Creating A raised bed

Hello all. I am going to be working on my landscaping soon, and have a question about raised beds. It was recommended to me to get a "bed cutter". I was told by 2 different professional landscapers that this piece of machinery will cut my beds and create the raised/hill look that I want, without having to add anymore topsoil. Is this true, or are they just trying to make more money. The company that I am considering going with would charge $125 to do this. I am planning on doing all of my planting, and planning, just want them to cut the beds so I don't have to purchase anymore topsoil.

I've never heard of a bed cutter. I've heard of sod cutters, which is something you can use to take off the grass where you want to put a garden bed (or if you're redoing your lawn). Is that what they meant? I'm also having trouble understanding how you're going to build raised beds without buying any topsoil--are you taking dirt from one part of your yard and moving it to the raised beds? If you don't have somewhere in your own yard that you can get the additional soil from then you're going to have to buy some, can't build a raised bed without adding soil from somewhere.

That's what I was thinking too! I already have the beds laid out, so all I have to do is remove the sod which won't be the hard because the sod was laid at my house in January. I think I will just do it myself!

I wonder if they are talking about a trench digger? Some people trench the edges of their beds and it does kind of look like the bed is raised.

Have you looked into lasagna gardening? That would be an easy way to build up your beds without any machinery or heavy digging. You basically cover the grass with a thick layer of wet newspaper or cardboard, then build up the beds over it with compost, leaves or other organic matter, and soil.

That is a great idea wicked. But why the newspaper? Couldn't you just layer it all on top of the existing soil?

Hi, CoryS! I'm new to Dave's and was reading your post. I've had the delight of using the lasagne gardening myself. The newspapers (at least 6" thick) or cardboard on the bottom of the site, keeps weeds from coming through...without sun, they get smothered! Yea for us! :) Anyway, it's a terrific method. Last year I put a 3 foot by 10 foot lasagne garden together in about 2 hours! That was putting the newspaper on top of the lawn ( I just left the lawn there!), putting some topsoil/potting soil down about 6" thick, and then tucked in my annuals and a few perennials! WA-LA!! My neighbor was amazed! Sooo much less work too. Good luck with however you decide to do it. Gardening is just plain fun!

I think that is what I have basically been doing, and not really knowing that I am doing the "lasagna" method. It has taken me a lot longer however because I have so much area!

I have noticed that when I purchased so manure products today that they have absolutly no smell to them. I think this may be a bad thing. After reading the bag it says compost + manure. There is probably only about a handful of manure in that entire bag. I need to find something that has a higher manure content. So far I have tried Humus, Moo-Nure, and store brand manure and compost. I seen a bag od Black Gold brand manure......any takes on this one?

I think I've heard of people using a sod cutter and then flipping the strips of sod over to kill the grass and act as the first layer in a lasagna bed...

Manure that's been properly composted shouldn't really smell, it's the fresher stuff that is going to smell. The composted stuff is better for your garden since it's already decomposed it's less likely to burn the plants.

When I buy 100% steer amnure, it never smells.

I was just chatting with my better half the other day about how his family used to garden. They are all from CT and always had huge acre++++ garden plots. His family is Italian and all his grandparents grew everything they ate. He was telling me his family always used a square shovel and marked the area they wanted on the grass and sink it down about 6". They would then start to shovel at an angel to peel off the layer of grass. When it was done, they flipped it over and planted in the dirt under the grass. He said his mom learned from her mom, etc etc...

Cory, there's some discussion about raised veggie beds in the Southwest forum. Some great ideas, and lots of pics. http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/region_sw/all/

-Chris

Hi, Cory! I strted a couple beds with the lasagne method last year, and it really is amazing. Where ever I put the layers of wet newspaper down, I found lots of worm activity. I've got heavy clay soil here, and I'd spotted abt 3 worms on the whole property before I did the newspapers and cardboard, etc. That, plus a whole lot of shredded leaves, pine needles, peat & soil has made these beds a treat to work in. Good luck to you whichever methods you use.
Pat H. in Cincinnati

I've been using lasagna beds (although I didn't know what it was called) and it's great! In fact, I'm going to be doing under my pines this Spring.

Michelle

I folks, I have been watching this space and wish to share my thoughts re compost, most of us gardeners here in UK make our own compost and it is the best you can get, my better half made me a box, bottomless and out of the way, all my garden trimmings and grass cuttings go into the bin, covered with thick plastic, old bit of carpet, cardboard or whatever you can get, it is to keep the rain out and heat in, add to this any household waste, UNCOOKED, no raw meat, fish, chicken etc, but add eggshells, veg peelings, shredded newspapers,fruit skins, old flowers from your vases, anything that is not man made and has NO chemicals, this is laid in layers like the lasagna style, after a while it rots down and after about a year, you have the best black earth you could ever want, if you have a large box, every few months you need to turn your compost over, that is, stir it up, or, tip it out and replace it top stuff on the bottom and bottom stuff on top, this helps to make sure air gets in and helps speed up the process,we can also buy bottomless compost bins from diy stores, green and dont look bad, you are recycling lots of stuff that goes to land fill sites and puting back into the earth what came out, if you use ANY compost, whether horse manure, chicken, cattle or any animal manure, if it smells it is still too raw and needs to be left a while longer to break down, too raw and it can burn your plant roots.
I never use Roundup or any chemicals in or on my garden, no matter what the bottle say's, these products have to go somewhere, if they go into the soil, they eventualy leach into your drainage system, when it rains, that ends up in the sea or rivers and polutes the water, maybe even the water you drink when it gets recycled back to you, it kills fish and other wild life as they drink from streams, rivers etc, so we should all be a wee bit carefull when we spray our chemicals willy nilly around, the saying, what goes around, comes around, IF I have had a patch that has deep rooted weeds, grass etc, I cover it over with heavy black polythene, lay some heavy stones to keep in place and they rot down themselves, they cant live or grow without light and the heat from the cover helps to wither them, it is far safer and kinder to the environment, hope this is not taken as a lecture, just trying to give ideas.
WeeNel

Dear WeeNel,
I need all the information I can get! It's helpful to know how people tackle this
worldwide.
Personally, my compost pile has lost heat. It's crumbling nicely, but I think I may need more veg peelings, etc. I am fortunate to have plenty of leaves, especially oak leaves, & I do run them through a shredder before adding them to the pile.
Cheers!
Pat H.

Cory, I live in the boonies, and I'm assuming you don't. Manure is easy to find around here, and free. If you have any family or friends who live in the country and you ask around, you should be able to get free manure also.

My best friend has a large farm, and he usually has piles of fully rotted manure, no odor and black. Great stuff, and he even loads my truck for me with his tractor. If you don't have a truck you can use feed bags or any other large containers you might have laying around. If the manure is too fresh to use, let it rot til next year and add any waste veggie matter to it meantime.