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Re: Bed Construction

Just an additional thought to the 4 ft. width for raised beds. Our raised
beds are truly raised. with redwood sides. 4X8. We use a "Mantis tiller"
(just purchased this year) for cultivation inside the beds and it works
easily. Light weight, quite manageable, does a good job. Another reason for
the wider bed.
Lorraine Hoag
grdnr4u@syix.com





At 06:52 PM 5/8/97 -0400, you wrote:
>On Tuesday, May 06, 1997 8:58 PM, 
>bettye spatafora <bettyels@msn.com> asked:
>> What do you consider the ideal width for raised beds?
>
>I work with both 3' and 4' beds.  That's because I plant different crops in
>each of them.  Yes, it makes rotation a little more difficult to manage,
>but I have trouble doing ground crops of certain crops (like cucumbers) in
>a 3' bed.  I suppose that I could trellis the cukes and do everything in 3'
>beds.  Hmmm.  
>
>4' beds are nice, too, if you can put an aisle on either side.  It really
>becomes two 2' beds arranged side-by-side with no aisle in-between.  
>
>3' beds are nice if you need to work from only one side.  
>
>A 3' bed is 3 overlapping tiller passes.  I usually do the edges first,
>then finish down the middle.
>A 4' bed is 4 overlapping tiller passes.  If the bed is not too rough,
>maybe just 3 passes, but it doesn't look as nice.  
>
>Using a tiller, obviously, I do not have permanent edges to my beds. 
>However, I do maintain a Dutch clover cover in the aisles, and keep that
>mowed during the summer.  It tends to invade the bed edges, and that's a
>good reason to till the beds when they are finished, and at the end and
>beginning of the season.  I have no hardpan layer to consider, and am
>pumping enough organic matter in that the tilling does not seem to create a
>soil tilth problem.  Yes, I destroy the soil structure every time I till. 
>But the worms seem to enjoy recreating it for me!
>
>
>
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