Raised garden beds

   / Raised garden beds #11  
I think I've seen some nice looking beds made with corrugated galvanized barn metal set horizontal inside treated or creosote posts. I don't know if it will last 10 years, but it should be easy to fix. You can just pull the dirt away from the side needing repair and lay in another piece of corrugated metal so it is double thick. Of course, if you put purlins between the posts, you could put the corrugated metal panels vertical instead of horizontal and repairs need only replace short vertical sections.
 
   / Raised garden beds #12  
forgeblast said:
what about hugelkultur beds? I have used these in my front garden (flower bed and herb garden near the driveway).
I have in my garden pt landscape timbers that i was able to get for 1.97 a piece when they were on sale. The beds are 4'x8', I have seen them made out of concrete block, bricks, field stone, etc. I would really like to do field stone ones but I have a few projects to do before I get to that point.
How to Build Irrigation-Free Raised Beds with Hugelkultur : TreeHugger
Is Hugelkultur Sustainable? : Arcadia Farms
The Art and Science of Making a Hugelkultur Bed - Transforming Woody Debris into a Garden Resource Permaculture Research Institute - Permaculture Forums, Courses, Information & News
Click to expand...

I have been thinking about hugelkultur beds for a while, thanks for the links. Have you actually built any using old trees and logs?
It will probably be next spring before I can do it but I already started the process by cutting some trees and placing them in the woods to start to rot. The concept looks perfect for me I have plenty of flat area, old trees, a couple of good dirt piles, and stump grinding waste piles.

My logs are not the trees of choice (mostly pine and gum) a few oak but what the heck if it does not work it will not cost me much and I will just take my FEL and recycle to a new pile and try again.
Just wondering if any one else had any success with the concept .
Thanks again
 
   / Raised garden beds #14  
I tried it on a small scale, bdavis. I used split fire wood and other branches that I had and threw it down in a pile before I piled soil, compost, and then double ground hardwood mulch on top. I find that I wish I had added a bit more soil, but the logs made it so much easier to fill the beds. Now these are at tops 1' high, nothing like using trees etc to make the big ones. But it works on the small scale for me.
shows where I have it.
 
   / Raised garden beds #15  
Thanks for the info,
Looks good to me.
I will be starting small scale just a couple of beds 20 feed long. From what I have read about 1 foot should be enough. I have read about using cardboard on top of the wood to increase bacterial growth. So that is my plan, then top it off with my soil and mulch mixture.

Thanks
for the pics - nice to know some one has actually made it work
 
   / Raised garden beds #16  
I've also done "semi-hugels". :p I have a couple 16" deep raised beds where I started the fill with rotten logs. They're some of my most productive beds. One started last year has my potatoes in it this year. If I have as much going on below ground as I do above, it's going to be a bumper crop. Those are the prettiest, must lush potato plants I've ever seen.
 
   / Raised garden beds #17  
I bought 5/4x6x10 cedar boards from a local saw mill for $4.00 a board to make additional beds this year. Craglist usally has numerous guys selling cedar.
 
   / Raised garden beds #18  
Instead of permanent raised beds why do you not till them with a large tiller and then create the beds with a hiller? If you are only looking for something 10" high you can do it this way and let the tractor do a lot of the work.
 
   / Raised garden beds #20  
I just learned about hugelkultur for the first time last week. I have already started two beds. I have a portable sawmill and this looks like a great thing to do with my slab wood and branches. I have spent some hours studying this online. I have lousy luck growing anything. Let's see if this works.
 
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