Garden And Gossip Forums

Full Version: Filling raised beds
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
I'm thinking of getting round to redesigning my veg patch and building some new raised beds, the question is how to fill them? Has anyone any experience with hugel kultur? Apologies for possible poor spelling. Or any other style of filling beds with what I have around? I have wood and cardboard, grass clippings etc. I'm considering basically turning my new beds in to compost bins over the next year or two but obviously that will be slow. 
Was looking at hugel as you can build them up, top with soil and plant in to them fairly quickly. Im just not sure how they work long term.
PP has a good thread about Hugelkultur beds at https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.p...ugelkultur
May help you make up your mind!
You can fill a raised bed with any organic matter. We've got a few lasagna beds and one hugelkultur/lasagna hybrid. I've used coffee grounds, shredded cardboard, old potting compost, twigs, sheep wool, grass clippings, grass thatch, autumn leaves, straw, vegetable waste, manure, sod... The issue is that, with all that organic matter, the level of the bed will sink quite a lot, especially in the first year, so it would be probably be better to include a lot of topsoil in the layering.
Thanks both for the replies. I'll do some further reading and more than likely do some further questions. Thanks again.