Advice on my raised flower bed project

 


Hi,
I live in the North West of England and was wondering if I could get
some
advice, my back garden gets a lot of sunshine and we want to enjoy
it! I’ve
embarked on a garden project which would see the bottom end of
the garden with a
raised flower bed and decking my post contains a
couple of questions around the
raised flower bed and its contents and
drainage, the raised flower bed is 600mm
deep – your advice is much
appreciated.

I’ve constructed a raised flower bed and -  
i)    I want to protect the raised flower bed wood from moisture/soil etc
and was
thinking of using visqueen but I’m concerned about retaining
too much moisture
and killing anything I plant! Is it wise to use
visqueen with holes in the
bottom? Or should I use a semi permeable
membrane (but this could still damage
the wood??)
Or should I just line the sides with visqueen to protect the wood and
allow any
moisture to run all the way through?

ii)    The reason for the raised bed is to give us some privacy - as you
can see
from the attached photo we are looked onto from all angels I
want to reduce this
by planting some tress/bushes - what would be the
best option for my raised bed?
I want something that can grow quickly but is manageable (if that’s
possible),
keeps it’s leaves during winter.  I’ve heard horror stories
about Leylandii
hedges, probably exaggerated but I’m not sure if they
are suitable for my
application due to the raised flower beds depth?
The other options I’ve seen are
Griselinia Littoralis Hedge and
Lonicera Hedge both have good growth rates –
which would be best?

iii)    I also would like to purchase pre-grown about 1m-1.5m are there
any cheap
online stores you could recommend?


Thanks for your time.


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--
TiSwAs

 


Is there anything i can add to this post to get advice?


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--
TiSwAs

 

dunno if i can suggest much?

down at ground level the neighbours would have a pretty hard time
looking in on you and you them as i see it. with your deck of course
you get to see more of them.

dunno that i would have gone the expense of raised boxes though,
especially that close to the fences, could be a harbour for weeds?
unless cemented first between the boxes and the fence.

not sure what trees grow in your area but one that comes to mind is
the poplar, any tree that grows sort of straight and tall would have
done the job, i feel and without the need for the raised beds. not
sure if bamboo's grow in your area but seek out some of the bunching
ones that don't take over if they do? we have ones here that grow to
4+ meters.


On Mon, 8 Jun 2009 10:53:00 +0100, TiSwAs

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

 

On Mon, 8 Jun 2009 10:53:00 +0100, TiSwAs


I don't know what visqueen is, but I presume it's some sort of
horticultural fabric. I wouldn't put anything into the bottom of the
raised bed. Just make sure the underlying soil in the bottom is well
broken and dug over, to allow the roots of whatever's in there to get
down into it, and to allow good drainage.

If you've used an impregnated softwood or a hardwood for constructing
the sides of the raised bed, then it will be fairly durable anyway. If
you've used untreated softwood, then rot is inevitable. Lining the
sides of the bed with an impermeable membrane such as heavy duty black
polythene may delay rotting, but it will still go eventually. Treating
the wood with a rot-proofing agent before you fill the bed will slow
that rot, but won't be as effective as it the wood were impregnated in
the first place.

I'm also concerned about the posts you've driven into the ground to
support the walls. Unless they were treated, they will rot fairly
quickly at and below ground level. It may also be that the pressure of
the soil and growing roots within the bed will push the sides of the
bed apart, especially if those posts rot. You might consider
connecting the tops of opposite posts together by running heavy duty
galvanised wired across the top of the bed, to hold them together.

I'm no expert on hedge plants, but your choices would seem OK.
Lonicera is probably the faster growing, and Griselinea isn't fully
hardy so a really hard frost might damage it. Other evergreen medium
to fast growers you might consider are Thuja plicata, privet (Ligstrum
ovalifolium), and even one of the hardy bamboos. I wouldn't normally
suggest bamboo to anyone, as some species can be very invasive with
spreading roots, but in your situation they should be OK, as the roots
are shallow and you would have them confined in the raised bed

Remember that the ideal hedge plant, one that grows rapidly to eight
feet or whatever and then miraculously stops, doesn't exist. If it
starts growing rapidly, it will go on growing considerably higher and
wider than you might want, and so need frequent clipping to keep it in
check. Of course, bamboo, being a form of grass, is different. They
grow quickly and don't need a lot of clipping.

PS: You'll never be able to screen yourself from all angels; they're
all-seeing and look down from on high :-)

--
 
Chris

Gardening in West Cornwall overlooking the sea.
Mild, but very exposed to salt gales

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net