Plywood or Weedmat, What's Best for SWD?

Ages 4/17/2010, 11:55 pm

My box is 12' x 3' x 6". Should I put plywood on the bottom, weedmat, both or neither? I'm going to water using 1/2" soaker hose hooked up to one of the stations on my yard sprinkler system. Anybody else doing this? How many minutes should I set the station to run; the hose is spaced just like in Tim Wardell's video of his long 3 ft wide box?

I'm really looking forward to getting this garden growing! Plywood or Weedmat, What's Best for SWD? Icon_biggrin

HawaiiAl 4/18/2010, 4:00 am

i have weed cloth under both my new sqft 4' x 10' and 3' x 10'. used newspaper for last 5 years for above ground boxs, works too.

luvs2garden 5/29/2010, 10:26 am

I use screen and rocks. I have a horrendous gopher problem!

**WardinWake** 5/29/2010, 10:48 am

Ages wrote:My box is 12' x 3' x 6". Should I put plywood on the bottom, weedmat, both or neither?

I'm really looking forward to getting this garden growing!

Howdy:

If you are building your garden at Table Top height use plywood. Depending on your gardening budget for ground boxes use whatever you have the most of at the least long run expense. If you have intrusive weeds or intrusive gofers or other critters that come from underneath the box you can put hardware cloth and then put a weed barrier of your choice. In any event have fun in your garden and each year you will continue to love it.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

duhh 5/30/2010, 1:47 am

we used card board under our box. I have maybe pulled out 5 weeds at the most from our box since Feb 2010.
don't know about the soaker hose. we just water ours by hand every few days right now. Will have to up the water as it gets hotter, but so far so good. Let me know if you figure out a good system. we will be expanding in sept. and watering by hand may get to time consuming.

Dietryin 5/30/2010, 2:49 pm

I used newspaper and cardboard boxes for my beds also.

luvs2garden 5/30/2010, 8:39 pm

Guess I should have said that on top of the hardware cloth I use Newspapers!

schristi69 6/4/2010, 4:11 pm

duhh wrote:we used card board under our box. I have maybe pulled out 5 weeds at the most from our box since Feb 2010.
don't know about the soaker hose. we just water ours by hand every few days right now. Will have to up the water as it gets hotter, but so far so good. Let me know if you figure out a good system. we will be expanding in sept. and watering by hand may get to time consuming.

I was considering using a 5 gallon bucket or maybe one of those blue barrels. Put a bulkhead in it and add a spigot or hose connection. Screw on one of those battery powered timers, add some drip irrigation. Elevate the storage container above the garden and let gravity to the work. Fill the container every so often and let the sun heat it up.

coot 6/4/2010, 5:04 pm

For what it's worth, I made boxes with plywood bottoms and I attached 5" legs to each simply because I wasn't sure about the placement of my boxes, and I'm glad I did because I have moved some of them multiple times. What I've noticed is that I have not experienced a problem with critters eating any of my plants in these "off-the-ground" boxes, but I DID have a seedling eaten out of a 6" planter that was set on the ground, and another plant was stripped clean that was simply planted in a standard garden. I have practically zero knowledge in gardening and even less in critter control, but perhaps whatever eats my plants cannot bridge that 5" gap between my boxes and the ground.

luvs2garden 6/4/2010, 7:49 pm

I don't have my garden on legs due to the heat here in Az. I have 3 foot high beds made of cedar. If anyone out here has a bed on legs, let me know how it has fared!

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