Bulb Predators / Raised Beds
Mary Sue Ittner (Fri, 24 Sep 2004 20:13:04 PDT)

Dear Rodger,

You raise some interesting points. Ann Marie was writing in response to a
comment I had made about my raised beds. One of the considerations was
creating a bed that would discourage predators and that was the reason for
the hardware cloth and the gravel. I have an extra problem to deal with and
that is that my property has a lot of redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). In
the previous raised beds I had where I planted directly into the soil my
beds soon became riddled with roots. We are talking pick axe if I planned
to dig in those beds to divide or deal with the bulbs. I think double
potting has an advantage in that it is harder for the redwood roots to get
into my pots. It probably seems ridiculous to think that could happen, but
trust me they seek out better soil and moisture.

Since my beds have been used almost entirely for Mediterranean bulbs that
grow in the winter when it rains here and kept dry in summer when we get no
rain I feared that if I removed a pot to replant it which I finally did
this year, all the plunge material would fall into the hole since it would
be very dry at that time and it would make replacing the pot a challenge.
At the time I created my beds I didn't have a great source for coarse sand
and Alberto suggested that mixing the sand I was able to get (play sand)
with gravel would be helpful to make the plunge more gritty so that the
water would not drain from the plunge into the pots. We get almost all of
our rain in winter with a little in the fall and a little in the spring and
none in the summer. The last few years we have had less rain so that the
average for that time has been lowered to around 50 inches but I felt I
still needed to be prepared for the possibility that we'd have some very
wet months.

I'm on my third year with the original beds I planted and am very pleased
with the results which are much better than I had with planting straight in
the bed which is what I did before and also better than planting in the
ground for a lot of things. I am using pots that are 9-10 inches deep and I
think that is very helpful too. When I replanted one of the beds this year
I found the nesting pot system was a huge help. Also I had put plastic pots
on the bottom between the two containers and since the birds continue to
pull out my tags it was easy to discover when I repotted what was in each
pot if a tag was missing. So even if I miss out on some of the advantages
you noted, there are others I gain. The pots Jane uses that are mesh have a
lot of advantages too, but when I looked at sources for them, they were
extremely expensive. I now have 4 of these beds and a lot of pots so clay
pots would have been very expensive too. Even nested and not touching the
plunge I expect the soil temperature in my pots in those beds is more even
that it is in all those I have on benches exposed to the air and sun at times.

I'm glad you brought up some of this as it illustrates a number of things
to consider when you are doing a raised bed. Each of us have very different
situations and it is important to think about what you will be growing in
your beds and what your weather is like as it will influence how you do it.

Mary Sue