New to Raised Bed Gardening

[teejk]

Intersting your using block.. how are you keeping those in place.. I have access to some cheap 16" block and thought about using them and using landscape adhesive to keep them together. I also want to leave the ends of my raised bed gardens open so I can drive my tractor through it to prep them.. or is that crazy? I hear they are a lot less prep work so maybe not necessary.

I'll have to check out that book. I have been gardening for years with some success, the last 15 years, my soil quality was pretty poor but now I moved and have outstanding soil so I'm pretty excited to get things in the ground here. I am tall and HATE bending over so I think I'm going at least 18" to 24" deep since it doesn't seem to be a negative to go taller.

If you are talking about that "Mini Farming" book, I bought it with the intention of starting with some raised beds. Our soil is more conducive as a sand/gravel pit and black dirt is hard to come by (we had a guy clear our wooded 2 acres while we were gone...I'm sure he scarfed the topsoil and sold it). Getting started is still on the list (according to the book I should have started last fall) but in the meantime I find that book to be somewhat fascinating. It covers a lot of stuff...and mostly "organic" means. It gets into types of cover crops to plant depending on what you want next year...all that stuff.

 

[RalphVa]

I went to raised beds and gave up my big garden down by the creek about 3 1/2 years ago after I recovered from congestive heart failure. I put in (with help of friends) 6 beds at 4x8 and made of 2x6s double high. I put in a PVC system to get the water from poly pipes just under or above the ground on each bed. Then I just coiled about 25' of soaker hose in each bed and more or less buried it a little bit. This poly/PVC/soaker hose system is fed by 3 tanks @ 330 gallons each and 2 barrels @ about 60 gallons each. I rotate among them. They're all about 5 to 10 feet above the raised beds. They also feed some blueberries down the hill and used to feed my big garden. I rolled about 1100' of poly pipe down the hill a long time ago. It just lies on the ground so I can monitor it. Can connect well water pressure to it if needed to check it out, clear it, etc.

I use compost to start my seeds in and put mulch on top the beds during the winter and between the plants once they're growing. My compost is mostly ground up leaves from town people that throw bags of them away, ground up limbs and green leaves and kitchen scraps. I also lace it with my own urine, which is a great green fertilizer.

Ralph

 

[2ndhalf]

A good source of information on this type of gardening is Mother Earth News. It is geared for small applications.
Have you tried soaker hoses for irrigation?

Yes, I have used soaker hoses and they do work. They seem to plug after a few years though. I may use them again this year since I have a lot going on this spring. Time will dictate that some when May-June comes around.

 

[2ndhalf]

I went to raised beds and gave up my big garden down by the creek about 3 1/2 years ago after I recovered from congestive heart failure. I put in (with help of friends) 6 beds at 4x8 and made of 2x6s double high. I put in a PVC system to get the water from poly pipes just under or above the ground on each bed. Then I just coiled about 25' of soaker hose in each bed and more or less buried it a little bit. This poly/PVC/soaker hose system is fed by 3 tanks @ 330 gallons each and 2 barrels @ about 60 gallons each. I rotate among them. They're all about 5 to 10 feet above the raised beds. They also feed some blueberries down the hill and used to feed my big garden. I rolled about 1100' of poly pipe down the hill a long time ago. It just lies on the ground so I can monitor it. Can connect well water pressure to it if needed to check it out, clear it, etc.

I use compost to start my seeds in and put mulch on top the beds during the winter and between the plants once they're growing. My compost is mostly ground up leaves from town people that throw bags of them away, ground up limbs and green leaves and kitchen scraps. I also lace it with my own urine, which is a great green fertilizer.

Ralph

Garden by the creek I bet that was great soil. If I use my own urine I would have to keep that from the wife or I couldn't get her to eat anything from the garden :laughing:

 

[2ndhalf]

If you are talking about that "Mini Farming" book, I bought it with the intention of starting with some raised beds. Our soil is more conducive as a sand/gravel pit and black dirt is hard to come by (we had a guy clear our wooded 2 acres while we were gone...I'm sure he scarfed the topsoil and sold it). Getting started is still on the list (according to the book I should have started last fall) but in the meantime I find that book to be somewhat fascinating. It covers a lot of stuff...and mostly "organic" means. It gets into types of cover crops to plant depending on what you want next year...all that stuff.

I can tell you don't have to start a garden in the fall. I'm sure the raised beds will settle a lot but I'm also sure they will still grow a lot even starting them in the spring. I have done enough landscaping and gardening to know if you put something in good soil, it's going to grow.

