I still haven’t decided on my timber for the raised bed vegetable garden, am going to look at the recycled timber places, maybe get a rustic look and could possibly find something different that I haven’t even thought of too.

But in the meantime I’ve been looking at the various options to fill my raised bed vegetable gardens.

As these raised beds are also called ‘no-dig’ gardens I found this ‘recipe’ on my favorite site, Gardening Australia.

This is how it goes:-

This will give you the ingredients and there is more advice for how to go about implementing the process on the website.  This no-dig garden was not made as a raised bed vegetable garden but as a garden without the sides of a raised bed and just the path surrounding.  The principle is the same.

No-Dig Garden or Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Without The Surrounds

A no-dig garden consists of eight 10cm layers – apart from compost and manure which should be 5cm. Remember to water each layer thoroughly as you go.

The layers:
• First layer is woodchips, followed by a dressing of blood and bone.
• Next, a layer of green weeds or grass clippings with no seeds or runners and apply lime.
• Number three is dry deciduous leaves or straw, followed by more blood and bone.
• The fourth layer is sheep manure, but you could use cow. Lay it on 5cm thick followed by some lime.
• Layer five is lucerne and blood and bone.
• Layer six is more manure – laid 5cm thick and lime.
• Layer seven – more lucerne and blood and bone.
• And layer number eight is compost –just like icing on the cake.

The paths:
To make the paths, spread wood chip mulch or sawdust along the keyhole path and the perimeter.

After making these layers the no-dig garden bed should be sitting about 60cm above ground. But it will settle to half this size over a week or two. It’s a good idea to wait for this to happen because the decomposing materials are better to plant into.

But if you’re itching to plant, use potting mix to get seeds and seedlings started. Just create little planting pockets, fill these with potting mix and sprinkle with a little blood and bone and rock minerals, and plant and water immediately.

I have found another ‘recipe’ for filling a raised bed vegetable garden but I’ll leave that for another post, let you digest this one first.  I feel the plants will be going “Yum Yum” with this one.

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