Gardening Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)

JacksPlace

Member
GOLD
Joined
Jan 14, 2024
Messages
14
Location
Hawkesbury District, NSW
Climate
Temperate (all seasons)
Hi Mark.

My name is also Mark ;) and I am moving to live on my late Grandfathers' small farm (7 acres) in the Hawkesbury District in NSW that has been in the family for 70+ years and that is why I call it 'Jack's Place'. I spent most of the weekends of my childhood on this farm so I know the land pretty well.

I stumbled across your videos a few years ago and I think I have watched every single one. Love ya style! I want to set up a sustainable lifestyle and plan on growing my own fruit and veg as well as keeping a few chooks. The farm was once run as a poultry farm, as well as a mushroom farm (so we have the old sheds already in place, ready to go) and Jack always had a milking cow (he milked a cow for 80+ years of his life).

I am still in the planning phase of my setup. I have identified approximately 170sq mtrs (give or take) to set up some raised garden beds, and want to 'Get into it 👍'

The spot where I have identified to set up my raised garden beds was once Jack’s pumpkin patch which is approximately 170sq mtrs and I plan on trenching a water line from nearby IBC rainwater tanks that I will also be setting up. The beds get good all year-round sun, which I have been confirming it with https://www.suncalc.org/

I am going to dig trenches and run ag pipe so that I have water in the middle of my raised beds and also a run down to a bottom paddock that I have identified as a good spot to have a handful of fruit trees. Jack used to grow lucerne and sorghum in these bottom patches for his feed so I know that they are good growing paddocks with lots of sun and good soil. (This is about 100m from the raised beds).

The spot for the raised beds is approx 10x17m and I wanted to have space to run my ride on between them all (approx 1.5m - it has a 54inch ride on deck).

I haven't bought any Birdies beds yet and I don't know what size to get? I was probably going to start with 4 or 5 - I was thinking 2500 x 900? x 740s (This pic is kind of close to scale). Just not sure which is best... Never know, I might make a few videos to share this journey as well.

*Blue is water
*Red was the boundary so I can get my Trailer and Ute through the area.

Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)


Love to know your thoughts, Mark.
Thank you for your service - in the Army - and for your contributions to the global community of sustainable gardening enthusiasts who appreciate all your efforts!

Cheers, M!
 

Attachments

  • Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
    1705209342372.webp
    64.8 KB · Views: 97
I find that most people tend to have a mismatch of raised beds simply because they bought what they needed and could afford at the time. Are you intending on buying them all at once, or over time?
I'm getting ready to set up my first lot of raised beds too, but I'll be expanding over time, likely with many different brands and sizes.

@Grandmother Goose , @JoshW , @KIGardening and other members have any recommendations?
 
@Mandy Onderwater - Thanks for the message, I plan on getting 4 or 5 Birdies beds first and then building it up from there as I build out the space. The main crops (over the seasons) would be tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes (regular & sweet), lettuce, fennel, garlic, eggplant, zucchini, beans, onions & spinach. Will also try Mark's tessel pumpkins for a challenge.

Just didn't know if I should go the 1200, 500 or 900 wide. I think these are the ones that @Mark recommends.
Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
 
I think more than size, you might want to look how tall you want them as well. A lot of people say they LOVE their raised beds as it's saving their backs from bending over. It's also very popular with wheelchair users as they can garden at their own height.
Others have mentioned that they regret buying a bed that was too wide, as they weren't ever able to reach the middle; basically rendering that space useless.
 
Welcome to the forum JacksPlace. I use a variety of raised garden beds. All have different lengths, widths, heights, and shapes. Some are square others are round, you get the mismatch vision. Something to think about before you completely have developed the patch is a sitting area. I have a sitting area in my patch....well it existed before I put my patch in ;). I do find it very helpful to have as it gives me the opportunity to go out in the morning sunshine to relax with a cup of coffee, have a rest when I do the gardening jobs or sit back and relax looking at the progress at the end of the day with a cold beer or a cheeky wine, whatever you fancy :).

You also could think instead of the rail line view as shown in your sketch to be a bit more playful and place some beds the opposite direction or place some round ones or go really challenge yourself and make a garden bed maze.
 
been shopping arund on raised beds and procrastinating for ages. the old wood ones are in need of replacingand never looked proper to start with . i just ordered 5.25ft 2.7ft oval 2.7 feet tall / 1600 x 822 x 822 mm if assembled as one unit, but way they are made can drop the height to411 mm tall and chandge configuration around hold a capacity of 240 gallon by volume ( 32 cubic feet / 0.9 cubic meter )

Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm) Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
second style i did go with only for simple reason i got them cheap

second one i ordered to see the quality and test 8ft x 2ft 1.4ft tall / 2438mm x 609 x 426 i will dbl these up for height

Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)


another style i looked at i decided to pass on is a fixed size because it used 3 curved section in the end area which would make it hard to adjust size and shape as i want
Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
so i am new to using these but have made wood bed before shopped around a while and even order from birdies so will put up a mix to check style and quality and as mandy mention height, i am going no less the 2 feet so i dont have to kneel or bend do to leg and other injuries in service.
 
