View Full Version : New raised beds
Sharing my new biointensive raised beds (each 4' by 8', 24" of amended soil underneath, with 12" additional inches of good stuff on top) The soil here at our new place is absolutely awful, so it was a lot of work, but hey, I didn't have to go to the gym once this summer :D I got the potted tomatoes in, but the other two I'm hoping to get SOMEthing into before frost. Spinach, lettuce, kale?
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They look good puglogic. It appears that with 3' of good soil as the base, you must know what you're doing.
Wish I had the interest and motivation to do some gardening myself. I have a lot of sun in my back yard (now that I've lost most of the trees back there.) Last year I put in 2 tomato plants and 3 pepper plants (in my fenced back yard) and the squirrels and deer and God know what else, ate EVERY SINGLE ONE!
I just can't get excited about it, though. Brings back memories of being conscripted into hauling rocks and pulling weeds in the garden my mother planted every summer and that never amounted to much.
Very nice Pug!
What kind of wood is that? What kind of soil did you use?
You said you got some potted tomatoes in. Are you in a zone that will allow them to grow into winter?
Thanks, CathyA and bunnys. The wood is cedar, and the soil is the soil we already had here, just heavily amended with compost.
The poor tomatoes had been growing in (big) plastic pots since being started from seed this past spring. I wish we could grow them into the winter, but we're like zone 5. The tomato breed is tough as heck and can take some cold (Sasha's Altai) plus this is the third year of gathering seed, so the plants are pretty well acclimatized to our conditions here. Scrappy little guys.
What I plan to do is build a high tunnel over them to help them last until late October or so (provided we don't get any of those freakish early winter storms, very possible) And protect them from any marauding elk....
Those look nice!
I like the neatness of the wood. We built ours out of Troublesome Rocks, which at least got the rocks out of the way, and had the unexpected-to-me benefit of passive solar heating. My mother, the Head Garden Engineer, of course included this in all of her calculations.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-fLyfFanOOpk/TBRaMtL3ptI/AAAAAAAAA_M/qYAl6ODjc6w/s576/img_0220.jpg
Those are nice looking raised beds! I found this chart (http://www.veggieharvest.com/Vegetable-Planting-Calendar/Zone-5-Vegetable-Planting-Calendar/) for zone 5 planting dates. It looks like you have quite a few options for things that can be planted now.
Pug......those tunnels should help alot to extend the season for your 'maters.
Those are nice!
I did a square foot garden last year. A similar size but only 8" deep. The "magic" soil mix recommended in the book is a third compost, a third peat, and a third vermiculite. So the soil mix is sort of expensive, but is supposed to be the reason it can get by with a more shallow depth. I had good luck last year, but only marginal luck this year. I forgot to add more compost this year which may be why it didn't do as well. I am actually going to plant some cool weather crops today. Beets, lettuce, radishes, and spinach. I made a simple tent using PVC and plastic for later in the season.
I may add another level of 2"X8"'s for more depth next spring depending on how this fall goes. Gardening is a trial and error experiment for me.
@bae, those are awesome. I'll be building some stone ones next year for just that reason. I built stone rings around my hot-weather crops last year and they produced better than they ever have for me. The whole yard is south-sloping with full sun, so I should be able to grow some things here I couldn't before in my shady foresty yard.
I want to make my yard into a sort of demonstration garden to help teach my neighborhood how to grow more of their own stuff if they want to, so I'll have a little of everything. Those particular beds were expensive because I purchased the boards and the corners. But I'll do another set that's free (just labor), built of redwood reclaimed from a deck. And one of stone, and probably a lasagna garden too, starting it this fall so I can plant it next spring.
@Rogar, thanks for reminding me about the PVC. I keep getting fixated on building the frame for the tunnels out of conduit, but PVC is actually a lot of fun to work with -- getting all those angled joints and putting them together into the shape you want, kinda like tinker toys. We're up above Denver and it's already getting below 40 at night, so I better get on it......
@daisy, thanks for the link!!! Some good incentive for me....
Tussiemussies
8-21-12, 5:07am
Bae, just love that stone garden bed. Have to keep that in mind when I start worin on a garden...
