Fill Your Raised Beds for FREE – This Genius Gardening Hack!

Folks make sure to view the video at the end and share this with your gardening friends to save them money filling raised beds.

Can horse manure, broken down work instead of cow manure ? Robin in western Kansas…

Good for short term crops. Long term It promotes root rot. Where in nature do you find ground chopped up trees in the soil?
This is not natures way.

My beds are now overrun with cucumber Beetles, now what?

Hi Tony, can I used old compost (bought in bags) instead of poultry bedding ? Would adding chicken manure pellets be and advantage ? Thank you…

hi i am a newbie to this just set up two raised beds using pallet collars not much space can i use some top soil in the mix or is it best not to thanks

Hi Tony, I’m just starting to fill may beds using this method and following your lead. I’ve lined the wooden raised beds with white n black plastic, leaving some of the plastic on the ground with about 18” sq. hole. Underneath there is about 4” gravel underneath which there is a semi permeable membrane (to keep the weeds back). - could u advise how to get best results in this situation. ? I notice you said to cut away all membrane. Also note that the only logs I could get are not quite rotten yet, is this ok? Thank you in advance.

What can I do filling my newly made raised garden beds? I don't have rotting logs or compost currently?

Thanks Tony, good way of tidying up my plot too x.

We love our 2 beds we build in this method. Stacking functions at it best. Definitely promotes fungal growth as well.
Cheers Tony

Hoping to use this method soon Tony.
Made a lot of notes from this video!
Thanks for this 👏🏽
Rach 👩🏼‍🌾🌱

Great Efforts!

How about mixing Straw with Composted manure?

Uffff, you killed me with that colorful cardboard. You really don't care about having a healthy soil

Love your accent. Where from??

I've done several beds with this method & I like to water in the chicken compost layer into the log layer to fill as many gaps as possible. I've got wood chips piled up around the outer edges to soak up run off from that & they'll be raked up & dumped into the compost pile a couple days later.

Some cities such as my own give away compost. Just drive up to the Eco Centre and shovel it into buckets. It's wonderful stuff for those of us with urban gardens.

I have logs but they have holes from some infestation. I think a beetle. Can I use them still?

Hi, I'm new at gardening. After the beds are full, and a few grow seasons have passed at any point do you have empty and refill the garden bed or just keep topping it up as it settles? Great videos mate, thanks from New Zealand

Sadly those Birdy beds can't be bought in the UK anymore. It looks like they've closed their outlet. Back to the drawing board.

Can I use dead, fallen palm fronds? I don't have much of the other materials you used at my disposal here in the desert

Birdies aren't available at that link Tony @simplifygardening. This is what I eventually got from them. "Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to make the decision to close our shop in the UK." If you find another supplier please add a link in here. I've been after these for years. Thanks for all the great videos. Ve

Hey Tony, the cow manure should be composted or fresh is fine too?

What about the clippings (inc spiky branches) from my garden hedge?

I use cotton burr, rice hauls,and organic peet moss. Raised beds are concrete blocks two high bought as seconds for a better cost. It’s a no til garden and back saving since I’m seventy six. have used rotten chunks of logs also along with two year old leaves. thanks for your videos!!!

You mentioned garden trimmings. Can one use cuttings from a privet hedge?

Hello.
Thank you very much for this detailed video. I found it very useful.
My problem is with my spring onions. Something strange has happened on its leaves for the last week. Once, the shapes of the leaves changed.
Then many of them had their roots broken.
What do you recommend I can get from England urgently.
Thank you in advance.

You're missing actual soil (sand, silt & clay.) I never build a raised bed without 12 in of actual soil. If you want to foster soil life & bed longevity, you need soil. Compost is not soil.

The actual soil layer should be located directly below your top finished compost layer.

As someone who filled the bottom half of my raised beds with large chunks of wood I kinda feels obligated to warn of termites.

Both of my beds became infested with termites, and while neither bed had its crop damaged by the termites there was a period where I became concerned as termite damage to homes is common in my area.

I filled mine with wood but I put the wood in length was😢 oops noq I have to reinforce the walls
Collected for two years

Too informative.

Been using this technique for years- every new bed. Easy in every way. Rotted wood is thee slow release fertilizer. Non-conifers are best.

We’re setting up some raised beds for a local non-profit. I love the tips, especially since everything we are doing is on a tight budget. Thank you for doing such great work!

So I don't need to let the chicken manure age before adding to the bottom of my raised bed? We too use the deep litter method with hay. 🤔
Also curious, does the bed heat up at all from all the carbon and nitrogen like a compost pile does?
Thank you for your great video as always. 😊

This is how i do my raised bed. i love the hugelkultur technique for water retention.

👍👍👍👍👍

Can I use trunks and cuttings from leylandii trees as the base for my raised beds? Will they cause the soil to be too acidic when they break down?

Hi Tony, great video with lotsvof info on how & what to use to fill raised beds. I have bought your compost book & just bought a wooden raised bed to start my own compost with guidance from your book. Thanks for sharing and take care 😊

Morning Tony,
Great and informative video.
I built seven raised beds over the winter. My greatest worry was how on earth was I going to fill them. Luckily, one of my sons is a tree surgeon. He delivered a flatbed load of wood chips for free. I filled each bed halfway with this material and then topped each one with a mixture of compost and manure. It was backbreaking work, but it's done.
I guess I won't know until later in the year if it was worth all the hard work... but I have everything crossed!!!!
All the best, Annie 🐞🐝🌱

Nice on Tony. Really lovely to see a Hugelkulter bed in a more practical/realistic way like this. Very inspiring. :-)

Thanks for this. It’s come at a really helpful time. I’ve just got a allotment plot and due to disability raised bed is the sensible option however filling the beds has been causing me no end of headaches. This has given me some ideas to get going with.

Another great video, mate. I do this with all of my raised beds.

Such and amazing way, you make it look so easy.

Great video. Never tried this method. I want to make my beds bigger so might follow this

I will try this method with a new bed I'm building this season! Another great video Tony. Easy to see just how much work and effort you put into your content!

Great video for a very effective raised bed method. Highly recommend. Keep the videos coming!

I do this with pretty much all my containers and raised beds. It makes such a difference.

👍👍

We love our 2 beds we build in this method. Stacking functions at it best. Definitely promotes fungal growth as well.
Cheers Tony 🌱

Thanks for sharing 🙏🙏