Raised bed veg garden

I'd probably go rectangular, wide enough for 2 rows of smaller stuff, or one row of bigger stuff like cabbage. But it depends on what sort of space you have, and what size veg you want to grow.

Try and think what types of plants you want, and how big they are and what soil depth you need.

But you can get creative and do all sorts of shapes ideas

I've built a few from Wickes treated 6x2, single and double depth

8x4ft sounds good but be careful with spacing/access. 4ft is too deep for most people to reach the other side of it's against a fence or wall. The spaces between them needs to be judged carefully. I can't get down on my knees between 2 of ours 'cos they are too close together.

Standard topsoil is okay with soil conditioner but veggie topsoil for raised beds is great

^ yes make sure you can reach to the other side without face-planting if its against a wall/fence. 🙂

I would use untreated hardwood sleepers cut to size by supplier; that's what I'm doing.

Made some bed this year after the wife decided we nk longer needed the sunken trampoline in the garden.

Neighbour was getting his garden done so the was tons of soil available to fill the hole and the beds.

For the beds another neighbour had just replaced his fence so cut the posts for corners and used the vertical panels for the sides. Lined with a load of old tarps and compost bags.

Had spring onions, chard, rhubarb, carrot, beans, dwarf beans.
Currently got garlic, winter peas and onions in.

Emptied the compost bin to try and improve the soil looking forward to loads of good produce next year.

OH grew borlotti beans this year. I thought they were runners until the pods started changing colour and I told her they must have a disease. Was surprised by how delicious fresh borlottis are!

If you are never going to move look at recycled plastic beams. About 3 x the price but will not rot. My floor joist have lasted ten years but they are only holding the soil back because they don’t know any better!

There is nothing better than an unstoppable supply of fresh tomatoes 🍅

If you are never going to move look at recycled plastic beams. About 3 x the price but will not rot. My floor joist have lasted ten years but they are only holding the soil back because they don’t know any better!

There is nothing better than an unstoppable supply of fresh tomatoes 🍅

Worth looking into "no dig" gardening - Charles Dowding is a big proponent of you wanted to look up more info.

Essentially to make a veg bed you put down a layer of cardboard over whatever ground you have, 6 inches of compost on top of that, and off you go. The cardboard acts as a weed suppressant and breaks down over time.

One big benefit is that you don't need lots of raised bed infrastructure so it's dead easy to get going, and it's much better for soil health.

Thanks tom, I have a stack of cardboard which was destined for recycling/landfill - not now!

I am about to redo my raised beds after about 10+ years. As said, make sure you have access to the bed from both sides, if not ensure you can reach the opposite side. Don't put them near trees, they will shade the beds and the roots will take over. Mine are about 5m away from a couple of trees but have still been taken over by tree roots, hence redoing mine. Avoid b+q etc as timber is dear there. I used 4.8m 150x44 decking boards that have lasted me well so doing the same again as I find them good value. I make them 2 high, (so 300mm) and this takes a surprising amount of soil to fill, higher would be even more so keep this in mind. With the boards being 4.8m I cut them to 1.2m for the width as I can access from both sides other wise keep it narrower at about 1m. This time I am going to add a pond liner (with holes for drainage) to try and keep the tree roots at bay longer. Finally, manure is your friend, you can't have enough manure (unless your growing onions or carrots).

I've got a couple of square raised beds made a few years back with b and q timber. Just pulled up a load of decking so I'm going to make another bed from that. Only have a small garden and it's South Downs chalk so has to be raised to grow anything. I concentrate on baby veg, unusual veg like Chinese greens which are often pest resistant. Don't bother with low value bulky stuff like carrots, onions and pots unless you have loads of space. Radishes are dead easy and lovely when small and fresh.

Have a look at
<h2>hugelkultur</h2>
If you have time to prep the beds it could work for you

I like THIS book, I've seen it for £5 in The Works relatively recently.

I've put 4 in over the last 2 years out the back of our pub. I used 2 layers of 2x8" tanellised timber from the local saw mill - did them 2mx3.5m rectangular. Deep enough to grow pretty much all roots veggies. I grow in rows across the short width, with enough room between them to get a scaffolding plank across to kneel on when harvesting/weeding. As a few people have mentioned, access is a key consideration.

They all have different mixes of medium in them - a green waste compost/topsoil mix, next the same but with a heap of rotted cow dung, next a cow dung and commercial compost mix, and the last a pure commercial compost.

I've mainly been concentrating on more unusual/more expensive at the wholesalers type veggies - no way it would be worth us doing spuds, etc. But have done a lot of weird beans, fennel, heritage tomatoes, 'different' courgettes and squashes, etc. Did quite well with the coriander too this year.

i made mine from old pallets for the wood for the sides and old fence posts for the uprights, treated the wood with stain to match shed colour, then lined the inside of them with the plastic bags which contained good quality top soil someone was giving away free, so only cost was the stain.

2 compost bins all kitchen scraps and the like go in.

I made 4 square ones with about 1.2m square each, so easy to reach to middle, and then one long rectangular one, with uprights and netting for beans to grow up.

Worked well, and surprisingly just how much you can grow, plus trial and error will let you know what works well in your garden

Need to really get cracking with ours. We've two 6ft by 2ft by 2ft high beds. As others have said, they need a lot of soil. Ours could do with topping up really. I like the idea of the cardboard - drop that down on existing soil then top it off with new topsoil.

Ours were decking boards lined with plastic. Wood treated first though. Been down about 6 years now.

Depending on the availability of bodge it skills it’s worth mentioning woodblocx- who do great made to measure raised borders and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Anyone who’s used Lego will appreciate the design thinking…

https://www.woodblocx.co.uk/

If you want to do beans/peas those 40l-50l flexi bucket things work great.
Gravel in the bottom and lots of compost then some canes for them to climb.

#
https://www.toolstation.com/flexi-tub-40l/p79794?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dc&pcrid=&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=CjwKCAjw5P2aBhAlEiwAAdY7dHxfBCgW-5NkcyVImhO4aO49R14gttPeyQ5bt5h1bKxZuZNtDLBkfBoC8cYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

(Available in different colours)

Other stuff is built out of decking... lined with plastic then same gravel and soil. (2-3 decking boards high) on treated fenceposts with copper tape on the legs to stop slugs

.. if you want to grow any brassicas you'll need nets to keep the cabbage whites off.

These get really heavy, really quickly though. We have an 8'x3' one over a grate and moving it for access means a car jack and castors.

Potatoes and tomatoes you'll want to protect from blight (even resistant varieties when young) so best to leave movable.

Thanks great advice, would like to get the hugelkultur set up but left it a bit late plus I don't think it will fit the look the wife wants.

We had a couple of raised beds at the allotment but also had lazy beds which were more productive and cost nothing to make