[permaculture] Lowered beds
Dieter Brand
diebrand at yahoo.com
Wed Apr 8 17:22:25 EDT 2009
Rain,
I deleted your message by accident even before reading it. Can you send it again if you still have it?
I rejected raised beds many years ago because they dry out easily in an arid climate. A few years ago, I considered the idea of lowered beds. They are called waffle beds. You find some examples on the net.
Waffle beds may be a good solution to dryness if you have sandy or loamy soil with a depth of more than 4 feet. If you only have one or two feet of heavy clay on top of the rock bed they cannot work because removing the little top soil (if there is any) you just leave a few inches of pure clay subsoil on the solid rock. This will dry out rapidly and nothing will grow in it.
Instead of lowering the beds, I considered raising the borders around the beds or rather around the entire growing area because I don’t use individual beds. My land is peppered with innumerable small and large stones generously left by the previous owner after all the topsoil had eroded due to plowing. The stones make walking difficult so I collect them in heaps. The idea was to build dry stone barriers around the garden to serve as permanent paths and to preserve soil humidity in the garden soil.
Before I was able to start on the construction work two years ago, I discovered one night with a torch light that heaps of large stones are an ideal habitat for snails during the dry season. When the weather gets humid, thousands of snails move out from the stone heaps to eat everything in their way. So that idea was definitely out and I’m back to level ground.
Still, stones can be useful. Since I return all organic matter to the soil it slowly rises like a loaf of leavened bread. Last year, I found that the soil had risen about 10 inches above a permanent stone path I had build 7 years before and that the soil was spilling over the stone paving. I just spread a foot of stones on the path and topped it with a layer of small stones to fill the gaps between the large stones so that the snails can’t get in.
Another good idea is to use branches, coarsely shredded or cut into peaces. During the summer I cut some of the older madrone which is ideal for heating in the woodstove during the winter. I use all the thin branches either coarsely shredded or cut into peaces in the garden. Since it isn’t good to use too much woody mulch on the garden soil I spread the rest around the growing area for walking on. This protects the soil on the paths from compaction and preserves humidity. Walking on the branches they decompose faster, and once they have nearly decomposed I can move them to the growing area or use the paths as growing area.
Dieter Brand
Portugal
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