DIY Home Improvement Forum banner

Raised Garden Bed

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  user1007 
#1 ·
Hello everyone,
Going to build my first raised garden bed this weekend. It is going to be about 3 feet from my foundation so I am thinking of raising it about 16" so I limit the water entering the soil in the ground. Here is Colorado we have a lot of expansive soil.

Do you think this is a good height?

Also there is currently weed barrier on top of the "clay". Should I keep the weed barrier and layer the planting bed soil on top or cut away?

Thanks
 
#2 ·
16" sounds high but there isn't any particular problem with that. If you use good soil you can grow some nice big carrots!

Landscape fabric is a good idea but you'll still get some weeds due to wind drift, but they shouldn't be hard to deal with.

You should look into square foot gardening:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_foot_gardening

Simple idea, it just suggests that you put in nearly 100% organics for soil mixed with vermiculite for moisture retention, and allows you to optimize plant spacing and rotation for pretty high yields with easy maintenance. Some people follow the plan religiously and get a little too fanatic about it, but the general underlying ideas are sound.

My wife and I have a few raised bed plots and we do pretty well.

Have fun, get those plants in there soon!
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the reply's. I have built a 3 x 5 box 10" high. I'm going to use a modified version of the Mel's mix.

My next question is regarding the irrigation. I have a drip already installed in the area that I am going to tap into for the time being until I figure out a long term solution. The long term sol. might be putting it on its own zone. The line will be coming in from the left side of the box.
I am undecided if I should bring the poly tube up and on top and over the lumber and go down on full length and wrap around and come back the full lenght.
The second option is come up from under the lumber and do the wrap around the bed.

Is one way better than the other?

Thanks
 
#4 ·
It is going to look nicer if you bring the tubing under the lumber but as you know the emitters have to be on the surface.

If you are running a water supply for a new watering zone, I would think about using buried PVC for the water supply line and run it all the way to a riser inside the raised bed. Fit a barbed fitting on that and then run your drip tubing.

Obviously, and you probably know, the best selection of emitters is going to be online. An irrigation supply house may have some nice ones and good deals on tubing. I would stay away from the box store offerings.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top