Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Proposed new raised bed: depth and plant advice

BriHoneyBriHoney Posts: 2
in Problem solving

Hi All

I have a plan to build a wooden structure in my front garden to house a coal bunker, wood store and shelter for bins. 

I'd like to disguise/top it with a raised bed.

Our house is set down from the main road we live on, has two parking spaces on a level with the road, a lower little paved front garden where this will go, then house is another foot lower.

It will be built against the retaining wall for the car parking space, so final height of the bedwilll be about chest height relative to front garden, but ground level relative to drive.

I'm quite confident about the construction, but would love your gardening know how:

1. How deep should I make the bed.

I'm happy to water daily with a hose on hot days and feed when necessary but ideally would like it to survive on its own most of the time. Or should I set up a self watering system? Would the earth degenerate with lots of tap water watering?Also the deeper I make it the more solid I'll need to make the structure.

2. What should I plant?

I've had about 5 years experience growing a veg patch in the back garden but was thinking this would be less functional more aesthetic. I know very little about plants and flowers. Also i've read that plants are good at absorbing particulate pollution. So I'd like the bed to look nice and suck up pollution from the main road. (Another reason I didn't think edible plans would be good idea there) 

I'm thinking interesting fairly hardy plants. I don't want them to be too high as the bed is likely to be over half way up the height of the front downstairs windows And I don't want to block light too much / create nice screen for burglars.

The bed dimensions will be about 3 foot by 10 foot, so quite a big space to fill. Maybe a few higher bushes with bedding plants around. 

I see a lot of similar sized beds outside the new apartment blocks near us, so ideally I'd like ideas that are a bit more cottagy and interesting than the plants they use. But I guess they are good ideas because they are easy maintenance plants.

Added bonus would be to support Wild life.

I love the idea of a beautifull bed but it will be seen from all sides so hard to know how to design/plant. Plus is that possible in a limited depth of soil

3. How should i prepare the soil? I have lots of soil available from recent building work, should I mix 50:50 with compost (I have some homemade computer but will also need to buy some). I was thinking of adding bonemeal. Anything else?

Thanks so much in advance for your advice, sorry for asking so much, but I think the 3 questions are quite linked.

Many many thanks in advance

Briony

Posts

  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546

    Make it as simple as you canimage

    You don't want to have to keep watering, you don't want to have a deep heavy bed that uses loads of stuff to fill it.

    Keep the bed shallow, 10 to 15 cms is plenty,  make the soil quite gritty, and plant things like sempervivums,and small sedums which won't need watering.

    Add herbs like thyme,  rosemary, hyssop and small varieties of lavender. These are all evergreen and will give you your bushy effect and attract lots of insects. They can be trimmed to stop them getting too tall or straggly - not for kitchen use though if you are concerned about pollution.

    You can add some alpines for summer flowers, such as Dianthus Deltoides 'Flashing Light' and 'Arctic Fire' and rockery campanulas, that will also trail over the edges and provide more camouflage.

    Add some little bulbs like species crocus, scilla and Iris reticulata and you will have some jewels of colour at the very start of spring.

    Enjoyimage

  • Kitty 2Kitty 2 Posts: 5,150

    Sounds like a very interesting project BriHoney. image

    My thinking is along the same lines as Buttercupdays, sedums and alpines are ideally suited for this type of living roof.

    You mention taller growing bushes, but in order for them to thrive you would have to provide a much deeper bed and lots more water which all adds to weight bearing down on the wooden structure below. Not a good idea in my opinion.

    Another poster on the forum "dogwood days" (not sure of my spelling) has something similar in her front garden, albeit on a smaller scale than your plans. I'll try to find it and post a link.

  • Kitty 2Kitty 2 Posts: 5,150

    http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/fruit-and-veg/edible-crops-for-a-small-green-roof/983751.html

    Hope the link works

  • BriHoneyBriHoney Posts: 2

    Oh brilliant thanks for the advice. Yes I think it is sensible not to be too overambitious with the depth.

    To be fair, I have lots of soil I want to use, so finding soil to fill it isn't a problem, I just need to move it from the back garden. I also have a lot of spare old wood from a neighbours old deck, so I have lots of 6 inch beams I can use to make it strong enough to support a fair depth of soil.

    Kitty - that blog post is great, very similar project so lots of good ideas and nice to be able to visualise!

  • Kitty 2Kitty 2 Posts: 5,150

    Glad you found it helpful BriHoney image

    Good luck with the project? 

Sign In or Register to comment.