Choosing a location

I have narrowed down my options of locations for my SFG to two:

Old garden spot

Gravel pit where swingset once stood

-Both are about the same distance from the house (neither close because there is too much shade near)
-Gravel pit is next to the garage where my garden tools are (old spot isn't)
-I will see it in the gravel pit a couple of times a day (old spot is out of sight)
-Gravel pit very near chicken coop, old spot is not (good for feeding chickens any plant stuff I don't need and chicken compost being moved to garden)

The drawback is every summer the gravel pit becomes a weed pit. The weed barrier is useless and the weeds are awful. The only options I can think of are to completely remove the bed - TONS of work or to put new weed barrier down, which will still be a lot of work to move all the gravel to put it down. Any other options (nothing expensive)?

So, I don't want my boxes there unless I can do something about the weedks. Are there any problems with putting the box on a few inches of gravel? We already have to put plywood on the bottom of the boxes because we have a mole problem.

Feel free to share any thoughts on these ideas.

Kate,
Does the gravel stop the moles?
If yes, then level and cover the pit with thick black plastic and/or heavy duty woven geotextile fabric, skip the plywood bottom and set your beds on top.
If no, include the plywood bottom.

I vote gravel pit. It is a wasted spot now, sfg beds can go right over the gravel cause u only need the six inches of soil in the beds, gravel will help drainage, and weed block cloth under the beds will stop the weeds. Then thick layer of newspapers or cardboard, weedblock and mulch the aisles for a new pretty spot. Beds can even use hardware cloth instead of plywood for critter control. SEND PICS

walshevak wrote:I vote gravel pit. It is a wasted spot now, sfg beds can go right over the gravel cause u only need the six inches of soil in the beds, gravel will help drainage, and weed block cloth under the beds will stop the weeds. Then thick layer of newspapers or cardboard, weedblock and mulch the aisles for a new pretty spot. Beds can even use hardware cloth instead of plywood for critter control. SEND PICS

I agree. I don't know about moles but the gophers we have would chew right thru plywood. I vote for hardware cloth bottoms lines with something to block the weeds.

Thanks for the help.

The moles have been under the gravel before, so I'm guessing if they smell food they'll come up through it. I'll look into weed fabric and hardware cloth for bottoms.

Another drawback to the gravel I forgot about is that you can't really roll a wheelbarrow over it. The gravel is deep so it absorbs impact, like falling off a jungle gym, but it's too deep for rolling something over. I'm thinking I'll try to give away most of the gravel through Craigslist, just need to get someone who wants it. it'll work much better if I can get rid of most of it.