Selfsufficientish.com

Hi,

I'm building some raised beds for the first time. I was wondering about height. I was planning on making them about 18" high.

I suppose my question is - Will I have issues with the soil drying out with such a height. Should I be aiming for lower?

I'd appreciate any advice as I'm a complete novice!

Thanks

Andy

Hello,

mine are about 25cm high ..

but a friend of mine has them at waist height and it works great .. built in concrete blocks ..

I would think it all depends on what you are backfilling it with ..

Good luck
Camile

Hi Andy and welcome to Ish.

I don't have any raised beds, never had and have no plans to make any, so my advice might be daft! My only thought on it was about your back. If they were waist height, there would be no bending. If you didn't have raised beds but worked on the ground like me, you can stand on it. What I'm getting at is that you need to make sure you aren't bent over at a funny angle for any prolonged period. But like I said, I may be talking out of the back of my head

happyigloo wrote:Hi,

I'm building some raised beds for the first time. I was wondering about height. I was planning on making them about 18" high.

I suppose my question is - Will I have issues with the soil drying out with such a height. Should I be aiming for lower?

I'd appreciate any advice as I'm a complete novice!

Thanks

Andy

I'm doing some, well I'm supervising my wife doing some really at the weekend. They will be made from 2" x 8" timber. I guess it is down to the different terminology between deep beds and raised beds. For me with a bad back I will be standing and using long impliaments or watching the wife on her knees weeding ( some good to having a bad back then) but for me a raised bed would have to be 3 ft deep. If you don't have any back problems then 18" should be fine.

I don't think you will have any problems with drying out but keep a check on them and if need be just water more frequently or if money allows use a soaker hose and a timer fitted to the water butt.

I saw a gardeners world programme and monty don dug up some potatoes a woman had planted and she said she had really soaked the ground every night but at the potato end of the plant the soil was bone dry.

Hope that helps and welcome to the world of ISH.

Hi huys,

Thanks very much for the swift responses and the welcome.

I have loads of top soil left over which I'll mix with manure to fill them in.

As for my back - I did slip a disc a couple of years ago. Been perfect since but....Maybe I will go a bit higher, just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything stupid.

Nice to get help from Galway (living here) and Yorkshire (born and bred) and thanks big al where ever you're from.

haven't even noticed you are in Galway ..

make sure you plant something that doesn't need sunshine and likes being wet !

Big Al is a Galway man living in Yorkshire !

My raised beds are about 9''/22cm high, (12ft/3.8M long & 4ft/1.3M wide) which allows me to weed sitting on the edges as I too have back problems & dodgy knees, (so can't kneel).

I'm off to start a "101 reasons for having raised beds" thread

MW

Yay for raised beds!!

We're just getting ready to build ours - now, depending on how we do them & the hubby is still wanting to do them with builders blocks.... they will be 6ins or 12ins high - and a MUST for the galway weather!

Hey, Camile - another Galway member - at this rate we can have our very own Galway meet in the summer

Happyigloo - welcome to Ish!

Camile wrote:Big Al is a Galway man living in Yorkshire !

Am I ?? Thanks for that. I must admit to being a bit confussed and now it's apparent why. I always thought I was a monkey hanger from hartlepool in the great unwashed, I mean North East but now I'm not confused anymore... Thanks Camile. minmd you I do love

One way to ensure that your raised beds stay moist, whatever their height, is to dig in lots of leaf-mould and compost, and mulch the top heavily. Then you won't need to water so much.

Thanks again for all the advice and warm welcome.

Will hopefully start building next weekend...