raised bed

Hi everyone =) non-native english speaking person here, so please bear with me

So, i'm in Brasil and starting a small growing op on my garden.  
As a complete newbie, all and any advice is welcome, so i'll begin speaking my plan and hopefully good advice will sprout.

It must be a raised bed, as my granny is a plantsperson and will help me take care of (she had a minor stroke and gardening is an excellent work tool to re-develop her hand strength and precision) so it needs to be a raised bed, so it can be managed without all the squatting required for ground-level gardening

My former plan was to build a hugel, but all the wood I had collected was 'taken care of' this year by another resident so i'm left empity-handed... so... yeah...

The main worry here is that using wood stakes and boards to frame the soil would attact slugs and snails, wich are already present on a plastic-bottle garden i keep in the backyard, as i understand those mollucs thrive on humid wood.


so, my main question is> is it ok to use wood as a frame?

also, any advice on starting vegetables, specially those that would look good and entice my patron on allowing me to expand the gardening area?


thanks everyone, for I've lurked this forums for years and years, and 'm finally starting to grow food. you all have been a great inspiring force and i hope to be that force to other people as well

so, my main question is> is it ok to use wood as a frame?

Any frame is going to give slugs a place to hide, more or less. I'd say go with the wood. You could plant some tall perennial grasses or grains along one side, or at one end, to serve as a beetle bank. That can help with slugs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetle_bank.

also, any advice on starting vegetables, specially those that would look good and entice my patron on allowing me to expand the gardening area?

I like the John Jeavons style of starting seedlings in flats. You can use containers or pots you already have (no need to build boxes like in the videos), and you can easily grow as many seedlings as you need. Here's a video about it.

As for varieties, I have no clue. Try to find a reference book for your area, or local seed company, or even better - find a local gardening club or gardeners and ask them what works well in your area.

Best of luck, and congratulations on starting to get your hands dirty!

Is there a local species of wood that is resistant to rot?  Here in New England I used cedar boards for my raised beds.  Is the area of Brasil you're in fairly wet?  If so, rot resistance is something to consider.

I don't know what kind of climate you're growing in, so I'm hesitant to make specific plant suggestions. One suggestion for researching what plants will look attractive in the garden is to read about edible landscaping. Many areas in the United States have rules against growing food (yes I know it's insane) and this has developed as a response. The plants used for edible landscaping are chosen and arranged so that they look more like a flowerbed or foundation planting than a kitchen garden.  

I wandered in here because it said "raised beds" I had an idea but I don't know if it will work: Instead of building up why not just dig 1-2 feet deep trenches around where you decide to put your beds? There could be problems with water collecting in them but if you dig a couple of inches deeper than you want the trench to be (or the height of the bed) and then fill it up to the desired height with gravel or anything Else that will allow the water to percolate that should solve that. I got the idea from an old melon glass house from the victorian age I saw at Sophiero, former summer residency of the Swedish Royal family. The thing about royalty is they could afford the very best so I think it’s worth a try but have you ever heard of this being done? And if the results were good or bad? The melon house is covered which solves any problems potentially caused by rain so it doesn’t really compare.