Talk to me about Raised Beds please DH and I can't agree

[Quail_Antwerp]

So I was supposed to be building a raised bed today for my carrots, but that was stopped before it even began.

DH and I had agreed on spot for my first raised bed yesterday. Well, today he's out there tilling up the spot. I said I thought my raised bed was going there and he said go get the stuff we'll build it.

I thought building a raised bed meant I didn't need to till the ground?! He says he has to till the ground first so that 1) easier to plant 4x4's for the corners of my raised bed and 2) it will prevent the grass from growing up HUH?!

I understand sorta his reasoning for number 1, but not for number 2. He knows I said I would be laying newspaper and/or cardboard in the bottom of my raised bed to prevent weeds/grass from growing. I had this whole idea of pretty raised beds with walking paths between them, and I tried to explain that to him, and he's like, you can walk through the rest of the garden to work your bed.

I got upset because I told him tilling defeated the purpose of a raised bed. I said I thought that with a raised bed, I would be eliminating the need to till first. Maybe I am wrong.

Regardless, The Enabler and I had a full blown argument (yep, that's the first one for the year) regarding this stupid raised bed. So I told him to forget it, do the garden the way we always do.

So would someone please give me some tips on your raised beds, because right now I have lumber going to waste.

 

[Woodland Woman]

Sorry you had a disagreement with your husband. How deep were you planning to make your beds? Mine weren't very deep and my husband tilled before we set them up. Must be a husband thing. I don't think it hurts to till because after a while the dirt ends up compacted even though you are not walking on it. Here we have a clay soil and even amending the soil helps only to a degree. I don't know how your soil is. After having raised beds for years we eventually took them down. I may do a couple small ones again for certain things.

 

[patandchickens]

I thought building a raised bed meant I didn't need to till the ground?! He says he has to till the ground first so that 1) easier to plant 4x4's for the corners of my raised bed and 2) it will prevent the grass from growing up HUH?!

Tilling is probably a better idea -- it will encourage your raised-bed soil to eventually merge with the underlying 'real' ground thereby letting plants grow deeper and access more moisture.

Tilling *will* discourage grass from growing up thru your raised bed more than just putting down cardboard would; it weakens the grass a bit; but I'm not sure it'll make that much of a difference if you're going to be putting a substantial depth of soil on top, as I assume you will be for carrots.

You can still put your cardboard down btw, just rake the tilled area relatively level/flat/even first. No problem at all. And that will discourage the grass a little bit more. May as well do it.

I had this whole idea of pretty raised beds with walking paths between them, and I tried to explain that to him, and he's like, you can walk through the rest of the garden to work your bed.

Oh, are you upset because you wanted *grass paths* between your raised bed? Well, you are really probably better off without them -- you would spend the rest of your life fighting the grass creeping into the raised beds and being very difficult to pull out b/c it's grown under your landscape ties. Mulch between the raised beds; or put pavers down; or put pavers down and seed white clover around between/around them.

I said I thought that with a raised bed, I would be eliminating the need to till first.

IMO you are both right You don't *need* to till if you're doing a raised bed; otoh there are benefits to tilling (or digging over the ground, anyhow, which is what I would do) for the reason mentioned in my first paragraph.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[enjoy the ride]

The purests in this world (I was that 20 years ago) double dig beds- which means you take the soil one shovel length below the bottom of the bed, then move the next bit into the hole you just dug out- doing this all the way down the bed until you hit the end and put the first bit you took out into that spot. So basically you have soft, amended dirt quite deep throughout the bed. Made for wonderful growing but too much work for me now. I just go up.
But not tilled under the bed that I ever heard of- couldn't really hurt I think but the sides of the bed would be likely to sink into the soft tilled ground I would think.

 

[TanksHill]

I am sorry your beds became an issue. I use wire on the bottom of my beds to prevent gophers from getting in. So tilling is n even an issue for me Good luck.

 

[freemotion]

I planted Dutch White clover between my garden rows last year and that was sure nice to walk on in my bare feet! Still had to weed it a little, but I let it creep into the planted area as a living mulch, and planted it on purpose around taller plants like tomatoes.

I wonder if I will have to replant it, though, as it looks like the mice or something had a field day (pun intended) in the paths over the winter. I will be ordering more clover seed, at any rate, because I liked using it so much.

It might work well between your raised beds, too.

 

[Beekissed]

You are both right, Quail! He is preparing for raised beds and you wanted raised bed, no-till. Either way, it will be a raised bed. As for the pathways? I like a permanent pathway and I use green mulch and grass seed. I took down my "raised" portion of boards on the sides of my beds but will still have half of my garden in permanent beds that are hilled higher than the pathways.

If you have sides to your raised beds, I can't imagine the weeds will be taking you over. Especially if you are mulching properly. This year I will be using more green mulch than the other, with nitrogen- fixing clovers. Definitely around the corn and potatoes.

The white clovers will be great for my bees as well.

I think no-till is a great way to go for small garden beds but a bit more difficult for a bigger garden like mine. I would still love to till as little as possible and next year have a cover crop planted when the garden is done.

Will you be posting pics, Aly?

 

[miss_thenorth]

Wow! I just can't believe he's rototilling! I rototilled last year, and my back was killing me for days afterwards. And that's not with hving back problems. Give him and A for effort!

 

[keljonma]

We've done both - tilled and no-till raised beds, depending on what we were planting and how much soil we were putting on top of the ground.

At one of our places, I used creeping thyme between the raised beds. It smelled wonderul when walked on, and doesn't grow tall enough to need trimmed or mowed.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Wow! I just can't believe he's rototilling! I rototilled last year, and my back was killing me for days afterwards. And that's not with hving back problems. Give him and A for effort!

Are you kidding??? He's so....Uh I can't find a nice word right now...stubborn?????

He's not supposed to be touching the tiller, which is why I had tilled the large garden.

Right now, hubby/enabler or not, he fits the bill of Stupid in my book. I'm sure he'll be feeling it tomorrow. And if anyone from SSI/Disability had happened to come by today, yea I am real sure that running that tiller today really helped his claim considering he's supposed to be on light duty to bedrest

I'm sorry. I am not having a good attitude right now.

I thank all of you for the tips of the raised beds, I will let him do it his way.