Raised Beds; Good or Bad?

Gardeners like nothing better than a good gossip. But one thing which is practically guaranteed to get the blood flowing is the ongoing discussion about raised beds.
They have good points, and bad points. This is a round up of the accepted issues for beds.


Bad Points:

• Harbour pests and allow weeds to proliferate.
  As there is such a defined border, pests such as slugs and snails can tuck themselves away in the little crevices and then sneak out at night to munch on your goodies. Weeds (such as the dreaded bindweed) can insinuate themselves around the frames and make removing them a pain.
  
  
• Wasted Space.
  You need a set of paths between your beds. Obviously these paths need to be maintained and managed. So much so that the will need to be wide enough to get through. But anything you put down as a path is not providing you food.
  
  
• Cost.
  Definitely a biggie. They cost. End of story.

Good Points:

• Clearly defined growing area.
  By having a fixed area you can clearly layout your plants to the optimum spacing. Maybe more so as you can take into account the fact that there will be better soil in the beds and perhaps you can get away with closer spacing.
• Better soil quality.
  You don't tread in the beds. As such the soil suffers less compaction. Given that I intend to sieve my soil to remove the bindweed roots, there should be excellent soil in the beds.
• Base for protection.
  The beds will have supports for canes and frames which will allow for cloches or netting as appropriate. Giving plants support or help as needed.

There are a couple of points where the bad options can be mitigated.
Firstly Wasted Space. If the beds are designed properly then the main walkway would only need to be wide enough for a wheelbarrow to get down. Nothing wrong there, as you will still need that space even if you didn't have raised beds. The space between the beds themselves only need to be wide enough to walk down for access. As such you wouldn't need much more than a few inches, perhaps 8" (20cm) at the most.
Secondly they can be productive... but not in the way you think. Taking a leaf from Onestraw Rob's blog, I intend to use wood chippings as the paths for a number of reasons. Water retention being one, the other is to grow fungi and mycelium.
It is likely that from a weed and pests point of view, I will have issues. Sort of. Weeds will possibly encroach. Hopefully at a slow rate due to the sieving of the soil. But slugs and snails should find the handy slates and tiles that I will be placing around the place a nice bolt hole. Pity that they will be placed right next to where I want the foxes to run and will easily be able to be nosed aside.