Raised Bed Sandwiches

[Mike Slater]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to add a liitle bit from our experience using the
sand/peatmoss sandwich bed system of John Neumer's.

About 8 years ago I read the original article by John Neumer in the
*Dodecateon* the newsletter of the Del. Valley Chapter of NARGS and I
got all excited.  Here was the answer to puting woodland beds under the
shade of our mature Douglas Firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii) with out trying
to dig into their root systems or having to dig a lot.  So that Autumn I
needed many more oak leaves than our single tree produce so embarked on
a leaf rescue expitition on one late October Saturday morning.  I hopped
in my little station wagon and began driving around the neighborhood
looking for 1) houses with oak trees in the yard and 2) People raking
them, who looked like they really didn't want them for their own
gardens.  Not far away I found a typical surburban family out raking and
carting unwanted leaves to the back of their lot to be dumped down the
hillside!  I put up , got out of the car, introduced myself as a
neighbor and mentioned casually that I would be happy to whisk away all
of their surplus leaves.  The lady of the house looked at me for a
moment or two and then called across the yard to her husband saying:
"It's true! There is one born every minute!"  It wasn't to difficult to
convince them that I was sincerely interested they gave me all the
leaves I wanted.  I filled large plastice trash bags with leaves, filled
the car and went home with my first load.  I belive I did about three
trips that day.

That was the first of the three beds I have made.  They work very well
for woodland plants athough 2 of them have become rather sunny in the
last two years since we lost two of the firs in a winter storm.
Arisaemas seem to like the soil very much, trilliums do well and even
Linnea borealis did well for 4  or 5 years until the big drought the
summer before last. The Arisaemas I have growing in my sand beds are A.
draconitum, A. sikokianum, A. triphyllum (native here), A. ringens, A.
amurense ssp. amurense, and A. heterophyllum.

There are a few disadvantages I must mention, Stoloniferous plants do
very well and can spread to much, Vancouveria hexandra is occupying far
to much space and Tiarella cordifolia is much the same, but what a
lovely show it makes with Aquilegia canadensis. Lawn grass can be
difficult to keep out and keep out.  Voles (microtys sp.) have been
particularly vorarcious in these beds at times.  These little lemming
relatives love lilliacious plants, but fortunately Arisaemas are
untouched due to their chemical composition, I assume.

Some helpful advice for construction:  I covered the leaf with REEMAY
spun bonded polyester crop cover material to keep the leaves from
blowing away during the winter.  The access for a large truck dump 10 or
so tons of sand nearby is advantageous. A large garden cart and a rake
are good for dealing with bales of peatmoss.

In conclusion, as Jim McClements said, don't skimp on the ammount of
leaves you use.  If you don't have enough leaves, make the area of the
bed smaller don't make layers thinner.  I made one of my beds thinner
than I should have and with our sandy well drained loam that is our
native soil this bed drys out rather rapidly although the Arisaema
draconitum and A. ringens don't seem to mind. Every one should consider
this special kind of raised bed if you want a woodland bed in an area
where digging down would be difficult.

Mike Slater
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|_____________
|               \   Mike Slater
|               /   Southeastern Pennsylvania, z6
|            *  \   DVC of NARGS
|_______________/