Raised beds

I love the concept of raised beds, but have always cringed at the sight of wood touching dirt.  I am a carpenter in the great Pacific Northwest, and I know too much about where this relationship ends up, rotten planks.  Sure you can use cedar instead of fir and extend the lifespan of your raised bed a few years.  And you could use pressure treated lumber, which is saturated in a substance so toxic that microorganisms won't even grow in it.  But these are the options for the most part when thinking raised bed construction.

I have developed a raised bed system here that only uses chicken wire, some half inch rebar stakes, and a few bales of straw.  You can see the wooden stakes in the photo, but the bottoms of those rotted and broke off this year, and those were cedar stakes stuck in the ground for one year.  Well half inch rebar in 4' lengths works much better!

1.)  First you want to loosen all the soil under where the raised bed will sit, breaking up any layers that may have formed by sheet mulching, or grass smothering etc...  Be careful not to step on the soil and re-compress it after you loosen it.  I say loosen because you don't really want to DIG it up and flip it over, trust me on this, I have reasons.  Just stab a 12 inch + hay fork in the soil and reef on the handle a little bit and pull the fork back out and repeat.

2.)  Pound in the rebar 2-3 feet apart around the perimeter of your raised bed shape.  Then run 24" tall chicken wire around the rebar.  Fasten the chicken wire to the rebar with little lengths of tie wire, or hemp string.  Stretch the chicken wire as tight as you can get it so it holds itself up from sagging outward.

3.)  Next you you line the inside of the raised bed walls with wafers of straw bale, back fill the bed with yummy soil/compost mix and plant until you feel a slight buzzing sensation in your heart, then you will know you have done it well.