Thanks for sharing @daveb - It certainly is a bigger task than I would of ever imagined to get these all sorted. Like I said above, I am a novice in the 'raised garden bed' game but come from a long line of old-school farmers, so I am sure, like all things it will be a matter of trial and error and working out 'what works' best for me. I am certain I can hear my Grandfather up above laughing at me saying, "Boy, when the moon is right - just get 'em in the ground and start watering!" - Bless him!

Just love the concept of the raised bed as it will save the back (as I get older) and also the Hugelkultur Method of gardening. Like I said, I have 7 acres so there is plenty of space for experimentation, I just want to make sure I have the infrastructure in place to ensure success. I also have a 25sqm (271sq f) fernery (shade house) that will be perfect for growing seedlings at the back of the house which I am excited to get into shape when I get settled in.

Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
 
Hi Mark,

Below a couple of photos of my sitting area surrounded by garden beds. Apologies for the neglect as it looks less appealing. I have been busy this season with my front and site garden renovations hence why it is neglected. These will become winter garden ready in the next few weeks.

The concrete slaps were already there as the used to be an old reinforced concrete BBQ area there. The concrete BBQ is reutilised into the garden to make some more sitting space and a small path between the garden beds. The sitting area further enjoys the shade of a matured bottle brush and a citronella plant to deter mosquitos.

Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
 
Hi @KIGardening - Thanks for sharing the pics. Looks like a slice of heaven right there. I can certainly see some sneaky beverages happening there. 🍸🥂🍻

Once I have my farm up and running in the next few months, I will be sure to share some progress pics.

Here is an old one - This is where I am going to be planting all of my fruit trees (where all the freshly mown grass is) in the bottom paddock - this side of the fence.
Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
 
Thanks for sharing @daveb - It certainly is a bigger task than I would of ever imagined to get these all sorted. Like I said above, I am a novice in the 'raised garden bed' game but come from a long line of old-school farmers, so I am sure, like all things it will be a matter of trial and error and working out 'what works' best for me. I am certain I can hear my Grandfather up above laughing at me saying, "Boy, when the moon is right - just get 'em in the ground and start watering!" - Bless him!

Just love the concept of the raised bed as it will save the back (as I get older) and also the Hugelkultur Method of gardening. Like I said, I have 7 acres so there is plenty of space for experimentation, I just want to make sure I have the infrastructure in place to ensure success. I also have a 25sqm (271sq f) fernery (shade house) that will be perfect for growing seedlings at the back of the house which I am excited to get into shape when I get settled in.

View attachment 10162
yes as we get older the body says ha ha ha cant do that today, for easy of reach from outside to center i am going to limit my widths to between 2 to 3 foot maybe a 4 foot with a center shared trellise to run some 4 x 4 mesh wire up to run cucumber up or some lighter squash varieties.
lenghts and shape all depends on visual you want i was thinking the far left of tiy lot of two corner turn types top and bottom corners, the other beds in sketch are horizontal so am i correct major suns direction is at top of drawing??
i would make sure the beds run east west to allow best sun saturation for my area but if you have to deal with heat impact north south may help
 
yes as we get older the body says ha ha ha cant do that today, for easy of reach from outside to center i am going to limit my widths to between 2 to 3 foot maybe a 4 foot with a center shared trellise to run some 4 x 4 mesh wire up to run cucumber up or some lighter squash varieties.
lenghts and shape all depends on visual you want i was thinking the far left of tiy lot of two corner turn types top and bottom corners, the other beds in sketch are horizontal so am i correct major suns direction is at top of drawing??
i would make sure the beds run east west to allow best sun saturation for my area but if you have to deal with heat impact north south may help
Yeah, I think you are onto something there @daveb - 2-3 foot (600-900mm) is probably what I will go for also. Birdies do a 500mm, 900mm and 1200mm - I was thinking of starting with 900mm... that is 450mm (1.5ft) from each side is a good reach. Don't want to be in the same boat as what @Mark had where you can't get to the middle of the bed. 😁 I will have to investigate the East-West configs. Sounds like a plan, I have tons of room, so I don't think it will be an issue. I have added north to the pic below so you can see what the aspect is.

Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
 
one other suggestion with the ares you have for farm you arent limited to just the inclosed beds

i tilled and pushed soil up into raised mounds years ago on back area so to tp bottom to the walk path was about 20 to 22 inches side were left natural to slope down to path. the top acros the high point of bed was two garden racks wide for flat area, specailly helpful if you have heavy soild they stays wet or cooler climate where the beds raised help to raise temps earlier in season
Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
 
That is exactly how my Grandfather (Jack) used to farm the land @daveb I still have all the plows and rotary hoes to make this happen (which I might do on some other paddocks) but I am keen on the raised beds to try the Hugelkultur Method of gardening. I might have to make some videos to show people my process, successes, and (more than likely) failures. 😁
 
Yeah, I think you are onto something there @daveb - 2-3 foot (600-900mm) is probably what I will go for also. Birdies do a 500mm, 900mm and 1200mm - I was thinking of starting with 900mm... that is 450mm (1.5ft) from each side is a good reach. Don't want to be in the same boat as what @Mark had where you can't get to the middle of the bed. 😁 I will have to investigate the East-West configs. Sounds like a plan, I have tons of room, so I don't think it will be an issue. I have added north to the pic below so you can see what the aspect is.

View attachment 10165
yes you look like a tree to sout. your main sun will be from north north east to north north west morning to afternoon? with being angled to path of sun either way can work
play it out in mind , what want down the road maybe a family area with plants surrounding the area that leave a wide are to work with
 
yes you look like a tree to sout. your main sun will be from north north east to north north west morning to afternoon? with being angled to path of sun either way can work
play it out in mind , what want down the road maybe a family area with plants surrounding the area that leave a wide are to work with
@daveb - Red is the summer arc of the sun ☀️ and Orange is the winter sun arc.. so I think I am in a good spot. :thumbsup:
Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)


If after the first season, it gets too hot in summer (can have 42-43 degree (109.4F) days up there in the summer) then I might end up installing a sail, maybe something like this..

Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)
 
I heard my name whispered a few days ago, sorry for being late to the party.

Birdies beds huh... okay, first thing is to figure out your physical ability now and in the future, and how that will impact your ability to best use the beds; and what you're going to plant in them, and figure it out to suit what you want to grow rather than vice versa. As someone with physical disability that stops me from being able to reach anything lower than my knees but also being short and unable to reach anything past about 1.8m/6 feet, I personally find that for anything that will grow on a large trellis or grow tall (peas, tomatoes, espalier trees, corn, etc), I have found using the shorter beds with a 6 foot/1.8m trellis ideal because the bulk of the daily work lies in the zone I can reach, and I can use tools like a shovel to deal with digging in the soil, putting down compost and mulch, etc; any time that needs doing. Shorter plants, and root crops which will give me a lot more need to dig in the dirt, such as carrots, broccoli, lettuce, potatoes, I have to go with taller beds, because they don't need a trellis and I can reach them a lot better. However, again because I'm short and have short arms, I'm limited to 900mm wide beds because I can't easily reach into the middle of a 1.2m wide bed.

That's just me, but the Birdies beds last a lifetime, and no one is getting younger, so if you can easily reach into the middle of a 1.2m wide bed and short ones are sufficient for you for now, that's great but ask yourself will that still be the case in 5, 10, 25 years time? For your sake I hope so, but it is worth considering how long will it be before you're willing to renovate your garden to better accommodate yourself or other family that may work in the garden later in life?

Now for spacing, make sure you can fit a wheelbarrow between them easily at the very least. If you're using machinery such as ride on mowers, or a bobcat to fill the beds with, you may need a lot more space. Or you could section the garden to have more narrow walkways between rows of beds but have wider access paths on the outer-sides of each bed so you can access them all with a barrow or bobcat or whatever, but still save space and get in between them...

Please help me get started...What Size Birdies should I get? (Small Farm)


Next, shade and shelter. Will you need it? If so, over which beds? Where's the sun as the year goes on and where would you need to put your shade shelters to cover the beds you want without inadvertently shading out ones you want in full sun? Can you shade a bed with a trellis or archway of plants in summer that will let the sun through in winter (eg: grapevines, tomatoes, pumpkin). Will your shelter be not about shade and more about frost protection? Or insect/pest protection? Or wind protection?

Lastly, crop rotation, interplanting, companion planting, square foot planting, and all that other stuff... what are you going to use? How much space in each bed will each plant you want to put in there need? And how much of each thing are you going to grow? What is your climate like? Will you be resting your beds in the extreme heat of summer or extreme cold of winter? If so, crop rotation type methods might not apply to you so much. Or maybe you'll rest some beds but not others. If however, you'll be growing all year and crop rotation might be a needed thing for you depending on what you're growing and how, and in that case more smaller beds might be easier to work out a rotation system with.

And lastly, how much time do you have for your gardening antics? To prepare, plant, water, harvest and amend one garden bed takes time. The bigger the bed is, the more time it takes. Would you rather, indeed can you, spend a full day dealing with one very large bed once a week, or would you be better off spending a small amount of time every day dealing with 7 small beds by doing one each day? Or something in between that?

