Raised Beds

 Considering creating raised beds for vegetables.   Not too sure about using
wood because of the various chemicals that might be embedded so I'm
considering things like
http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPathU&products_idt9
(there's a bigger version too).   I've also come across
http://www.hdra.org.uk/todo_now/faqs_topic.php?id 6.

Anybody care to comment on (a) whether I'm being silly in rejecting wood (b)
any other "systems" like the ones above?

 

about using

http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPathU&products_idt9

IMHO yes.


IMHO such systems are designed and marketed to part your money from
you.

Franz

 

http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPathU&products_id=
749

Just make them from the timber of old pallets and they're very unlikely to
have been treated. Pallets aren't worth the bother. They're also free. Take
a tour round your local industrial estate and you'll probably find places
only too grateful for you to take them away.

Steve

Steve

 

http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPathU&products_idt9

Not disagreeing with pallet suggestion but you could also follow Monty D's
line on Gardeners World and use untreated scaffold boards - cheap (about £7
for 8'?) (got em for my fruit bed) or keep eye out for what I got for main
veg bed - untreated French oak 'sleepers' 2.4m x 200mm x 100mm, following
big french storm for £10-12 a piece....

Michael

 
The two examples of raised beds shown are more like containers for
floral work than a plot for vegetable growing. Ideally for cropping
vegetables a raised bed needs to be about four feet wide, i.e. the
widest which enables the centre of the bed to be reached without
treading on the soil. The length can vary according to what space you
have, but 12-15 ft. is about the maximum practical. A variety of
materials have been suggested for the sides of raised beds, but in fact
there is no horticultural merit in artificially raising the level of the
growing area. We ran a large number of beds commercially for several
years and none of them ever had supported sides.

When the soil of the bed is deeply cultivated and regularly worked, and
at the same time the walking paths around it are repeatedly trodden, the
bed will be 3 or 4 inches above the path. They are called raised beds
for that reason, but the name really refers to the 'raised bed' method
of horticulture, than to their height. Beds without supported sides are
easier to manage and less inclined to attract problems at the edges.
They are also cost free to set up.  
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.