Raised beds and buying worms!
666panda
Posts: 13
We're now in the middle of creating our raised beds, we've built them out of upcycled deck boards and they're approx 1m X 1m 90cm.
We've been reading about how to support them and stake them out but there seems to be differing opinion about protecting the insides. We thought we'd line them with heavy duty plastic. If this is the way forward, does anyone have suggestions of thickness or suppliers? However we have also read that they need to breathe, in this case how do we protect the wood?
I've also been looking at what to fill them with and have taken some of the advice off the forum...... So my daft question is if the worms will do the job of mixing the manure and top soil, do we buy worms to introduce in to the beds?
Please forgive the ridiculous questions, we're complete newbies at this!
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Posts
The most recent of our raised beds were lined with damp-proof course plastic. Seems effective. Don't line the bases.
We didn't buy worms. The worms you can buy are not the right sort of worms. We put all stray earthworms into the beds.
I lined the sides of mine with heavy duty plastic, and used permeable membrane on the bottom to prevent soil washing out. i fill them with two thirds good quality topsoil and one third well rotted farmyard manure. Don't use Multipurpose compost - it's too light and breaks down quickly into dust. Don't worry, the worms will find their own way there.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Many thanks Dove from above!! It was a bizarre moment googling about buying worms! I'd feel much better if they make their own way there!!
Yes, they're not cheap are they?!! thanks for the You Tube top, I use it for everything else but had never thought about using it for the garden.
So my next daft question is if my raised beds have a lined bottom how will the worms get in in the first place?!
I have never lined the bottom of my raised beds; in my experience the soil does not wash out.
But, we all have different experiences, so try it and see.
We were advised on here (some years ago now) to line the base of our new raised beds and we did as suggested - we have no idea whether some soil would have washed out of the bottom or not, but as the beds were of lightweight construction, and the land they were placed on wasn't totally level, I suspect that it may have done.
Despite the bases being lined, worms found their way in pretty quickly
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ok, I'll look forward to the arrival of our worms! Funnily enough whilst I've been treating the fence I saw one of them wriggling across the membrane where the beds will go so perhaps they're already looking forward to their new home!