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Re: raised beds

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

>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>Mary,
>
>As you know, I went with raised because of the poor soil quality.  
>As far as I'm concerned, if you have good soil, I see no need to go 
>with the raised beds, unless you just like the looks of them better. 
> However, this is stricly my opinion, and someone on the list with 
>more knowledge may have a better opinion. <g>
>
>Holly
>

Well, I've found raised beds to have many advantages for my garden (Zone 
9, Sunset Zone 16 CA). For one, even though I have good soil to begin 
with I don't want to have to "double-dig" down 2-3 feet, where the soil 
gets more compacted so my raised bed, which is about 3 feet deep can have 
wonderful loam all the way down. Root crops and things with long tap 
roots grow much better. Also, the raised bed adds beautiful structure to 
the garden. I took a Smith & Hawken catalog and sort of copied the one 
they had (retail for $695) for about $100. I added beautiful finials from 
Home Depot ($3. each) to each corner and it looks even better than the 
one in the catalog (IMHO : ).

 I added 1" copper banding all around the outsides to deter snails and it 
seems to be working, haven't had a snail problem. The copper looks great. 
Also, I created a chicken wire cover for the whole thing which protects 
it from critters as the seedlings are starting out. Also, created 
individual little cages like Mel's depending on the needs, size, etc. of 
the crop. I'm very happy with this one and have had a few people ask me 
to make one for them. Could be a new sideline business : )

The other advantage for people with small yards it you can put a raised 
bed nearly anywhere and there's no runoff.


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