I have very poor soil, need to build a raised bed garden?

Question

what is the most cost efficient way, considering I need to keep the local wildlife out

Answer 1

you could get a roll of chicken wire and make a pvc frame to cover it for pretty cheap to if its not too big .. and in the winter you could cover that with clear plastic for a greenhouse effect ..

Answer 2

Some people will opt for a new technique called straw bale gardening. This has lots of pluses, if you can obtain the bales.

Keep in mind 'straw' refers to the stalks from wheat, barley, and other grains. 'Hay' is alfalfa or other fodder grasses. Don't use hay, because they could be full of seeeds.



Make holes in the bales, fill them with a mix of potting soil and compost, and you're set. [Some people pre-soak the bales with a fertilizer like fish oil for a week or so.



Straw Bale Gardening on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXcA99xGHwQ



And a website:

http://strawbalegardens.com/



There's lots more like this on the web, and groups on Facebook.



Bales are 14 x 18 x 36", so you can have an 18" high raised garden if you tip that side up, or you can stack to of them high in a 'brick mold' fashion to be 28", 32", or 36" high.



That is a well-raised bed, I'd say. And pretty much weed-free.

My guess is most pets will walk around the bales, especially once the plants are thriving.



You can add a few weeks to your growing season by building a poly plastic cover over top the bales. That may have other advantages too. Like keeping the cats and birds out.



The down side is that bales vary in cost, and can sometimes be difficult to obtain locally. :-(



After a number of years the bales will deteriorate and decay. At that point, they can be chopped up and put in a compost bin (along with all your kitchen vegetable scraps, etc, (no bones, no meat!) and composted.)

Answer 3

Raised bed gardens are the saviors of gardeners with poor soil everywhere. The basic idea of a raised bed is that instead of battling against poor soil conditions, you build above ground, where you have absolute control over the soil texture and ingredients. You can choose from a variety of materials to construct your raised bed. Wood is a very popular choice, because it is easy to work with and it is inexpensive. Concrete blocks, natural stone, or brick are also nice options, but there is definitely an added expense and labor to consider in using them. Some gardeners go the ultra-simple route, and simply place bales of hay or straw in whatever configuration they desire, then fill it with good soil and compost and plant it up. This solution will only give you a year of use, because the straw will decompose, but it's worth trying if you don't mind replacing the bales yearly, or if you're still developing a more permanent solution.

Answer 4

Unless your "local wildlife" is your well trained kids, the only chance you have of keeping it out is to give it nothing to go in - aka don't garden. lol



Would have been helpful to get a hint of what version your wildlife takes. BUT, if you think a raised bed is keeping it out, then I sure hope you're just talking voles and moles. In that case a nice thick layer of rocks at the bottom of your bed might work for a while.



BUT, sounds more like you're talking raised beds because you have poor soil. ("very poor soil.") You want the cost effective way to deal with that? Skip the raised beds. Amend the soil. It's not like we're stuck with the soil we get. We can fix soil. (Well, most people can. I could too, if I had the money to jackhammer out the cement I got as a backyard. lol I still have to amend and I, literally, import all my garden soil.) Mulch it, compost it, add fertilizer, roughage, whatever you need to turn "very pour soil" into Illinois black gold. (I lived in Illinois a couple of years. The most beautiful soil I've ever seen because it was prairie turned into farms. Think about it. If you want rough soil, how about soil that had the same plants growing in it for eons? Definitely, not characteristically a good thing for soil to go through, and yet farmers amended it so much, it's the most beautiful black soil I've ever seen, even where there were no farms.)



So, you also didn't say in which way your soil is "very poor" either, so I can't get specific about that either, but I can give you the three words you can research to figure out what you have and what you need. If it's bad, it's either "sandy" or "clay." (Sandy is when it's so thin water goes right through it, not giving plants time to soak it up. Clay is it's so thick, water can't get through.) What you want is "loamy." (Think Baby Bear from the fairytale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Baby Bear always got everything "just right.") You need to research those three words, particularly "loam" or "loamy." That's the good stuff. That's great soil and yours just by finding out what it is and adding it to what you got.



Second, you need to find out what your pH level is. Sure, you can buy the pH tester and get your soil sent out to test it, but I think it's just as easy to figure out what you have by what's growing on it now. Not enough room in this space to go through all that, but the words you want to learn are base, acid, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. (Okay, I'm having a senior moment. I'm not sure those last two words are the right words, but read up on what those numbers mean on fertilizer and those three words are the words I'm not sure I'm remembering right now - pretty sure, but not positive. lol)



I can tell you, whatever you need to make a garden on your land is findable at your nearest gardening center. What you need to do, before going there is to learn what you need. And, once you get gardening, then learn about compost and mulch to keep your soil lovely - actually it will make it even lovelier year by year as you garden - no raised beds required.



As for your wildlife? If you need help with them, you need to clue us into what they are. After all - around here wildlife is squirrels and rats, in the south it could be wild hogs and deer, in the UK its hedgehogs and snails, and...well, I don't even want to think what Australia and Africa considers wildlife. lol

Answer 5

Head over to your local Lowe's. They sell awesome-looking concrete blocks that interlock to build raised garden beds. They look great, they're easy, and they're cheap.



Just so you have an idea of what they look like, here is a link for the planter block: http://www.lowes.com/pd_379655-15634-611181508072_0__?productId=3652634&Ntt=country+stone+lexington&pl=1¤tURL=&facetInfo=



and here's one for the joint:



http://www.lowes.com/pd_379654-15634-611181408070_0__?productId=3652633&Ntt=country+stone+lexington&pl=1¤tURL=&facetInfo=



The blocks can also stack on top of each other if you want a taller one than just a single block (use polymeric sand (also sold at Lowe's) to lock them together)



Check lowes.com to make sure they carry them at your local store, but they should!

Answer 6

The best and cheapest way is to build the beds yourself.