A "How To" for Building Raised Beds

I use 6' T posts for plants of shorter stature and 8' posts for taller varieties. Since we haven't had our first freeze of the winter yet, most of my spring planted plants have topped the supports and are hanging almost to the ground. I don't think you can really build a support system tall enough for most indeterminate plants. They were also cut back to about sixteen inches tall in mid summer.

Ted

[Too Tall Toms]

My goal for next year is to have 8ft tall tomatoes.

Maybe to make things easy on me as far as planning goes, I should not set my goal so high.

I do like the idea of building a trellis with those tall T posts.

I'm thinking about taking the ropes down between the T stakes and putting normal tomato cages between them. The T stakes would then support the cages. I don't prune my plants while they are growing, so they become really huge and bushy. I think it would be easier to keep them retained in cages than constantly training the branches into the next rope up the trellis. I haven't made a decision yet, but the beds will probably look very different next spring with the ropes replaced by cages. I'm also thinking of mounting a few six foot cages on top of other six foot cages. I'm curious how tomato plants growing twelve feet tall will look instead of draping over the top and growing back towards the ground. I think it would also be interesting to use a step ladder to harvest my tomatoes.

Ted

[Too Tall Toms]

I would LOVE to have really tall tomato plants but I'm not so sure I would know how to take care of them properly.

I'm assuming the taller a tomato plant is the more difficult it might be to take care of it.

[ChrisK]

How long do you find those landscape timbers to last? Thinking about building some more raised beds and the wife thinks the landscape timbers are much "cuter" than 2x8s.

Chris

[dipchip2000]

Just my opinion.. Really tall Tomato plants does not necessarily guarantee an abundant crop of fruit. Too much nitrogen and the plants will grow very tall and have thick beautiful folliage and no tomatoes. Just plant in good growing soil and lightly fertilize and water them and let the plant tell you what it wants. Keeping the plant healthy will produce the most fruit and if it wants to get 10 feet tall, then let it.

ron

Originally Posted by dipchip2000

Just my opinion.. Really tall Tomato plants does not necessarily guarantee an abundant crop of fruit. Too much nitrogen and the plants will grow very tall and have thick beautiful folliage and no tomatoes. Just plant in good growing soil and lightly fertilize and water them and let the plant tell you what it wants. Keeping the plant healthy will produce the most fruit and if it wants to get 10 feet tall, then let it.

ron

I agree. I only let them grow tall because I find it interesting to see how tall they will grow. Most of the production occurs on the lower part of the plant. I usually prune the plants back to about 16" tall in mid summer. They seem to survive the heat better if pruned back. When they start growing again in late summer, they usually grow over their supports before the first winter freeze kills them.

Chris,
My beds have landscape timbers at least four years old and they show no sign of failing. I think they will out last me. The landscape timber beds are much more difficult to build because it is difficult to hold them straight after the bundles are broken at the big box store. It's pretty hard to wrestle them around and get them straight enough to construct the beds. I typically lay the layers out and drill through the top two layers and then hammer long spikes through the holes in the top layers and into the bottom layer.

Ted

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Too Tall Toms

I would LOVE to have really tall tomato plants but I'm not so sure I would know how to take care of them properly.

I'm assuming the taller a tomato plant is the more difficult it might be to take care of it.

Up until the Dwarf Project, I hadn't found too many 3' tall tomato plants that produced a tomato I really loved. Still, my overall favorite tomato varieties grow 5-8 feet tall, and my favorite cherry tomato plants easily hit 10 feet when left unchecked.

As long as you have a support system in place, up to 8 feet is manageable. When they really start reaching for the sky, you may have to start pruning.

As said above, you don't want to provide too much nitrogen and get tall but unproductive plants. At the right balance of nutrients, most varieties I grow hit 5'-7' and some reach 8'.

[TomatoDon]

I've used raised beds for years now and always enjoy any info about them. Thanks Ted for the reminder about the copper sulphide, and that it is safe. Even before copper sulphide they did tests and could never find much evidence that treated lumber had real health concerns. If in doubt, just line the lumber with 6 or 10 mil visqueen or some 1/2 inch decking material cut to fit.

Some of this was mentioned in this thread, but corner brackets are a big improvement over just nailing or using screws to fasten everything together. Another little trick is to add small washers to your screws so you will have far more holding power. Get "star" outdoor decking screws. These have a five point star instead of a Phillips head, and the star does not strip nearly as easily as the Phillips heads do.

To make growing conditions better, dig out from inside the bed and fill that will the same compost. The ground greatly increases the stability of moisture and temperature. For starting earlier and for convenience on yourself, make the beds taller. You can stack 2 x 12's or even 2 x 10s, and this will make it sooo much easier to reach the bottom of your plants. Much less stooping and bending. These taller beds warm up faster in the spring becasue they are more exposed to the sun, but they also do worse as the season progresses, for the same reason. More sun, more heat, more evaporation.

