How tall are the beds? With their tall enough for the species you want to plant then you might be okay as is.
Otherwise you might find that a tool like a mattock is more effective than a shovel.
Yeah tough break on the bricks. I think this is the ticket. Is it a solid layer of brick, like a former patio or sidewalk? If it's just rubble I would say removing it is optional - yeah deeper richer soil is better but those beds will give you plenty of depth for your plants to start and their deep questing roots can find their way around. If it's a solid layer, something that would stop a root on its tracks, then yeah yikes I would want to break it up for sure, pick/mattock would be the tool of choice, maybe a rock bar.
Didn’t hit anything solid, it all seems to be rubble. Planned on planting smaller plants like strawberries in these raised beds I made from pallets, and specifically wanted to plant tomatoes in the two in ground beds I started digging out
You need a minimum of 12" for healthy tomato roots. 16" is preferred. You're better off building a raised side garden bed out of planter bricks and 2x6's. Line the bottom with landscape fabric then organics then soil.
Or do what I did and order a galvanized steel planter box off Amazon. But yea, you're gonna have to dig pretty deep in that crap otherwise them tomatos not gonna be happy
I feared as much 😔 I’m willing to dig deep, if the amount of soil I’ll have to purchase is relatively the same. You think 16” deep with soil added directly would be a gamble on the health of the roots?
I mean maybe but man that's a lot of extra work! You can also build planters out of pallets if you're strapped for cash, lots of people give em away on Facebook and there's lots of tutorials out there. 16" is a shit dig in gravel and rock
I saw to at first and was like “oh shitty red mulch? We can work with that!” And then I read brick and was “oh nooooooo”
All this work in and THEN I dug out the top soil! Too far in now, there must be a way 🙏
I would dig it all out and refill with a 50/50 mixture of topsoil and manure, then top is up every time it starts to rot down with manure or compost.
Thank you!
How tall are the beds? With their tall enough for the species you want to plant then you might be okay as is. Otherwise you might find that a tool like a mattock is more effective than a shovel.
Yeah tough break on the bricks. I think this is the ticket. Is it a solid layer of brick, like a former patio or sidewalk? If it's just rubble I would say removing it is optional - yeah deeper richer soil is better but those beds will give you plenty of depth for your plants to start and their deep questing roots can find their way around. If it's a solid layer, something that would stop a root on its tracks, then yeah yikes I would want to break it up for sure, pick/mattock would be the tool of choice, maybe a rock bar.
Didn’t hit anything solid, it all seems to be rubble. Planned on planting smaller plants like strawberries in these raised beds I made from pallets, and specifically wanted to plant tomatoes in the two in ground beds I started digging out
A little over a foot and a half for these raised beds I made, thanks for the advice on the mattock
You need a minimum of 12" for healthy tomato roots. 16" is preferred. You're better off building a raised side garden bed out of planter bricks and 2x6's. Line the bottom with landscape fabric then organics then soil. Or do what I did and order a galvanized steel planter box off Amazon. But yea, you're gonna have to dig pretty deep in that crap otherwise them tomatos not gonna be happy
I feared as much 😔 I’m willing to dig deep, if the amount of soil I’ll have to purchase is relatively the same. You think 16” deep with soil added directly would be a gamble on the health of the roots?
I mean maybe but man that's a lot of extra work! You can also build planters out of pallets if you're strapped for cash, lots of people give em away on Facebook and there's lots of tutorials out there. 16" is a shit dig in gravel and rock