The Dread Princess Morgoth and I are planning out a bunch of garden raised beds under the supervisorial eye of The Balrog.
I am trying to have them built while the weather is still warm and filled with dirt, compost, sawdust, peat moss and probably some
hugelkultur, as the Dread Princess has been toying with the hugelkultur for a few years.
Many expert gardeners will assure us that we'll have no produce if I mix sawdust, wood chips and other high carbon amendments into the soil... They're right, except that I am going to be adding nitrogen to help it break down and let it sit until next spring. I want that organic material breaking down in there, even if I have to wait 2 years to plant.
The raised beds that I have built in the past have been super plain and simple... Basically just grabbed appropriately sized boards from the lumber pile, drove stakes into the ground and attached the sides and ends to the stakes. I pretty much have an endless supply of sawmill boards, so just figured on rebuilding the whole thing every 5-10 years, as that would give us a chance to replenish the hugelkultur supply at the bottom of the beds.
Image search for raised beds :
Raised bedsBut darn it... There are some really nice raised beds that are making me think about doing them "right"! I especially like the ones that incorporate the plumbing and ability to throw a bird net, shading, or hothouse plastic right over them like this one :
Just take a look at this beauty!
I don't have an endless supply of concrete products, but the longevity of those concrete block raised beds has me kind of jonesing for those too.
But then there's this warning about heavy metals from the flyash in the blocks. Harumph
https://preventdisease.com/news/15/0206 ... dens.shtmlI am trying to find a video that I watched one late night a few months ago... This super handy fellow somewhere down in arid country built a whole bunch of raised beds and had the lushest garden ever. I was jealous and inspired at the same time. I'll try to find it and post up in here.
How about you raised bed gardeners post up your pics and tell us what you did, and what you wish that you'd done differently?