Filling in a vegetable box.
steph_lewis1991
Posts: 8
Hi there,
In our garden we've just built a rather big raised vegetable box, its the perfect size in terms of its length and width but we kind of made it a bit too high - it looks lovely in the garden but is literally going to cost the earth to fill it with compost !
We were wondering, to try and fill the bottom a bit first so as to reduce the amount of soil needed, whether we could line it with sand, we've just moved into the house and the old family hand a sand pit in the corner of the garden, which now is a mess of sand and wood bark.
If we used this sand to fill some of the bottom, (it probably wouldn't even get to a cm high and the box itself is a meter tall) would this in anyway have an impact on the growing of vegetables? I mean I doubt the roots will go down that far, but I always instantly think that sand will just kill off plants.
Are there any other things that might work to line the base of the vegetable box with so as to reduce the amount of soil needed that you've used yourself?
Many thanks,
Posts
Builders sand is no good as it has salt in it I am not sure about play sand I would guess it has been washed. It would provide a drainage layer. COMPOST or manure mixed with soil is your best bet though this will rot & sink but at least you can top it up each year. If the box is 1 metre tall as you say you could fill base with rubble or gravel but again this would dry out fast.
I'd reduce the height of the box. That's far to high, unless your disabled in some way and you can't bend down. It only needs to be about 12inchs. Maybe a bit more.
If you really need it that high then couldn't you fill the bottom with breeze blocks or something similar?
Woah that's tall!
I too overdid the depth of my raised beds, and I had to buy in a lot of topsoil. Luckily I also got about a tonne of garden compost from a relative. I threw some rocks and stuff in the bottom - just bits I needed to be rid of - and I would also have thrown the sand in. I then added layers of wet cardboard, kitchen waste, compost etc etc to the bottom before finally adding the bought in stuff.
Fill it up with logs and branches. Hugelkultur style. They will rot down in a number of years, and provide excellent soil eventually. As long as you have 8 inches of soil on top, I think you would be fine to grow most veg.. the roots will find their way down among the branches. Just plant shorter carrots, like a nantes half long.
Last edited: 10 May 2017 15:39:50
Yeah, it is pretty high, but it looks better in our garden this way, making it any shorter would look a bit out of place.
thanks for all your suggestions on this, certainly been really helpful and given me some ideas