Height of raised beds and walkways

[ninnymary]

My daughter just made a raised bed and it is a monster! Her yard is on the south side of the house and it is very narrow. She made the bed 4' by 16' long. It is 20 inches deep. She decided to center it in the yard with 2 1/2 feet away from the house and 2 1/2 ft away from the fence. She thought it would look better this way. Well, we both think it looks horrible!

I told her to fix her mistakes instead of living with them. Based on my experience, I always regret settling for things. Some questions,

1. How high should she make the bed? She plans on planting tomatoes, zuchinini, kale, swiss chard, etc. Our soil is sandy.

2. How far away from the house should it be? She only needs to get in there to weed or harvest. There will be no wheel barrow going through there. ( It is better to be closer to the house since it's sunnier than to the fence where there's shade.)

3. Instead of one long bed, should she make two? and how much space should she have between them? Again, she just needs to be able to walk though there, or harvest/weed.

If you think of something else that I haven't thought of let me know.

Thanks
Mary

 

[897tgigvib]

Can it be right up next to the house?

 

[lesa]

Watch out for the drip edge of the roof. I have put planters up next to the house, only to discover that they receive no rain water- because they are under the soffit. I would think 20 inches of good soil would be fine for her plans. Whatever she decides I wouldn't make the beds wider than 4 feet. It makes it very difficult to work if you can't reach from one side to the other....

 

[ninnymary]

Marshall, my husband always recommends not putting things that will get watered right next to a house. He's afraid it will rot the wood.

Lesa, the bed will definitely be only 4' wide. That is something that I've learned from all of you!

The 20 inches just seems too deep, especially once plants start growing. That thing will look tall and huge.

Mary

 

[thistlebloom]

I think 20" high is fine. To take advantage of as much sun and heat as possible in your climate I would put it 18" from the house. That's far enough away for moisture issues, but still wide enough to get behind it for occasional maintenance. If she's not tall, 36" wide would still give plenty of room for growing and make it manageable from one side.

Visually also it wouldn't be splitting the long narrow space exactly in half. That would give 4 and a half feet for walking and working and getting supplies in and out. More room on the working side is better.

16 feet is long, but if the majority of work can be done from one side, you won't want to waste growing space by dividing it.

She could possibly grow a flowering vine on the fence to make it prettier, include a couple of bistro chairs and a little table for sitting with a glass of iced tea while waiting for the tomatoes to get ripe....

 

[Smart Red]

There is nothing to be gained from dividing the space into smaller beds. Just lost growing space in my mind. My beds are only 12 inches high, but I'd not mind them being a bit taller and easier to reach for an old lady.

Good idea to keep it away from the house drip edge for several reasons -most already mentioned. She will need access to both sides to keep the bed cleaned and tidy.

I don't see anything wrong with what you've described. Perhaps once the garden is growing you will better see the beauty in your daughter's raised bed.

Love, Smart Red

 

[journey11]

She could bring the depth down quite a bit, to around 6-8" tall. The plants' roots will go down even deeper into the ground. Is it a wooden raised bed? It has been my experience that they dry out a lot faster than things planted directly in the ground. If she keeps it tall, she will probably want to add peat moss or something to help retain water, drip irrigation and lots of mulch. 20" would be a lot of soil to purchase to fill it too.

I agree that 18" from the house would be a good compromise. Aside from the drip line, you also don't want to encourage pests to take up residence so close to your house. That would allow her a little room to get around the back to work it too. All the way against the house or all the way against the fence, she might find 4' width to be a little difficult to reach in to tend it. I have a raised bed that I put directly up against the block foundation of our detached garage. It is only 3' wide and I still struggle to reach the back. We have a few skinks that have decided to take up residence there and they climb the wall to sunbathe. I think they feel safer from the cat there.

I am with Red in that I would go for maximum growing space just to be pragmatic, but you don't have to. Is that side of the house prominent from the street? If she really thinks the long bed is an eyesore, then that would be a good enough reason to make smaller beds.

 

[thistlebloom]

Mary, you said that 20" seemed too deep. She's planning on adding soil, right? That height would actually make it easier to work in, as Smart Red pointed out. And I also agree that once her plants are growing it will make all the difference.

 

[ninnymary]

Smart Red, you are right there is nothing to gain as far as space goes. My idea was since the bed has 2- 10 inch boards, she could take one off and use the other for a second bed. I thought making it shorter would look better? I think the problem is that because the yard is so long and narrow and the bed takes up a lot of room, it is out of proportion. So it sticks out like a sore thumb.

I had initially told her to put it 18" away from the house, she balked so I said 2 feet. She didn't listen, so she centered it!

Journey, your right, it will take up a lot of soil to fill. I guess making 2 beds will also take up the same amount of soil. :/ You won't be able to see it from the street. There is a tall gate/fence at the end of the driveway that blocks it.

I guess at this point, my best bet is to convince her to move it closer to the house and leave it at that.

Mary

 

[journey11]

She won't listen to you, I figure she for sure won't listen to us! Maybe the added height is part of it standing out like a sore thumb. Of course, once the plants are going, it's going to look great anyhow. But if she knocks it down to 10" and uses the extra to build a second bed she'll get double the planting space! Assuming she has room for another bed, that is...

If not, maybe she'll give it to you!