Raised bed help
 

After growing tomatoes and peppers in buckets for the last 7 years I decided I would like to try raised beds. I spent more time watering than picking or enjoying. I usually had anywhere between 20 and 40 buckets. I was wondering what the typical minimum and maximum depth of soil and do you put plastic on the bottom raised bed or cover with dirt? Do most put plastic on the top and cut out the holes or just soil and forget it.




Thanks

I did raised bed tomatoes for several years and had very good luck. My raised beds were railroad ties stacked two high, four feet wide and 16 feet long...no matter what they say about using railroad ties, we never got sick once. The beds were filled with my own compost and soil from another part of the landscape pile directly on the soil. I tried several different methods of mulching including black plastic, red plastic, grass clippings and finally the winner: newsprint covered by straw.

Every year I would incorporate the mulch into the soil and add more compost if needed. The spacing I used was three feet apart on the plants put in at a zig-zag so there were six or seven plants per raised bed (I had two). That worked for me, but there are so many different methods. I would still have raised beds but we moved and have been doing conventional in-ground gardening for the past 15 years.

I'm with you on the watering time; it becomes especially hard when I travel.

I think your raised beds will reflect your growing conditions. I've grown in raised beds in Maryland, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Virginia where the soil, weather and pest/disease varied widely.

Wisconsin: very deep, rich topsoil - few pests/disease - I grew in raised beds so that the soil would warm up quicker in the spring. I just threw the dirt from the paths on top of the beds. That's it.

Virginia: very heavy clay and a lot of woods - some disease - heavy springs rains, with dry summer and high water bills. I dig down 2-3 feet, bury logs, brush and leaves and throw the dirt on top (hugelkulture). The wood holds a huge amount of water for summer but the seedlings don't drown during the spring. As the wood breaks down - it creates great soil.

If you have root knot nematodes or serious soil disease - maybe lining the bottom makes sense to create a barrier between your store bought soil mix and the natural, infected soil.

Bad critter problem eating your roots - use chicken wire on the bottom.

Oh, for the top - again - what are you looking to do?

Black plastic - warms up the soil in the spring, conserves water, reduces weed, keeps dirt from

White plastic - increased available light in shaded area - keeps soil cool during summer heat.

My favorite covering now is chopped oak leaves and pine straw. I just pick up the bags from neighbors - weeding is reduced to just about zero, and rain easily penetrates the covering unlike plastic mulch.

One word, (concrete) even the bottom.

I lay down whatever metal screening I have on hand on the base soil of the raised bed. Sometimes it's chicken wire, this eliminates gophers and such. I fill with mostly compost and cover with black plastic. cut holes into wherever i want to put a plant. I dont think too hard on it.

Why couldn't you use sip buckets, or use a drip line to the buckets?

I just spent the winter and spring rebuilding all my raised beds. I used treated pine 2X10 boards to replace my treated 37 year old treated 2X8 pine boards. I never put anything under the beds except the native soil. I did remove the grass growing there when I built the original beds. I use a mix of soil, peat, pine bark fines and compost to fill my beds. I use more peat than you would probably need due to the very high heat and the resulting fast drying that goes on down here. I put a heavy layer of cypress mulch for retaining moisture and keeping out weeds. I have tried just about everything else and nothing else works as well for me and it has the added bonus of some of it breaking down each year replenishing some of the organic mater. I reuse the mulch every year and replace what I must with new as the older mulch gradually breaks down.

Bill

lexxluthor. What size containers were you using?

I use 2.5g and 5g buckets and didn't want to try a drip system because the time spent moving them around when cutting the lawn.