How to FIX and STOP a Raised Garden Bed From Caving Inwards

[Mandy Onderwater]

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[bulldwgs]

This was an excellent video and will prove to be very helpful in the future. I do have a question in regards to the most recent video that I watched about filling the raised beds in the beginning with wood chips. I'm wondering if you are able to fill the bottom of your raised bed with horse manure and wood chips or does that create too much of a hot compost type situation? If I was to do it if and filled the bed up with 50% of horse manure and some other yard debris and only left the top 25% as good nursey mix would that be sufficient.? I am using Birdie Raised Beds I have no shortage of horse manure as it's being manufactured Daily.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

@bulldwgs
I'm no expert on that matter, but I would be careful with too much manure. Also, I believe you need to "rest" a bed for a while when adding fresh manure as it needs to compost down. I think that if you filled it up that way, it might have to rest for about a year.

As I said, no expert on the matter whatsoever. But those are my thoughts.

 

[Lunai]

I would say it depends on where you live and how you layer the stuff.
In temperate climate we are glad if the raised bed produce warmth, because it extends our growing season during cold winters. I'm not sure you want that during a hot subtropical summer...
It might maybe work if layer it thinly, for example: fresh manure, wood chips, fresh manure, woodchips, (repeat a few times) old manure, wood chips, old manure, wood chips, old manure, 25 cm topsoil.
This layering could work, but you need to make sure, that under the top soil is a layer of well rested old manure otherwise the root of the deeper rooting veggies will be fried. Maybe, if you have, consider adding a layer of leaves and grass as well. But that pile will definitely produce a significant amount of heat. And I'm not sure about fungi and methane and bacteria or if that's in anyway harmful or could be. You would have to ceep a close eye on that bed. Would ve a nice experiment tho would love to know if that works

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

They have listed their biome as Arid, Desert or Dry, so it doesn't feel very productive to make a hot bed to me. Although I may be mistaken @Lunai .
Cheers for the added info

 

[Lunai]

They have listed their biome as Arid, Desert or Dry, so it doesn't feel very productive to make a hot bed to me. Although I may be mistaken @Lunai .
Cheers for the added info

Hadn't stalked them yet
But thought that the information given was general enough to be applied if they fit

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

It's listed under your name for me
(Provided you filled this in)

 

[Lunai]

It's listed under your name for me
(Provided you filled this in)

It may appear in the desktop version, but at that time I was browsing via my cellphone, and it doesn't show there

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Ah very fair. I rarely browse on my phone as I appreciate having a physical keyboard, haha. Sometimes I do hook up my bluetooth keyboard to my phone, but my laptop is just so much easier on me.

Y'know what... I really want some Birdies beds

 

[Lunai]

Ah very fair. I rarely browse on my phone as I appreciate having a physical keyboard, haha. Sometimes I do hook up my bluetooth keyboard to my phone, but my laptop is just so much easier on me.

Y'know what... I really want some Birdies beds

I also would love some birdies beds... but there is a slight cash problem at the moment

yeah, well... my laptop screen has just died... the PC works great as always, but the sreen just went black after getting more and more stripes currently I'm using my fiance's PC

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Same here, haha. But the Birdies beds will always be on my wishlist hah. I think I'd still want more even if I'd ran out of space.

Thankfully you can often plug a second screen in and it'll automatically mirror what's going on. It's not ideal by far, but it might just do in a pinch. And second screens can be found relatively cheaply. (As in, a computer screen, which you then plug into your laptop)

 

[bulldwgs]

I would say it depends on where you live and how you layer the stuff.
In temperate climate we are glad if the raised bed produce warmth, because it extends our growing season during cold winters. I'm not sure you want that during a hot subtropical summer...
It might maybe work if layer it thinly, for example: fresh manure, wood chips, fresh manure, woodchips, (repeat a few times) old manure, wood chips, old manure, wood chips, old manure, 25 cm topsoil.
This layering could work, but you need to make sure, that under the top soil is a layer of well rested old manure otherwise the root of the deeper rooting veggies will be fried. Maybe, if you have, consider adding a layer of leaves and grass as well. But that pile will definitely produce a significant amount of heat. And I'm not sure about fungi and methane and bacteria or if that's in anyway harmful or could be. You would have to ceep a close eye on that bed. Would ve a nice experiment tho would love to know if that works

Hello Lunai,

I am definitely going to try it. I have the tall Birdies round bed. I'm going to fill up half of the bed with manure and wood shavings. Along with any other yard waste. The top half 15 inches I will use a good quality raised bed soil. I'm very curious how it will work. I live in Southern California. If it does heat the bottom of the soil up some I might be able to start planting earlier in the spring or late winter. I plan on doing this the first week of February. I will keep you guys posted how it works. Thanks for everyone's feedback.

 

[Lunai]

Hello Lunai,

I am definitely going to try it. I have the tall Birdies round bed. I'm going to fill up half of the bed with manure and wood shavings. Along with any other yard waste. The top half 15 inches I will use a good quality raised bed soil. I'm very curious how it will work. I live in Southern California. If it does heat the bottom of the soil up some I might be able to start planting earlier in the spring or late winter. I plan on doing this the first week of February. I will keep you guys posted how it works. Thanks for everyone's feedback.

maybe if youput something makeshift of a cold frame/ hotbed together you could even use that heat to have a small makeshift greenhouse and just use it all winter long. The heat should last for about 2-5 years. Then everything should be composted down.