 

[teejk]

I can tell you don't have to start a garden in the fall. I'm sure the raised beds will settle a lot but I'm also sure they will still grow a lot even starting them in the spring. I have done enough landscaping and gardening to know if you put something in good soil, it's going to grow.

Other than fruit trees I am an idiot when it comes to gardening. Like I said that book was written by somebody that I'm sure leans towards "organic" and his "fall" starting was merely to plant appropriate winter crops to provide the proper "stuff" depending on what you planned on growing in the spring (rye grass vs. other apparently changes the soil pH). Now my MIL just bought a house not far from here...big fenced in yard (deer/rabbit proof). Soil same as here (sand/gravel) except the years of decaying leaves and such are still there. Seed catalogs are starting to appear (no hurry here because of our zone). Time to get going I guess!

 

[BoylermanCT]

If you use pressure treated wood for the raised bed, wrap black plastic weed block around the inside before you fill with dirt. You don't need the pressure treating chemicals leaching into the soil and going into the plants / vegetables. Defeats the purpose of growing your own food - may as well eat grocery store food with all the chemicals they come with!

 

[TnAndy]

We have traditionally gardened 2 quarter acre sized lots (fenced in to keep the deer mostly out).

Couple years ago, we built a 20x36' hoophouse with raised beds to extend our gardening on the front and back end of our typical May-October growing season. It has worked out so well, we find we're raising much of our grown food needs with it.

The ground slopes about 8' in the 20' width direction (mountains of East Tn, flat ground is hard to come by). I dug into the upper side so that side is basically 3' below grade, and used 8" block for the outside walls, with 1" foam board on the inside of the bed to help keep soil temps up inside.

Inside, the bed wall is 4" block, in a U shape around the house, front open. Beds are 32" deep (about the most we can reach easily front to back), fill with local dirt about 2/3 way up, then a mix of peat moss, sand, dirt and vermiculite.

The knee wall on the outside is the start of the hoop house. You can see our traditional garden areas down and back to the right.

For water, I ran a 3/4" pvc line mounted in the inside of the beds with quick connect hose points. The pipe slopes all the way back to the start point so it can be completely drained in the dead of winter when we don't use the house much.

This are the hoops in place, laminated white oak arches we built in the yard in front, installed on the knee walls. Covered with a double layer of 4 yr greenhouse plastic and run an inflator fan to tighten them up and help with insulation.

The first year, we were going into fall as we got the house done, so we just used the U bed (which you can see planted before we even got the hoop up) around the outside walls.

On the lower side of the house, also put a raised bed for strawberries. Length on it runs about 75' (the retainer wall below is longer than the hoop house). Got 25 gallons of strawberries out of it this past year !

Traditional row garden below, can also see the strawberry bed.

The next year, decided to use the center section as raised bed, and pour concrete floor. The PEX tubing is for in floor heat. It also runs in the U beds around the outside walls.

Middle bed is 5' x 22'. 4" block.

In full production various times:

 

[CalG]

We have traditionally gardened 2 quarter acre sized lots (fenced in to keep the deer mostly out).

Couple years ago, we built a 20x36' hoophouse with raised beds to extend our gardening on the front and back end of our typical May-October growing season. It has worked out so well, we find we're raising much of our grown food needs with it.

Looks like some expensive veggies, but hobbies are hobbies!

After years of "floundering", I put in a trio of "raised beds" on our wet garden spot. We call it "figure 11 gardening". About two feet wide and 4 inches high, the beds are little more than wood framed rows with furrows of grass between. (it is important to keep mowing in mind when setting bed spacing if you don't mulch to inhibit weeds.)

The beds are "raised" with composted leaves , wood chips, and forest soil tilled with the old garden soil. The bed soil is so light and "tilth-full" as to be easily turned by hand. Sometimes with the hands! (the light soil means supporting crops such as sweet corn!)

Wood ashes are applied through the winter months to counter our acid soils.

The raised beds have provided a mechanism to get above the wet soils and yield wonderful results. Beans, carrots, squash, kale. lettuce,radish, garlic, peas, etc. everything is doing well where as before, "wet feet" was a problem.

Defining the growing area and walking on grass between the garden beds is a big PLUS as far as sensation and well being goes.

 

[crazyal]

I made 3 small 4x4 raised beds out of cedar. I was worried about using pressure treated without putting plastic on the inside (which would of brought the cost close to the same price). I used rough cut from a local mill. Each one is split in half with a 6" and a 12" deep section. Since they are small I just bought bags of organic soil for vegetables. I wanted them to be able to be moved if needed. I have a 275 gallon bulk container that catches water off of the roof that is out of the sun so the water stays cool.