Advice on raised beds please

[Medusa]

I have a bit of space at the back of the house which I'm presuming the former owners had a greenhouse or shed on as it's concreted and has a drainage channel. Would this be a good place to put a raised bed? Sunlight in the afternoon to early evening but shaded for the rest of the day. SO and I are having a bit of a discussion as I would like a brick raised bed (with drainage points) and he feels that using railway sleepers would be better. I can do basic brickwork so would not need to pay someone to do this. I would like to plant a few different things so herbs, onions, potatoes and maybe some carrots and rhubarb. I am pretty clueless about growing veggies so any help would be appreciated. I would also like to know if its possible to grow fruit bushes, raspberries, blackcurrants etc in raised beds. Thanks.

[TheWolfXX]

I have a bit of space at the back of the house which I'm presuming the former owners had a greenhouse or shed on as it's concreted and has a drainage channel. Would this be a good place to put a raised bed? Sunlight in the afternoon to early evening but shaded for the rest of the day. SO and I are having a bit of a discussion as I would like a brick raised bed (with drainage points) and he feels that using railway sleepers would be better. I can do basic brickwork so would not need to pay someone to do this. I would like to plant a few different things so herbs, onions, potatoes and maybe some carrots and rhubarb. I am pretty clueless about growing veggies so any help would be appreciated. I would also like to know if its possible to grow fruit bushes, raspberries, blackcurrants etc in raised beds. Thanks.

Heya I myself have recently started on working through my garden turning my rockery (come large raised slope) at the back of my garden into a set of terraces for vegs and fruits.

The main reasons (as far as I can tell) to raise a bed is for an advantageous lighting and getting heat into the soil so for these purposes I would say go with a brick bed as it will take far less work than anything wood which will inevitably rot if not treated to withstand the living organism of soil but on the other hand it will be harder (from my personal preference) to "turn-over" and dig out when you've finished growing.

My raised beds are little more than planks of recovered wood with stakes of recovered wood and I am utilizing this method because of its cheap and cheerful nature as well as the fact that next year when turning the soil over I can pull out the wood (at which point I will utilize it on my fire and turn it back into the soil as wood ash which peas love) and turn new soil in with relative ease before bracing them back up.

I found this site to be awesome when starting to learn about all of this (can be handy to put together a planting and harvesting calendar) http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ and they give you information on everything they sell from planting times to harvesting to light amounts and etc. The only thing they don't cover is potatoes but other sites do cover them extremely well (and remember you can always just chit store bought and plant with potatoes most times of the year depending on when you want to pull them up). They even have guides for how to save your own seed meaning you only have to buy your seed once then you're generating your own.

You can grow anything in a raised bed from what I can gather of the few sites I've pulled up as most plants only actually need 4" to 6 inches. A concrete bed will probably need drainage holes drilled as well as a layer of gravel but otherwise height and width are purely up to your needs and the needs of your desired crop. I imagine everything you need to know about raised beds can be found here: http://carryongardening.org.uk/files/do ... _Nov08.pdf (it does contain instructions for both railways sleeper beds and brick beds).

Most fruiting plants will need a lot of light while others like kale might benefit from shade at certain points (at certain latitudes).

Sorry if I've bounced around a bit. I'm a little tired and the websites linked will probably provide far more useful and far more accurate information than my brain is currently eeking out. Hope I've helped in some way not just piled more reading on.

[PreppingPingu]

The only thing I can think of to caution against sleepers is that they may be contaminated with railway pollutants but it depends where you get them from I guess. I am not sure if I would sit them on the concrete base though. I would prefer to use the earth as then the worms can get in to aerate your soil. I would use the base to sit a cold frame on maybe. I am no expert and very much learning as I go with my allotment but they are just my thoughts.

I used to grow several raspberry canes in a 1mx1.5m raised bed by the stepped path in my tiny back garden in my old house. I had 3 or 4 stepped beds of the same size running down the side of my path to my back gate. One had a rhubarb plant in it, one had a couple of autumn raspberry canes, and one I used for leaf veg like spinach. It wasn't much and didn't exactly feed the 5,000 but I was amazed at what you can grow in a raised bed. Further up, (I was on a very steep slope,) I used the ply wood and MDF draws from the daughter's old cabin bed and suck them into the ground for strawberries. (I was trying to be creative in the disposal of her old monstrosity of a cabin bed!) So what I am trying to say is most stuff can be grown in a raised bed - depends how big your beds are going to be but even the tiny ones can grow stuff.

[featherstick]

No point at all in putting a raised bed on a concrete base. The point of a raised bed is to increase the depth of soil by building up and working down to bring more subsoil into use. You don't have subsoil there. The bed will never amount to much, it'll be soggy in winter, dry in summer, and need continuous inputs. You'll need about 12" depth of soil to grow spuds there - that is a HUGE volume of material to bring in, and then replenish every year.

You could break it out and then see what's left to work with. Or you could use it as a sort of large stand for planters and pots, specially as it will probably be quite warm. So you could grow all your toms, outdoor cukes, etc. on it, potatoes in grow bags, a fruit tree in a pot etc.

Or you could put a greenhouse back on it : )

Fruit trees need a permanent space although there are many varieties now that will do well in a large pot with the right care, watering, feeding etc. and dwarf varieties that basically look like a stick with leaves on it. Don't rush into anything, do some more research and reading, especially if you have access to a library.

[Medusa]

Thanks for all the advice and the links, more reading and research to be done I think