My observations regarding raised garden beds.

[Durgan]

My observations regarding raised garden beds.
A raised bed is not always the solution. If a yard is wet for long periods then it is probability prudent to put drainage tiles in place. A wet yard with poor drainage and a raised bed only means that the raised beds will be wet, due to wick effect.

My yard was a bog six years ago. I put in about 300 feet of tile and ran the water to the city storm sewers. Now the surface water is gone. My yard is basically dry. The raised beds are convenient to contain the area, since it gets sort of sloppy on the edges if not fenced in.

The drainage was a trench 18 inches deep and 12 inches wide, Gravel in the bottom, five inch plastic weeping tile, gravel on top, and some soil added, and the sod returned to improve the appearance. The work was dug by hand in 2003 all by myself.

Also, drainage tiles will not work if the top layer is at hardpan level. There must be some drainage into the ground. The back fill in my yard was done properly in that there is about two feet of good clay backfill before hitting hardpan.

Some contractors sell the top soil when building, and simply lay sod onto the hardpan. The yard will always be soggy no matter what steps are taken in his case. This can be improved only by adding about two feet of reasonable soil, and then adding the drainage ditches.

The point is: Before installing raised beds, and applying drainage techniques, insure that you know what you are working with.

[craftypam]

I wanted to put raised bed in because no matter what we do grass grows horribly in our garden with no room for the vegetables to grow. Do you have any suggestions. We have been gardening in this spot and adding soil for 18 years and still grass. Grass doesn't grow in our yard very well, only the garden. Help is you can. Thanks, Pam

[Durgan]

I wanted to put raised bed in because no matter what we do grass grows horribly in our garden with no room for the vegetables to grow. Do you have any suggestions. We have been gardening in this spot and adding soil for 18 years and still grass. Grass doesn't grow in our yard very well, only the garden. Help is you can. Thanks, Pam

Grass in a vegetable garden is a real misery. When making a new bed, which I do fairly often, the first and foremost thing is to remove the sod. I do this with a kick sod cutter and put the removed sod through a chipper/shredder and blow it back onto the garden. Never has grass grown after this procedure. Alternatively, the sod can be placed in the sun until all the grass dies. But the sod will still have to be broken up. No rototiller made can break up sod. This obviously doesn't answer you question.

I don't know the size of your garden, but am assuming it is a typical urban size. To eliminate the grass it will be necessary to do some serious work. One of those long skinny shovels is required. Simply spade each and every bit of your garden. Place the shovelful onto a 1/2 inch mesh screen built over a 2 by 2 frame on a wheelbarrow and filter the soil, using a pair of strong gloves. Work the soil back and forth until it all filtered through the screen. Discard the grass roots. Place the lovely small particle soil back into the garden. You should go down about 11 inches.

This may appear daunting, but it really easy only a bit time consuming. Do a little each day. If the soil is at an ideal moisture content the job is a bit easier, but it can be done at anytime except when the soil is soaking wet. The end result is spectacular in that your soil is broken up and presto no more grass popping up.

I imagine the original maker of the garden bed simply rototilled the sod into the underlying soil-a sure recipe for a grass disaster.

[frugalfranny]

Rocks here.......just working with ROCKS......river rock size mostly.....but rocks. Good drainage though.....

I think next spring I will think about putting in one smaller raised bed and see how it goes from there........thanks for the info.

[Durgan]

Rocks here.......just working with ROCKS......river rock size mostly.....but rocks. Good drainage though.....

I think next spring I will think about putting in one smaller raised bed and see how it goes from there........thanks for the info.

A whole new ball game. Smother the grass, use your imagination, build the wall about 15 inches around the bed, probably railways ties in this case. Order in soil triple mix and have a garden.

[MomToTwoBoys]

We're doing the raised garden bed primarily for two reasons:

1) Keep the skunks out.

2) Eliminate the weeding issue that we had this year.

A raised garden bed also looks nicer to us. We had wire fence border and while it looked nice, neighborhood kids managed to knock it over and uproot it.

We don't have any drainage issues because our land is flat in the front and the side yards. If we were going to do a garden in the backyard, drainage would still be good because most of the yard is at a downslope. However, it's too much of a downslope to delegate any garden without digging out the yard and putting in a garden at the bottom with a retaining wall at the top.

[Durgan]

We're doing the raised garden bed primarily for two reasons:

1) Keep the skunks out.

2) Eliminate the weeding issue that we had this year.

A raised garden bed also looks nicer to us. We had wire fence border and while it looked nice, neighborhood kids managed to knock it over and uproot it.

We don't have any drainage issues because our land is flat in the front and the side yards. If we were going to do a garden in the backyard, drainage would still be good because most of the yard is at a downslope. However, it's too much of a downslope to delegate any garden without digging out the yard and putting in a garden at the bottom with a retaining wall at the top.

Get to it. It is easier than you think.

[Persimmon Lace]

We do raised beds for 2 reasons, water issues, we have french drains to deal with that and ease of working them as we get older. Our ground slopes and we have some artisian wells in the yard. Plus in Oklahoma, having raised beds allows me to plant even sooner because of all the rain we get in the spring. The ground is easily prepared for planting and I've been known to plant in the rain!

My raised beds stay dry and the weeding is very very easy. I also use the square foot garden method, the dirt is awesome and I raise a ton of veggies most years. Usually it's the weather or conditions that cause problems for me.

[Holding Pattern]

We're doing raised beds to keep out the prairie dogs & ground squirrels. Also, the soil in our area is rock solid and very poor for a garden. Straw bale raised beds worked wonderfully.