How to go about making raised landscape beds?

joeyboy

My landscape beds' heights are pretty flush with the lawn. I just installed edgers around them, with the intent of raising the landscape beds.


But I just realized I'm unsure how to raise the actual level of the beds - should I just add more mulch til I hit my desired height? Or should I remove the current mulch, add soil, adn then just replace the mulch topping? Just adding mulch seems like it'd be a ton easier, but I don't want there to be like 6" of mulch and then no water makes its way past that to the soil or something.

SecretSquirrel

It all depends on if you want anything to be growing in the bed. If you have plantings in there, then 2" - 3" of mulch is sufficient.

joeyboy

Well I figured that would be fine (2-3"), my question is actually about what to do to raise the bed.

Currently the bed has a couple inches of mulch already. I want to raise this bed to match the custom edgers I just installed around it, so I need to raise it another ~3". If I just throw 3" more mulch on, now it's almost 6" of mulch, and I'm wondering if that'll hinder water getting to the soil (I'm in FL and these beds don't have supplemental irrigation).

My knee jerk reaction is to just add more mulch - but I want to make sure that if I do that, the water will still make it to the soil. If I put like 3 feet of mulch over the dirt, I can't imagine much, if any, water would actually make it to the soil (and therefore the roots).

DIY4EVER

I believe SecretSquirrel was trying to say that if you have, or intend to pland any plants, shrubs, or other vegetation in the beds, then you should not really have more than 2-3" of mulch on top of the soil.

To raise your beds, I would either remove the mulch and put down soil. You can order it by the truck load depending on how much you need. Or, you could leave the mulch there and add soil to it, working the two together, to reach your desired height. Then top off with fresh mulch. Mixing mulch and soil together is actually a good way to increase aeration of the soil, and since the mulch is organic it will eventually break down completely into the soil.

Once you have reached the desired height by adding soil, top off with fresh mulch at a thickness of 2-3" to allow for proper water penetration and retention. If you are going to be adding any plants or other vegetation, it is much easier to do the planting before topping off with mulch

joeyboy

NICE!!

Thanks for the advice guys

HiFi

REmove the mulch and then add soil for the desired amount.Then after U done with adding the soil replace the mulch.IF u dont add soil the work will look a tad terrible.