Raised vs Not

So I have a few questions for experience with both raised and not raised.

For raised bedders, how do you people (you people, love using that in a non-demeaning context) till these? Do you shove a tiller in there and give'er or...?

I used raised beds last year and didn't notice any difference from not using them the year prior. In fact, I got better yields the year prior from things like squash without raising the beds or hilling them. Has anyone else found this?

For standard gardens (ie not raised), do you plant intensively, square foot, rows? How are your results?

Has anyone tried both?

I love the look of a well established, well organized, neatly set up raised bed garden, but then, a well tilled, somewhat weeded standard garden also looks excellent.

Any experiences are excellent, its what I'm looking for.

I think the advantage to raised beds is
1. warmer so you can plant earlier and good for heat loving plants
2. helps if you are starting a new garden spot and the edge keeps grass from invading
3. If you have a heavy soil and lots of rain they will dry out better?

Disadvantages
1. Dry out faster so if you have light soil/no rainfall you have to water more.
2. Hard to cultivate, really work up in there every year.

I too like the "look" of them and the idea that they will keep the grass at bay or contain an overtaking plant but I bought these corners from Lee Valley
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and want to use 2- 1x 4 to attach them to so I can build them as high as I want, remove them in winter and fold them up and put them in a different spot next year.
Still have to buy the wood but I do plan to try them although with my sandy dry soil maybe they will get too dry.
On the instructions they recommend using sand and manure in them rather than soil and we do have lots of both of those!!

I use raised beds in the greenhouse, but garden conventionally. I have a very small tiller that I use to till the beds in the greenhouse, but in all honesty, this is where I would like to try no-till as they beds never compact.. The purpose of raised beds is to maintain soil porosity, as you don't compact the soil by walking on it. In order to get the most out of a raised bed you have to start with very high quality soil. You can't just raise your garden soil into a bed and expect better results. The raised beds are meant to be smaller sections of high quality soil, meant for intensive planting. Ideally, you can use half good quality compost and half soil for the bedding mix. This is where you will see your best results as the intensive planting prevents weed growth - therefore less effort. Your beds will need to be watered though as they do dry out faster.

In the conventional gardens, I plant my rows far enough apart to run my tractor between the rows for easier maintenance, but it is not necessary.

I find gardening is not about success or failure. Every year I have different degrees of success with different things. Even master gardeners (and I am NOT one), make mistakes an learn something every year!

Raised beds are a way to garden on hillside. You can build the bed to accommodate slope.

I have had some trouble with my raised beds. Namely placing them where encroaching root growth from local shrubbery would come up and make a snarled mess of water and nutrient sucking tangle that starved out my plants. I had to dig all the soil out of the bed, tough since the roots prevented a spade from sinking in, and raised the bottoms OFF ground level, hoping the roots will not snake their way through an airspace and a cedar bottom to get into my soil. So...remove top growth before you place your beds or build them far away from shrubs with sneaky roots.

My beds are small and lined with heavy plastic to retain moisture. I used the plastic that mattresses come wrapped in. Got it from the furniture store. POKE HOLES IN IT or you end up with a mud pool. My garden boxes, 3x5, do not dry out too fast. Over the years I have developed amazing soil in them and I do not till it, just wiggle my fingers in there and plant. But even amazing soil cannot cope with lack of sunlight.

Instead of just putting anything at the bottom put down a layer of fine sand or pebbles and then a good quality ground  cover cloth ? This way you get drainage , weeds and such will not get through the cloth ( double it up ) and that should solve a lot of issues .

In my case, fine sand and pebbles will NOT stop roots. Nothing has stopped those roots. I even dug trenches around the outside edge of the boxes and filled them with water softener salt to discourage the roots. My only hope is to raise the bottoms right off the ground and HOPE the roots will not travel through and air space, through a cedar bottom and then into the soil. If they do, I am toast!

uno wrote:In my case, fine sand and pebbles will NOT stop roots. Nothing has stopped those roots. I even dug trenches around the outside edge of the boxes and filled them with water softener salt to discourage the roots. My only hope is to raise the bottoms right off the ground and HOPE the roots will not travel through and air space, through a cedar bottom and then into the soil. If they do, I am toast!

Wow ?

Sweetened wrote:So I have a few questions for experience with both raised and not raised.  

For raised bedders, how do you people (you people, love using that in a non-demeaning context) till these?  Do you shove a tiller in there and give'er or...?

I used raised beds last year and didn't notice any difference from not using them the year prior.  In fact, I got better yields the year prior from things like squash without raising the beds or hilling them.  Has anyone else found this?

For standard gardens (ie not raised), do you plant intensively, square foot, rows?  How are your results?  

Has anyone tried both?

I love the look of a well established, well organized, neatly set up raised bed garden, but then, a well tilled, somewhat weeded standard garden also looks excellent.

Any experiences are excellent, its what I'm looking for.

I saw something today that would be a plus for raised beds--- they had stuck pvc pipe into the wood hoop-style.  I like that idea!  a person could cover it up with some sort of clear poly then and every bed could be "greenhoused" in its early stages....  or left to greenhouse til the end (thinking, tomatoes and peppers and the likes that dont do as well just out in the garden)


I am considering this for myself... but I think if I were to do it, A) they would have to be not too far off the ground because B) we would be tilling them, so they would also have to be at least wide enough for the tiller.

I love my tiller.  it makes gardening SO much easier I swear.