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Post by raphanus on Sept 14, 2021 18:13:01 GMT -5
My first raised bed was built out of cinderblocks. I’ve built some out of bricks, some out of scrap wood, and some out of fancy new pressure treated lumber from the hardware store. The price of lumber is outrageous these days and I also worry about all the chemicals. The last raised bed I built was with new treated lumber, it’s an 8x4x4 raised bed, and the lumber was close to $200 and it took 52 bags of soil/compost/potting mix to fill it. My favorite way to build raised beds is for free, using logs, and filling the raised bed with branches, twigs, leaves, and garden scraps, and then just putting a light layer of compost on top. I had a bunch of large fresh oak logs from recent tree trimming. I haphazardly arranged them into a rectangle, stacked a few on top of each other, and it’s an ugly rough frame that is about 8x4x2. I filled it half full with oak branches, and then tossed in a ton of cowpea and green bean vines, some sunflower stalks, about a year’s worth of coffee grounds and eggshells, and then just put a bit of compost as the top layer. This winter it will probably be spinach and lettuce. In the early spring I will plant peas to improve the soil, and in late spring will probably be zucchini
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Post by desertwoman on Sept 14, 2021 18:32:59 GMT -5
Gotta love what comes free from nature! raphanus, And I don't think of it as ugly; it's rustic charm! |
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Post by emmsmommy on Sept 14, 2021 20:20:03 GMT -5
Sounds wonderful raphanus. I'm all for building beds on the cheap as I can rationalize having more money to spend on plants and seeds. |
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Post by Mumsey on Sept 15, 2021 4:59:35 GMT -5
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Post by raphanus on Sept 15, 2021 5:34:35 GMT -5
I used to farm in a desert in southern Cali and learned about hugelkultur there to save water, it was really cool, but wood was a little hard to find there so we used a lot of cardboard. Now I garden in a place where there’s always too much water lol. I’m only at 4 ft above sea level and the water table is high, so if I start digging, I hit water usually so I just start at ground level instead of starting with a trench or hole like in traditional hugels. I also use fresh live wood as the border so it holds up longer. I probably should have used dead wood to fill the bed though, that article you linked to made a good point about not using live wood to avoid it sprouting. I had to pull tons of baby oak trees out of a raised bed last year lol |
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Post by binnylou on Sept 16, 2021 22:45:59 GMT -5
raphanus , I also have to remove sprouted oak trees, but I blame the mice who have caches of acorns hidden in the beds. If I’m lucky, I find the acorns before they sprout. When they’ve sprouted and are forming little trees, I get the guilt trip for not potting them and encouraging them to grow. emmsmommy probably understands this problem.  The most that sprouts from the hugelkulture wood in the bottom of my raised bed is mushrooms. But, I was warned that would happen. if you haven’t already, check out the thread organicgroup.freeforums.net/post/81725/thread
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Post by emmsmommy on Sept 17, 2021 3:53:03 GMT -5
I deal with sprouted chestnut and peach trees from where I dumped the pits and skins into one of the beds several years ago. Three years in a row I've had trees sprout from those pits. Maple sprouts are usually yanked when I see them popping up. This year I have two sumac seedlings, one in a bed and one in a pot, that I'll transplant later. Of course I'm also the weirdo that welcomes lambs quarters and bittercress to grow in the garden too. |
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Post by reuben on Sept 17, 2021 4:57:14 GMT -5
American chestnuts are more or less extinct, and will die of blight if they do sprout. While there have been efforts to breed a new strain, I'm not aware of any major success. Where are your chestnut sprouts coming from?
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Post by emmsmommy on Sept 17, 2021 18:15:42 GMT -5
reuben, I believe mine are actually Chinese chestnuts. They were here when I moved 30 years ago.
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