pretty easy to keep that way.

Newspaper works good for laying in between frames to keep weeds down. It will take a while to get rid of all weeds from mixing things up but once they are gone it fairly easy to keep squared away.

Again, make sure you can run a small tiller through there at any time. either in the frames or in the walks between ( keep them just over one tiller width wide.

Wood... not cinder blocks... so you can bump your tiller tines and not destroy anything. No exposed bolt heads. Recessed nails are just fine.

[montanadave]

I didn't know garden envy was possible till now... That looks like a sweet set up. I really like the irrigation system. I was planning on using soaker hoses this year but that's just impressive.

I ran PVC pipe for the supply lines because it holds up better. Than in each bed I switch to the black poly pipe and use a variety of drip fittings and sprayers, depending upon what's in the individual bed. And they also make mini-soaker hose to use with a drip system. If I have a ring of pole beans around a teepee trellis, I'll make a loop out of the mini-soaker hose to encompass the area where I plant my seeds and then just plug it into the drip system.

Using a targeted drip system can really cut back on both watering and weeds. With all the different fittings and emitters on the market these days it makes for a very slick system.

[tb-av]

I forgot to mention after you get your dirt looking good. send some samples to VA Tech and they will tell you what it needs. If they don;t do that any longer, your local county government usually will.
If not them then Southern States.

[Pilgrim]

I tried raised beds here in GA once... they became very popular Section 8 housing for thousands of fire ants within days. No amount of ant killer was able to dissuade them from remaining in residence.

Now I just till up a spot, and plant something in it.