[TomGoodWannabe]

To save on the constant weeding and to keep some sort of order on our allotment, we've decided on some raised beds.  First three have been made from old pallets we found, but does anyone have any clever ideas on design of them?  Also any alternatives to wood? 

Adam

[Rosemary]

I don't have any clever design ideas but I can tell you that you won't regret putting in raised beds - they've worked a treat for us. They could do with being raised abit more though - they seem to have settled into the ground over the six years they've been in. So maybe there's a tip in that - make them a bit higher than you think you want in case they settle like ours have.

Rosemary

[robert693]

I think that it is best to just raise the beds by mounding the soil and not using any wood or stone to hole them up. When you use wood or stone to hold them you are providing a place home for pests. Raised beds are a good idea though, I think that you will find that your vegetables will grow much better with them.

Robert

[Rosemary]

It's only the wood that keeps the soil in situ, otherwise the hens would have it all over the place. We also let the sheep in to graze the grass paths. So another tip might be to think about what else you're going to allow to access your vegetable garden!

[Fluffywelshsheep]

When you use wood or stone to hold them you are providing a place home for pests.

don't for get the 'bad' pest atracts the 'good' pest to come to your garden which in turn increase you garden/land in to a wildlife heaven which you can then go organic and not use any pesticides.

This is were everone remember their child hood school days of 'food web'

[sallyw]

I am spending this week-end building three raised beds, for veggies, out of 12 sleepers. We will need to put an enormous cage over the top of them all to keep out deer and gliss gliss (not hugely optimistic that bit will succeed). I'll let you know how we get on. Sal

[Fluffywelshsheep]

okay.
Let us now what you do.

It depend of what type of dear you get to what size of frame.
If you get big red deer around then you'll need to make an all over but if you get the smaller one then you can get it a little small.
Good luck with the building dear can be right pain in the butts when it come to free/fast food hehe

[Rosemary]

You're lucky it's dry enough to build anything :-(

[JustinFun]

To save on the constant weeding and to keep some sort of order on our allotment, we've decided on some raised beds.  First three have been made from old pallets we found, but does anyone have any clever ideas on design of them?  Also any alternatives to wood? 

Adam

We've built several raised beds in our allotment using wine bottles, a tip we picked up from visiting Yalding Organic Gardens. Just dig a small trench and sink the bottles upside down to just below the bottom of the necks. It seems to work well, but you do need a *lot* of bottles. We've been begging them from family and friends, and hit paydirt when we bagged a full weddings-worth over the summer.

It's free (unless you count buying the wine), and you don't need to worry about wood preservative leaching into the soil, or about wood rotting in a few years' time.

[stephen]

i bet the bottles look really nice as well in the sunlight, very unusual but am tempted to have a go somewhere in the garden! 

[Fluffywelshsheep]

any pictures ?

[JustinFun]

Here are some pics - please excuse the mess!

Theres not much in there apart from garlic and some broad bean and pea seedlings at the moment.



That's bark mulch as a pathway between the beds (and a bit of grass still to clear up!)



Works fine at the moment - just planted carrots, parsnip, and a first load of salad-y bits this weekend.

[Fluffywelshsheep]

try again no picture came though

[JustinFun]

try again now picture came though

I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean. Can no-one see the picture? It's showing up on my page. I guess picasa doesn't allow you to link direct to the jpegs.

Try this link instead:
http://picasaweb.google.com/justin.fun/Garden

[stephen]

that looks really funky!! and its a great way of re-using 'rubbish'