When filling the bed, buy in bulk by the truck load. You have no idea who many individual bags of compost you'll be buying -- and the cost -- until you have actually tried to fill a bed by the bag. It's ridiculous.

I also am a firm believer in going five feet wide instead of four. The more growing room, the better. The price of a 2 x 11 x 10 feet long is negligible compared to a 2 x 11 x 8. I like the extra width. Plus,I stagger my plants for more room, sunlight, and air circulation. (I tried to illustrate that here, but it never came out the right way.)

My beds are 5 feet wide and I can drive a 4 foot piece of cut re-bar into the ground beside the bed and then put a piece of 1 inch PVC over it, and then bend the flexible PVC to the other side of the bed where I push it over another cut piece of re-bar. Then you can drape shade cloth or bird netting on each individual bed as needed.

There is not much way to go wrong with raised beds. And remember to put a lot of space between the beds if you have lots of room to work with. I had my walkways 4 feet wide, and the plants overlap in mid season. I increased to 5 feet last year. I'm going to widen my walkways to 7 feet this year.

For weed free walkways, put down to layers of 6 or 10 mil visqueen. This will be a little slick, so cover it with ground cloth that has the fuzzy backing. Just throwing hay on top won't work well unless you have the ground cloth down first. Throwing a little sand on it helps too. Cut the visqueen at least two feet wider than you need and tuck it under the bed framing. You won't have any weeds if you do this. If you don't, you will have weeds growing from the crease between the bed frame and the visqueen.

For weed free tomato beds, do the same thing. Cut the visqueen 4 feet wider than the beds. Drape it completely over the sides of the bed frames so it covers all of the wood framing and is laying down on the walkway. This give 100% weed protection. I had a lot of beds this year and think I pulled 4 weeds all year, and those came from the planting hole where the tomato was growing. You can eliminate that if you will put a lot of newspaper mulch down flat around the seedling when you plant it.

To hold the visqueen down, go to the building supply and get the smallest rebar they have. Seems like it is 1/4 inch. Get someone with a torch to cut it into sections as long as your beds. Or you can cut them in 4 and 5 foot lengths and use them most anywhere in the garden to hold down your visqueen. No wind blowing your visqueen, and no weeds.

Thanks for the links and info on raised beds. I just love them. I hope I've contributed in some way also in my experiences.

[Too Tall Toms]

I'm looking at building my raised beds with cedar boards. Lowes had them. I'm building 3 beds at 3 ft by 8 ft and 16 in depth.
Would 1 inch thick cedar be sufficient?

[TomatoDon]

There's a lot of weight in a bed, and a lot of dirt gravitating toward the side. And 16 inches tall by 1 inch thick is not going to hold all that weight without some bulging.

Use cedar boards if you must, but try another bed made of treated 2 inch lumber and you will see why most of us use it. It's just strouter, tougher, and you can do the hard work on it better.

Cedar is not going to make a better raised bed. It might make a prettier one, but it won't be more productive, obviously. If you want that cedar look, maybe just trim around a conventional bed with cedar and make it a couple of inches talled than the treated 2 inch lumber bed, fill it up with dirt to the top, and you'll never see the treated lumber. You'll have the asthetics of cedar with the strength of 2 inch treated.

I believe you are going to have some trouble with 16 inch wide cedar planks, 1 inch thick, holding all that soil. Heck, some of my 10 inch tall 2 x 12 beds want to bulge from the weight, and they start coming apart at the corners. That's why so many people have to go back and add the corner braces later. One season of strain will start a lot of gaps. Wood screws won't stop it, nothing but strong corner braces - brackets will.

Just my opinion based on my experiences here.

[Too Tall Toms]

Isn't treated lumber unsafe to use for a vegetable garden? That's why I thought cedar would be my best option.

I don't necessarily have to have 16 inch high beds, 12 inch high beds would be the minimum I'd want to go.

[sirtanon]

When I made my raised beds, I just purchased standard 10-foot 2x10 planks. The pine stuff. Worked great. No need to spend copious amounts of money on the cedar stuff.

[TomatoDon]

There is a post earlier in this thread that mentions that the new treated lumber is safe. University tests showed that the old treated lumber was safe. I mentioned that you can line it with 6-10 mil Visqueen, or strips of ripped 1/2 inch decking if you still want to be extra safe. I also tried the untreated, but it just doesn't last long.

[Keiththibodeaux]

Untreated wood in South Louisiana will have termites in less than 3 months, if that long\