deep boxes - how big can i construct them?

Here is Barbara. I live in Germany near Berlin and Potsdam. I'm just a beginner with SFG and want to build the first boxes. For long carrots or potatoes I can only find a recommendation for small 30x30cm-boxes or the pyramid solution. What is speaking again a normal box of one square-meter with a depth of 30 cm?
I would be happy about a quick answer.
Thanks 
Barbara

Hi Barbara and welcome to the forum! My mother-in-law is German. Don't ask me where's she was from; I have no clue. She's lived here in the U.S.A since she was 18 but still has her accent.

Anyway, about building deep boxes... Yes, you can absolutely make your entire square meter garden box 30cm deep if that's what you prefer! Plenty of people here on the forum have done that. The point of Mel's book is that the majority of vegetables only need half that to grow, so why not save the money on the planting medium and only make it deeper for the few root veggies that need it. But it's your garden and you can build it how you like.   

Hi Barbara.
 
I lived in Germany growing up and consider Bitburg in the Eifel area home.  I grew potatoes for the first time last year. My boxes are 30 cm deep. When the potatoes grew about 15 cm tall, I added a small box around them and added more soil. This box was about 15 cm deep. Mine only covered two squares but I grew a lot of potatoes in the small area. I hope it works as well for you.

Virginia

Howdy, Barbara! - and a great big "Welcome!" from Texas.

I believe what Virginia refers to is also known as top hats.  Search the forum using "top hat" as your search argument and you will find pictures.   Using top hats only for those beds that need extra depth reduces the amount of Mel's Mix or soil needed.

Barbara,  Welcome to the Forum!    

Here are 2 photos of top hats.  The first box is new and doesn't have the grids, yet.  Using top hats can save money on Mel's Mix.  You only have to fill higher exactly where you want to plant something that needs extra depth.  The Mix in both boxes is only 6" deep.



This box is 10 1/2" tall but the Mix is only 6" deep.

But just to be fair to the OP, she already saw the option for top hats and pyramids, etc. She wanted to know if she can build her whole bed 30cm deep and the answer to that is yes. It's her choice. That would be useful for an entire bed of carrots or potatoes.

My beds in Las Vegas are actually 16" (37.5cm) deep, with the bottom 4" (7.5cm) filled with sand, making the actual Mel's Mix depth 12" (30cm)...well, until it settles.

Works a treat for carrots and other root veggies!

thank you for your help. I think, i will try the solution with the top hats .
Barbara

Fotobarbara wrote:thank you for your help. I think, i will try the solution with the top hats .
Barbara

 Guten Abend  Barbara & Welkom ,

 My beds are 900 mm deep  x 900 x 900 long and wide in runs of six beds at a time  ( they are built in engineering bricks & mortar )
 
The fill consists of 300 mm of fresh compressed stable manure with straw , paper & wood shavings. Then 300 mm of 30 year old leaf mould , then 300 mm of Mel's Mix made with about 9 different well composted ( Berkley 18 day hot composting method ) animal dung based manures & beddings . Plus the normal composted garden & waste a large garden and home generate .

 They grew very big parsnips . radish, marrows , red beet root , . swedes , turnips , kohlrabi , cabbages , leaks , celery,  tomatoes , marrows peas , all sorts of  beans. The salad crops were outstanding.  Most of the plants with root balls were well down into the leaf mould layer .

Carrots in the first year were a bad idea as they had many roots instead of a single long tap root  as the bed fill was so nutrient rich. last year ( my 3rd  with ANSFG ...they have been better and less prone to multiple roots  as I have now got the square rotation system right .