Looks fantastic, Pug! I put in one 4x8 ft garden out of cinderblock, which DH calls "the bunker". That alone took 10 hrs of work, just setting it up. Although I did put all compost rather than amended soil, hoping to keep out the darn bindweed. Anyway, I can't imagine putting in several! I did want to say, I have had good luck wintering over shallots and spinach even without a row cover and with a harsher winter than last. The spinach didn't really grow but it didn't die either so as soon as it got just warm enough it went nuts. If my tomatoes weren't taking over the entire universe I would plant any green that you could have as a "baby" ie baby lettuces, baby spinach etc. That way if we do have an early storm you can just have a lot of baby greens instead of mature greens, or hedge your bets and split some out in case some don't make it even with a cover.
Thanks for posting the chart, Daisy! Helps me too and I'm sure there are many others in zone 5.
Thanks, Rosie. I've got everything blanketed tonight because we're likely to see below-freezing temps for the first time this fall. A shame, since the tomatoes are doing really well. Ah well....
Pug- an easy/cheap solution for covers: picked up 1 foot lengths of rebar and 100 foot of plastic conduit (happened to be black, in the plumbing department) at the local big box hardware store. Insert rebar half way into soil at edge of bed, cut conduit to length (I used 5 feet which results in a tunnel about 2-2.5 feet high by 3 feet wide). Insert end of conduit over rebar at each end and voila you have a free standing hoop, This cost me about $3/hoop: $1 for the pipe, $1 each for 2 pieces of rebar. You can then throw row cover or greenhouse plastic over and weight with rocks/sandbags or use plastic pipe clips - I prefer the pipe clips.
Herbgeek, do you ever have problems with the thin black plastic PVC being too "floppy" and falling over? It seems I had that problem last year when I tried that. I may put it up anyway, just because I already have a big roll of it and plenty of pieces of rebar (and plastic to cover).
Nope. The tubing I purchased was actually quite rigid. It's 1/2 inch diameter iirc. It wouldn't hold up well without the rebar though.
Hey I want to join the raised bed photo party:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20517730@N08/8000912575/
DH built this huge bed (approx 40 X 20' ) from foundation stones of Victorian houses that once stood on our vacant lots. While it is a tragically sad thing that these old Victorian were bulldozed, we at least did use their carcasses.
We bought fill dirt, good river bottom soil, for about $1,000 which was a lot of money back then, more than we spent on kitchen appliances! But that was our priority.
I.L., those are amazing!!! And knowing where the stone came from just makes them even more spectacular. Did DH mortar them? It looks like it from the photo.
I.L., those are amazing!!! And knowing where the stone came from just makes them even more spectacular. Did DH mortar them? It looks like it from the photo.
Yes, they are mortared. And he corrected my measurement (I'm terrible at estimates.) This bed is 40' X 20'. He's good with masonry work.
He made this bed 23 years ago and moaned about it not having a frost line foundation because I wouldn't let him take the time to do that. I told him don't worry, it only needs to last 10-12 years and we will be gone, haha. But we are still here and these rock walls are still in decent shape needing only occasional patching.
I am totally impressed with all the beautiful raised beds! Lovely!
He made this bed 23 years ago and moaned about it not having a frost line foundation because I wouldn't let him take the time to do that. I told him don't worry, it only needs to last 10-12 years and we will be gone, haha. But we are still here and these rock walls are still in decent shape needing only occasional patching.
I'm glad you answered this,that was the first question I had when I saw your beutiful raised beds.Thanks to everyone for sharing.I need to build some raised beds myself because most of my ground slopes terribly.
For my veggie gardens I started with concrete blocks, but I didn't like the look of them and stubbed my toe one time too many so listed 'over 100 concrete blocks' on craigslist and had them gone that afternoon. My current veggie gardens are in 5 woodframe beds with garden soil, compost, manure, vermiculite, peat, and whatever else I can add to it.
I've built rock paths and rock walls, cleared off shelf rock for natural patios and a walkway around the back of the house. We have a lot of rock building material on our glade.
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