Has anyone ever heard of or used a layer of pea gravel on the bottom of a raised bed? Someone is making a raised bed for my neighbor and says that after removing the lawn (aka weeds) he puts a layer of gravel. Then the dirt. He says it helps with drainage. I personally have not ever done one that way and am a little skeptical.
Opinions / Advice?
Raised bed question
you don't say what kind of soil you and neighbor have, but if clay, the gravel is going to become a tray of sorts and defeat the purpose of having a raised bed, which is improved drainage. maybe your neighbor can instruct worker to skip the gravel and adjust price accordingly. I would never consider that. Do other neighbors do it? can't imagine why
She's not going to use any soil, per se, in the bed itself. It will be a combo of compost, and diff. kinds of good thing, but no actual 'soil'. However, underneath all that will obviously be her basic earth which is our typical North Texas black gumbo.
I certainly am skeptical about the gravel or wouldn't have asked the question. The guy making the bed said he uses it all the time w/o any problems. I would think she should insist that he skip it.
Oh well. Maybe one day u can show her one of your raised beds sans gravel and she can appreciate how unnecessary it is.
Do you put any thin, like mesh liner, under your beds?
Nah. I assume it's being used as a weed barrier. I find that despite my best efforts, weeds can grow right on top of the raised bed so I don't bother w/ liners. IMO, the raised bed material should be enough to suffocate most weeds underneath. If person MUST hv a weed barrier, I suggest using cardboard. I save boxes for this purpose. Disassemble them and lay down like I would the weed barrier. Costs nothing, equally effective and decomposes in place. By the time the boxes decompose ( I'm guessing 1 year), all is pretty dead and/or seeds no longer germinate. However, you still hv weeds on top of raised beds so the battle continues but with a fluffy soil perhaps much easier to yank the malingerers.
PS. It's not like my house is cluttered w/boxes. I only save them for a little while when I know I'm going to be making or redoing a bed. I use them and then all gone
I loved black gumbo dirt, grows a ton of stuff. i used metal fabric under 1raised bed to thwart moles. I have loamy sand and too much drainage and still get 'gifts' from Mom Nature and crew. Now I just line the circumference to a minimum of 8" deep and 4" up with the metal fabric and it does the same thing as the taller beds. Gravel might imitate a 'french drain', but not like that, If you are east/west of Dallas it might be done on the caliche bedrock to try to avoid the ph changes that will happen. His purpose of use may be cost.