A bed whose shorter side runs well past ~1.2 m
A bed whose shorter side runs well past ~1.2 m (4 ft) has interior ground that can't be reached from its edges.
Promising A person has checked it against its sources. If you skip this, it still grows, just less well. The planner suggests it.
How it works
A comfortable arm's reach is ~0.6 m, so ground more than twice that across can only be tended by standing on the bed. Standing on it compacts the soil and breaks the structure the bed exists to protect.
What to do about it
Make a wide area into several beds with a path between them, so you never step into a bed. In the planner each bed stands alone and can't be split into parts, so add another bed instead.
The evidence
Evidence: checked against 2 sources in the research-based literature.
The 2 sources
Beds accessible on both sides can be 3 to 4 feet wide
… the reach of your arm is generally a good metric ... If you can access both sides, the bed can be up to five feet wide.
Plus one working note on how the sources were read. Every note is in the data download.
Read next
How this rule has changed
Every change is dated, newest first. The full record, with each reason, is in the data download.
- Sources updated
- Wording made clearer
- Wording made clearer
- Sources updated
- Wording made clearer
- A person read the sources and confirmed it
- Added to the rules
More ways Milpa can help
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Cite this page
Milpa Gardens. “A bed whose shorter side runs well past ~1.2 m (4 ft) has interior ground that can't be reached from its edges.” Evidence grade: Promising. https://milpa.garden/rules/bed-whose-shorter-side-runs-well-past/
A garden planner built on graded evidence. Every claim states its evidence grade and links its sources on the page. Cite it with the grade, and add the date you read it.
Report a problem with this claim
How we grade evidence
- Well established
- The rule names its mechanism and is settled, by sources a person has read and checked or by plain arithmetic and geometry.
- Promising
- The mechanism is named and the literature backs it. A few questions are still open.
- A good hunch
- Plausible by its mechanism, but field studies are thin, so treat it as a lean.
- Contested
- The evidence points both ways, or no study has tested it, so the planner does not enforce it.
- Refuted
- The claim did not survive its sources. It is kept so the folklore can be answered.