My raised garden beds are 2 foot tall (I believe yours are pretty tall too). I have a new one I installed that have not filled yet. I have been playing around with the idea of installing some heavy dudy totes in the bottom and then backfilling with my normal 14 inches of pine nuggets or mulch and then 10" mixture of peat moss, sand, compost, and vermiculite. I would not get much capillary action with this mixture, but I am considering trying something with some wicking action to help.

Have you ever tried anything similar or ran across anyone doing it? I believe it would insulate enough to keep it from freezing,

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Posted by cgrand

HAMMOND

Member since Oct 2009

51930 posts

Posted on 10/23/26 at 7:45 am to TimeOutdoors

basically you would just be segregating your big bed into multiple smaller beds. So a giant grid of totes as pots. Interesting idea. Would allow you to only plant/water in specific areas if needed.

the advantage to a huge mass of soil is that it takes far longer to dry out, but likewise takes much more water and much longer to rehydrate.

give it a try I’d be interested to see how it goes

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Posted by TimeOutdoors

Member since Sep 2014

13977 posts

Posted on 10/23/26 at 7:57 am to cgrand

The totes would be in the bottom 12-14 inches of the bed. I would still have the 4x8 full bed size. I just may need something more for the capillary action. I did something similar to this at a much smaller scale years ago using cotton rope. I am going to research it a little more this weekend and come up with a design with grok bot.

I used grok bot yesterday to make a link on my iphone home screen to give me an image with daily forecast, 5 day forecast, link to radar, and use the closest weather stations to give me a monthly and yearly rain total compared to average.

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Posted by CrawDude

Baton Rouge

Member since Apr 2019

6086 posts

Posted on 10/23/26 at 10:50 am to RaginCajunz

quote:
The station in Prairieville closest to my house had 14.94" June 1 - September 30th. So a bit worse than north BR down in my area this year. Some dry patches of grass and I lost an expensive japanese black pine that I failed to get watered. (other 3 did just fine with a few good waterings)

I’m not far from you in SE BR near Bayou Manchac. My backyard weather station showed 17.24 inches of precipitation from June 1-Sept 30 2026. I’ve also lost a few young shrubs, planted them too late in early May (I knew better….lol….but thought I’d take a chance), that I’ll need to replant this winter.

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Posted by sledgehammer

SWLA

Member since Oct 2020

8245 posts

Posted on 10/23/26 at 10:12 pm to RaginCajunz

I’m in the extreme drought area in Jeff Davis Parish. No rain in October, 1/2 inch both in September and August caught in my rain gauge. The surrounding areas have gotten some more rain, but those showers always missed my house. I’ve watered like crazy but still lost a swamp red maple and rose of Sharon. My vitex, small crepe Myrtle, and muscadine vine are barely hanging on. This drought is worse than 2023 for me.