Large Raised Bed (pre-dropping)
Having marked out the vegetable patch and sussed out that it would all fit (we even re-configured the layout to get a few more beds in) we have started to make our raised beds. Fortunately we have an ‘old-fashioned’ wood yard up the road where we sourced our pressure-treated wood.
We ordered 12 ft x 6in (3.6m x 15cm) lengths, which meant that when we cut those into thirds we could use the lenghts for the end panels. For 2010 we are only planning to make 2 large and the 2 small (wedge shaped) raised beds. So the large beds will be 3.6m long, by 1.2m wide by 30cm high and there will eventually be 8 in total!
We also wanted our raised beds to be a bit of a feature, so we have painted ours! We constructed our beds completely (including stakes) and then offered them up and dug holes for the stakes to go into. Trying to knock the stakes into place in the right spot at the right level and then screw on the sides seemed like a higher risk strategy to getting them right.
Small Raised Wedge Shape Bed
Having built them we now need to fill them with top soil. Using a top soil calculator we need just over 20 tons of top soil to fill all of the raised beds! Hmm … wonder where were going to get that from!!
Tags: Home Grown Organic Vegetables, Raised Beds, Vegetable Patch
Categories: Kitchen Garden, Posts with Photos, Self Sufficiency, Vegetable Patch, Vegetables