Told my neighbor his raised beds were too deep and he got all defensive

My neighbor Dave built these fancy 3 foot tall raised beds last spring for his tomatoes. I told him he was wasting money on soil since tomato roots don't go that deep anyway. He got kinda huffy and said "I know what I'm doing, I watched 20 YouTube videos." Fast forward to July and his plants were all stunted while my 12 inch deep beds were overflowing. He finally admitted I was right after we dug up one of his plants and the roots only went down 10-12 inches. Dude spent like $400 extra on soil for nothing. Has anyone else run into people who think bigger automatically means better for garden setups?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_allen8d ago

Wait, are you sure about tomato roots not going deep though? I mean, I've grown tomatoes for years and I've definitely seen roots go 2 feet or more in loose soil, especially when they're really established. The real issue Dave had was probably more about the soil packing down too much in those tall beds, or maybe he used something too heavy that didn't drain right. My neighbor actually had the same problem, but it turned out his soil mix was too dense and held too much water, so the roots stayed shallow because they couldn't breathe. I think the depth itself isn't the enemy, it's how you fill it and what you plant. For something like carrots or parsnips, a deep bed is actually really useful, you know?

mark_price8d ago

My buddy Tom built 4 foot raised beds for his peppers last year and filled them with straight bagged topsoil. The stuff turned into concrete by July and his peppers were the size of golf balls.