I know it's a huge amount to think about, which is exactly why most people start with a couple of beds and gradually build up as time goes on and as they better learn things and figure out what works for them. I'm in the middle of changing my garden beds around and completely re-doing mine, but then again, with the Birdies beds that's completely doable, you just empty them, move them if you need to, pull them apart and reshape them to be longer, or narrower, or wider if you have to, then fill them up and go again. So it's not a case of figure it all out and you're stuck with it forever, you can adapt and change things up if you need to in the future, but if you want to save yourself that physical work, then have a good hard think about what you're going to grow and what size beds you'll need and how to space them not just for your plants but also yourself and your equipment (wheelbarrows, etc)... which is why you asked the question in the first place, and I know my answer doesn't really answer it per se, but at least now you know what things to consider, and maybe come back and ask for more information on a more specific thing based on your situation.

To start with, how is your reach? Most of Mark's beds are 900 and 1.2m wide... he's a relatively tall man, not everyone can reach into the middle of a 1.2m bed. Can you? Test it. The tall beds are around the same height as the average dining table. Find a 1.2m wide or long dining table and stand at the edge and imagine yourself trying to plant a seed, or dig out a potato, or pick a lettuce, that is located right in the middle of the table with the table surface being the soil surface. If you're not tall enough to reach easily with your own hands, you know to go for a 900mm wide bed. You can do the same with the shorter ones, as the shorter beds are around the same height as most coffee tables and the part of a chair or garden bench you might sit on. All of my beds are 500 to 900 wide.

What are you going to grow? How many? Enough to feed yourself and your family? Or do you want to be creating a mini-farm for yourself that will allow you to grow more than enough to be able to give away plenty to neighbours, friends, local food charities after you've taken what you want from it all? Pumpkins, even grown up on a trellis, will need a larger bed than onions will because their root system is larger... unless you want to grow a heck of a lot of onions. Nothing wrong with that, but what will you do with them all?
 
Last edited:
Hi @Grandmother Goose - Big thanks for your epic rundown on Birdies beds! Your advice on considering everything from physical abilities to plant choices is like gardening gold. I'm totally digging it (pun intended).

So, I took your hands-on approach to heart, did the "reach test," and guess what? I'm in the tall gang, so a 900mm to 1200mm bed width sounds like my sweet spot. No need for a step ladder in my gardening adventures!

Your whole spiel about adaptability and tweaking the garden layout is like music to my ears. I love the idea of not being stuck with one setup forever.
And, yes, I'm growing food for the whole crew – friends and family. Your insights on different bed sizes for pumpkins vs. onions got me thinking about the great onion surplus of '22. Maybe I'll throw an onion-themed party – tears guaranteed!

Your tips on spacing, shade, and shelter are noted. I'm ready to create the VIP lounge for my veggies. Also, your experience with bed makeovers reassures me that it's all about flexibility and having fun with it.

Thanks a bunch for sharing your gardening wisdom. If I stumble upon any garden mysteries, I'll be sure to hit you up for more tips. Your thoughtful response has given me the gardening confidence I never knew I needed. Cheers to growing! M!
 
yes as mother goose said same as i did ealer width work with one you can handle easy with out having to extend reach by leaing in and over bed. its not simple ergonomic less reaching = less upper and lower back strain and will reduce strain on back of legs at same time i'm not short either (203 cm ) and even i dont like escessive wide beds its nice extra width for crops but the little extra doesnt out weight times spent and strain on anyone not my size, i even find at 900mm wide is more then i like to reach in to, and you will notice ones i choose were two widths 426mm and 822mm.

one guy years ago told me one key for comfort when i built my original wood beds. armpit it wrist length -15% for max distance edge to center of bed, and up to -25% for comfor. So if of average heigth 6 foot arm length under arm to wrist will be in18.5 inch 470mm range / -15% roughly max 400 mm edge to center. 350mm edge to center for comfort
 
Hi @JacksPlace,
i personally have a disability affecting my feet. i prefer the lower raised garden beds as i sit on a milk crate with an old bar seat base on top for comfort. this works well for me as i can reach what i need to in my beds without standing for long periods of time. my beds are 1 metre wide. over the years i have planted tomatoes lettuce onions parsley basil garlic several chilli varients and a curry leaf tree
i have recently planted 2 cherry guava trees in the ground near my back fence.
my raised garden beds are along the side of my house which get great sun exposure.
a few things to keep in mind when setting up your beds is what will require trellising and what the expected root/depth of plants trees will be ie no point planting something which will need a deeper root space being planted in a shorter bed
reading all the other comments are also great help for me as i pick up things from the more advanced gardeners in here

good luck for your upcoming garden beds
you are doing all the research needed to ensure your adventure will be a success which is great
look forward to seeing the progress your garden
shep
 
Back
Top Bottom