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Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

How many folks use raised beds to plant into/ I am thinking of doing this this year as I have heavy clay soil and it is fairly slow to warm up in the spring. What blends of compost/ manure / peat/ soil are being used?

2/11/2005 10:20:36 PM

San Diego

if you have heavy clay and you put good soil ontop, you can created a bath tub if the clay soil doesn't drain well. The water goes down to the clay and stops, backing everything up. My friend did this and had a disaster. It can work, but it can be tricky to get good drainage with heavy clay under the raised bed. Jimmy

2/15/2005 9:37:26 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

My entire patch is a raised bed mainly due to the fact that where I live the lots are terraced on a mountainside. On the low side there is a cement retaining wall with wind protection (fence) on top and the rest is lined with old chimney bricks stacked on top of eachother. As Jimmy stated, drainage is the key. Not an issue in my patch.

Glenn

2/15/2005 10:04:44 PM

In the shade - PDX, OR

Raised beds in my back yard. 18 to 20" high works well for me. In heavy clay as well.

At first you can get a bathtub effect - but once the organic matter breaks down further I found out that it opens up the soil and allows it to drain better.

Check HTGWCGP III has some good pics of Drew Papez's raised beds. That'll tend to happen when you add as much manure as he does.

2/17/2005 11:07:37 PM

Pocatello (cliffwarren@yahoo.com)

When you add things to the clay soil, what do you add and
in what amounts?

2/18/2005 12:04:52 AM

Cologne / Germany

What kind of raised beds do you mean? As big as the complete planting area? I´m trying soil dams this year that will follow the vines, so the vines rest about 10 inches above the soil surface. Basically the same setup like growing asparagus or strawberries. I´ll probably mulch the dams. Over here it´s a good method with the lower summer temps we have.

2/18/2005 5:55:13 AM

Phoenix, AZ

I have clay and my raised bed I ended up with works just fine. Try putting in a drainage system for the "bathtub" effect. Don't know what OM I added, it just worked! Went from under 1% to 22% with the additions.

2/18/2005 7:56:22 AM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

I have added about 30 yards of well composted manure to my patch of 75ft X 75 ft and ploughed in last fall. I was planning on working this down in the spring when dry. Then using my manure spreader to blend a mixture of rotted manure, mushroom farm compost and black earth. Then spread this mixture into beds of 10 X 10 X 24"deep. Then placing mini green houses (PVC + 6 mil clear plastic) over top. My clay soil has moderate drainage and is slow to warm up in the spring.I'm hopeing by using the beds in improve drainage and increse soil temperature around the main stock. It was July 10th last year before i could set any fruit. My whole area is 150'X 75' and I can alternate ends every other year. My challange is getting on early enough and off early enough. I usually can't touch my ground befoe may 10th or after Oct 10th.

2/18/2005 9:30:20 PM

In the shade - PDX, OR

Cliff - Last year when I built the new bed I started by double digging the entire area. This is a small 480 sqft area. I put in as many leaves as possible at the bottoms of the trenches. On top of that I put in 8 yards of composted cow manure and 2 yds of pumice, and 4 bales of peat. balance with lime and gypsum.....
last year it didn't drain well. This winter she drains like a charm.

2/19/2005 1:07:51 AM