Beginner’s Guide to Fertile Soil and Raised Garden Beds

I also use landscape timbers and they are great! Instead of tilling though I use the lasagna method and prepare the bed ahead of time before time to plant. It is the easiest way to garden and I have huge amounts of produce better than when I didn't use raised beds! Yeah for raised beds and lasagna gardening!!

My real purpose of utilizing raised beds is to prevent surface water from lying in the garden area, and the material used to contain the beds limits grass from encroaching onto the vegetable beds. The other choice is to dig edging channels, which reduce growing area and require constant repair and maintenance.

My soil is heavy clay of good quality about 18 inches before the real hardpan is encountered.

The beds are maintained by adding vegetative compost about three inches deep yearly, and working wood chips into the soil. Sometimes the wood chips are simply the mulch left over from the growing season, and sometimes a layer is added. A cover crop of red annual clover is grown in some areas, planted when the summer crop is harvested. This fixes nitrogen and feeds the worms.

Since prose is a poor substitute for a subject (gardening) which begs for clarification by pictures, I seldom traverse the garden without my camera, and document most operations and post if suitable, and might be helpful or useful to some reader.

Here is some photos annotated of garden bed preparation.
http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?TNKZN 26 September 2008 Completing New Garden Bed
Mini ties have been installed to have support walls for the raised bed. Total time one hour.
http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?IWBAU Summary: Making a new garden bed.

Recycled Plastic Fence Post for Garden beds.
http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?LXWIS 2 October 2008 Recycled Plastic Fence Post
A friend had a number of these recycled plastic composite fence posts, and donated them to me for containing a garden bed. They are held in place with two foot, iron, half inch diameter, rebar through holes drilled in the posts.The black posts are 5 inches in diameter, and 8 feet long. The posts are easy to hand saw, and are about the same weight as two mini ties of the same length. I know nothing about the cost, or even where to purchase them at this time.

I have been using wooden mini ties, but these fence p

I've gown totally over to raised beds. I'm in the Army and move
every 30-36 months to a new post. It is too much work to dig and
amend the often poor soil for a new garden that frequently and when
I leave it has to be reseeded with grass. I usually build a raised
bed, look around the area for places where people dump their grass
and leaves, and fill it up with a mixture of local dirt and the
composted grass and leaves. When I move again, I take it apart and
spread the rich garden soil around the yard and reseed the bare
rectangle with grass. The soil is so rich that the grass grows very
fast and I can clear the home with no problems.

I use these landscape timbers. They work beautifully. I made
them 3 high. They lock together better. Made 4'x8' there is no
waste. I used spikes to put them together. I off-set them just the
4" width of the timbers, drilled tight holes for spikes in two
places midway to hold each wall together. Then drilled slightly
larger holes in the ends that lock together. This way I can take
them apart easily if I need to, to replace a wall or move them.You
could also make them 2'x8',2'x4' and have no waste. Also they are
nice to sit on while you are working, very sturdy.

The older I get, the more I like the convenience of raised beds.
I noticed landscape timbers at the home store at $1.97 for an eight
footer. Two levels high would enable you to "lock" the corners, and
they are now safe for vegetable gardens with the new ACQ treatment
process.