New raised flower/veggie beds.

[Camile]

Hi,

I've recently built some raised/stepped beds around the house.

They are built on a slope, as a retaining wall, so I have to backfill them ..

Would it be ok if I was putting different layers as follow:

a layer a fresh enough bedding from the goats, sheep, ducks, geese and chicke, with some straw and wood chipping ...

then a layer of well enough rotted cow manure ...

and to finish a good layer of top soil ....

knowing that the beds are about 3 blocks high on average ... and will mainly be used for herbs and flowers ...

and one the part where it's 4 blocks high, I was thinking to mix it with sand as well to make a lighter texture, as it will be for veggies as such, maybe root veggies and some courgettes.

will I get away with that ?

Thanks,
Camile

[Flo]

I rebuilt a raised bed using well rotted horse manure, a good layer of compost from the heap and topped off potting compost for some strawberries last September. I transplanted them there after the bed had settled. All I can say is that they look very well and happy this year.

I'd say that if you are going to build raised beds both above and elsewhere, from my experience, you need to allow time for them to settle as they will sink a bit especially as the base goodies rot down and the rain washes it down.

I've also always found that straw and wood chippings take a good year to rot down.

But that's just my experience.