Sunken beds vs. raised

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patterntracy Hyde Park, MA Jun 24, 2007

My husband and I bought a house with raised beds built in the front yard, which I've happily used for the past few years. Last year, though, the wooden sides of the beds began rotting out and collapsing. Rather than try to rebuild them, which seemed like it would be rather pricey and difficult, I'm now trying to dig them as sunken beds. (I also thought that sunken beds with a brick edging might look a little nicer, given that it is my front yard) My question is, will the beds now take much longer to warm up in the spring? I live in Boston, MA, and we don't exactly have a long growing season here; I'm a bit nervous that my tomatoes will only be ripening as the first frost approaches...

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Jun 24, 2007

H patterntracy, first, ask yourself why did they build raised beds, was it just a design idea, or, was it to improve the growing conditions, ie, clay soil unde the raised beds, was it difficult for the last owners to bend down into the bed so raised it up for easy access, you should get the answers to these points as you remove the soil and check out the sub soil. In some ways, brick edged beds are great, but where I live in UK, for me, they are a hiding place for slugs and other pests, but cant speak for your area, they make mowing lawns harder unless you sink the bricks and the mower can run over the bricks, but they also look attractive so really, everything depends on taste, ease of gardening and making sure you aint uncovering a problem, if clay soil, then you will have to add lots of humas/manure, also watch for cold soil and extra care with feeding the plants as normally, clay soil dont hold or release neutrients as easy as other soils, as for your tomatoes, if you are growing them in the same place, then raised beds will only alter the temp and season length if you suffer from a lot of freeze as the soil in the earth/garden will take just a tad longer to thaw and soften because of volume alone. Hope this helps a bit, good luck what ever way you go, you should be able to overcome any teathing probs by one season I would think. WeeNel.

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