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Re: "unconstructed" raised beds?

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Simply put, of course you can square foot garden without lumber, blocks,
logs etc., whether or not they are treated, mistreated, poisoned or
expensive...:-)

Get Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman for a good common sense take on
garden layout. Coleman makes his beds 30" across and very slightly raised
off what he scoops out of his one foot wide sunken paths.

I like raised beds and have made them out of concrete blocks, fieldstone,
cut up logs, lumber of various kinds and what have you, mostly salvaged
materials since I can't see ponying up money for them, and never pressure
treated, creosoted, or other pizened stuff, just on general principles.

1 x 6 lumber is functional and portable should you not stay at yer community
garden plot, and I've made some strawberry beds out of deconstructed pallet
wood; but with my heavy clay soil I can set up the bed the way I want it and
just put the Melsoil on top, or do other soil building things like mulching,
and the bed stays put. Just clay fortitude holds it right up.

The French intensive/biodynamic gardeners make rounded mounds 5 feet across
on clay soils and also plant very  closely.

I will say that I am a rectilineal sort of guy and like the sense of control
that a 2 x 10 built bed has, and that this is a nice gardening artifact, but
most of my garden is not inclosed in such beds, although it still gets
planted intensely.

Remeber Rikki-tikki-tavi, Kipling's mongoose? The motto of his family was
run and find out, and all us gardeners have to do some of that...

Good Gardening,

Frank Teuton

-----Original Message-----
From: Kristina Eide <eidekris@hotmail.com>
To: sqft@listbot.com <sqft@listbot.com>
Date: Thursday, January 14, 1999 4:46 PM
Subject: "unconstructed" raised beds?


>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>I have never tried square-foot gardening, and am fairly new at any kind
>of gardening, actually.  This will be my third year and I will be doing
>it on a much larger scale this time.  I just received a 25'x30' garden
>plot in a community garden, and would like to plant using square-foot
>methods, but I don't want to construct the raised beds on a property I
>may not even have access to in a year.  Can I just add soil to 4' square
>beds within my plot w/o making any kind of container or edge for the
>bed--just pile up the soil in a square? I would lay down some kind of
>weed barrier, either plastic or organic mulch, as pathways between the
>squares.  (I just purchased the Mel Bartholomew book but have not had
>time to read it carefully yet.)
>
>I live in Northern Virginia, zone 7, and the soil is clay.  Has been
>somewhat improved in the plot, but still not up to standard.
>
>
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