Many gardeners know that wooden beds, which are slightly raised above the ground, have many advantages if they are compared with classical ones. However, do not assume that their creation is time-consuming and time-consuming. Choose the mentioned beds is worth several reasons.
Firstly, they allow you to create a garden even in those places that are unsuitable for agriculture. This applies to stone areas. Secondly, such beds need only double digging, one of them is carried out during planting, while the other - during harvesting. Thirdly, a wooden bed facilitates the cultivation of the land, because it is quite convenient to approach it.
Why else is it worth choosing a raised bed
Beds made of wood are quite simple to install and dismantle, it is for these two reasons that summer residents quite often choose such designs. On their surface, just fight weeds, because space is limited. The crops ripen faster, this is due to good drainage, in addition, in the spring the soil warms up quickly under such conditions. Designs of this type provide increased protection against freezing, because the garden bed can be covered with suitable material that is ready to save plants from frost.
Preparation of tools and materials
A wooden bed can have different parameters, however, in this case, an example will be considered that assumes a length of 3 m. Width and height will be equivalent to 1.8 m and 40 cm, respectively. A summer resident can choose any other size - everything will depend on the available free territory and needs.
First you need to prepare tools and materials, among them:
- wooden boards;
- protective impregnation;
- miter box;
- nails
- hacksaw;
- hammer;
- fine-mesh construction mesh.
As for the boards, their size should be equal to 5 x 20 cm. Experts recommend choosing rocks that will be less susceptible to decay. In addition, special impregnation should be purchased, which will delay these processes. For wood, you should prepare a hacksaw, with which you can cut the material.
Preparation for work
If you decide to make a wooden bed, then first you need to choose a place for it. A plot that will be in the sun for about 5 hours a day is perfect for this. A sufficiently significant advantage of the described design is the possibility of its device in the place that previously was not quite suitable. This may be a patch of grass that used to be overgrown with weeds. This includes the wasteland.
The territory needs to be cleaned of construction and other debris, weed roots must be removed, and annual weed grasses can be left. The site is dug up together with grass, which will increase its moisture permeability. At the final stage of preparation, it is necessary to determine the size of the structure.
Box making
Quite often, recently summer residents make wooden beds. With your own hands you can make a box of wood. To do this, four blanks must be cut off from the board, each of which will be 3 m long. Four other blanks will have a length of 1.8 m.
Care must be taken to have bars, their height should be equivalent to 40 cm or more. The ends of the boards are cut at an angle of 45 ° using a miter box. The boards of the lengths mentioned above should be joined, and then nailed to wooden blocks. This will assemble the box. In the central part of the three-meter side, the levels of the boards should be fastened with additional bars. The upper edge of the boards will be useful to decorate, for this, boards of appropriate sizes are used, which are laid flat. A net should be nailed to the bottom of the box, which will protect plantings and crops from moles.
Box filling
If you are faced with the question of how to make wooden beds, then you should familiarize yourself with each step of the process. Among others, it is worth highlighting the filling of the box with soil. To do this, the structure is installed in the chosen place, and the organics can then be laid out on a high bed.
The first layer will be a 10 cm permeable material. These include fallen leaves, shredded branches, shavings or tree bark. The second layer is an organic fertilizer, namely:
- compost;
- manure;
- bird droppings.
The third layer will be a permeable material, for example, organic fertilizer. Optionally, you can use mineral fertilizer. The fifth layer will be garden soil, which is laid in a thickness of 10 cm. Mixing of materials should not be carried out. The bed is watered from above and left for 3 days for shrinkage.
If the plants should not be planted immediately, then the top is covered with black plastic wrap. Create wooden beds, photos of which you can find in the article, it is better in late summer. The raised structure is covered with dark material until spring, which will ensure effective heating of the soil. If the bed will be used as a greenhouse, then plastic pipes should be fixed to the body, which need to be shaped like an arch.
The optimal size of beds
Before you make wooden beds with your own hands, you should familiarize yourself with their optimal sizes. These parameters, like the form, are selected individually. However, there are still recommended sizes with which the bed will be most effective. The height from the ground can vary from 15 to 50 cm. As for the width, it is usually 90-120 cm.
If the garden is supposed to be poured on fertile soil, then its height should be equal to 20 cm. This will be enough to get a good crop. If the soil on the territory is not suitable for farming, it is better to raise the bed to 30 cm. Wooden beds for the garden are also composted, they are made even higher - up to 0.5 m. Sometimes the walls are made very high, this allows you not to bend during processing soil and planting. However, the material should be laid in a larger volume - a lot of time will be spent on the arrangement. Among other things, with an impressive width of the frame, it will not be so convenient to process the soil.
When choosing a width, you must consider that it should be enough for two types of plants. With this planting, crops will receive the same amount of sunlight and air, which will positively affect productivity. Increasing the number of rows, you will encounter the fact that plants will receive less air, neighboring crops near the extreme ones will be pulled up, and yield will drop.
Preferring the standard width, you can handle the garden quite simply. If you wondered how to make wooden beds with your own hands, then you should remember that they can also be bulk. At the same time, their length does not play a special role, so you can be limited only by the size of the site. The most common bed option is a solution with a length ranging from 1.5 to 3 m. Such structures are compact and look neat in the garden.
Material Handling Recommendations
After the boards are cut to the size of the frame, they should be covered with antiseptic impregnation on all sides. For this, you can also use waste oil. However, when deciding on how to process wooden beds, you must remember that the substance should not enter the ground. For this, the structure is upholstered with film.
Particularly carefully to the processing must be approached from the bottom of the boards, which will be in contact with the ground. Once the composition has been applied, the material must be laid out to dry.
Garden Care
After the plants sprout, the plants are watered and mulched. Weeds that break through a layer of mulch must be removed. The surface should be loosened after harvesting and seeded with green manure. Before the onset of cold weather, the vegetation is removed, everything is covered with a layer of earth from above and covered with a black film for the winter.
The walls of the frame must be inspected periodically to see if they require repair or replacement of individual sections. Between the structures, the soil is covered with fine gravel, straw, gravel, sometimes lawn grass is used. Under such conditions, the garden will always look well-groomed, and the weeds will not grow, while the dirt will not stick to the shoes. If desired, you can lay out the tracks of brick or tile. Some summer residents fill the space with concrete.
Conclusion
To cultivate the land according to the traditional method is rather laborious, this requires the application of physical forces, while the crop does not always meet expectations. That is why gardeners have recently begun to equip high beds in the plots, which make it possible to get an excellent crop of vegetables every year. Everyone can perform such designs, because this does not require special equipment and special skills.
Sometimes, by the way, wood is replaced with some other materials. Among them, slate, plastic and even concrete should be highlighted. In the latter case, the bed will be stationary, so you need to more carefully approach the issue of choosing a place for it.