Raised Bed Gardening (great resource)

[imememine]

Hi everyone,

I don't know if this has been posted elsewhere on the site, if so my bad... I stumbled upon this site while researching different ways to construct raised beds economically.

www.noble.org/Ag/Horticulture/RaisedBedGardening/introduction.html

I live in an area with heavy clay soil and have always had problems with my vegetables. To make up for poor yields, we've simply planted more.... Next season we'll be cutting the size of our garden in half and constructing raised beds. This is the most comprehensive guide I've seen on so far on the net.

I'm interested in hearing what the more experienced gardeners think of this method.

[kiwiduncan]

Great link thanks.  That'll be tonight's reading.

[GypsyCat]

We tried something similiar when we lived in NC where the soil was clay.  It worked well for the most part, but it was a LOT of work to get set up and yields on year two weren't very good without fertilizer.

This time, we are trying the square foot gardening method.  If you can get past the author's tendancy towards self-righteousness...it's an interesting book.  The website is http://www.squarefootgardening.com/  So far it's going very well and we got a late start on the season.

[freedom]

I'm interested in hearing what the more experienced gardeners think of this method.

If you're asking 'is raised-bed gardening the way to go?', I would say yes. My experience has been positive. Because of my age (74) and some physical limitations (knees and back), I have an annual vegetable raised garden made with river rock which  stands about two-feet high. This is my 3rd year gardening so I don't have lots of experience to share. But one thing I've learned, and to me, this is key, is be patient and 'build soil'. The soil here is crappy: both powdery and clayey, on a deeper level. I used fertilizers of various kinds, including aged horse and chicken poops, and compost from my compost bin. It's taken these three years to build up nutrients in the soil, and now there are worms ... always a good sign, I think. This years garden is abundant. The leaves on the zuccini and cabbage plants look like The Little House of Horrors flowers ... colossal!! They promise fruits ... and now I'm waiting to see. Planted the garden June 1st and we have a short growing season here in the high desert of Arizona. We're now into the monsoon rain season which is extremely beneficial.

Of course, because I think nothing is ever going to grow, I planted way too many seeds and things are pretty damn crowded. But, I'm learning. My garden is like a mini-laboratory, and, as they say, experience IS the best teacher.

[imememine]

GypsyCat,

I agree: this method does look like a LOT of work. AND expensive if you plan on using tires or mesh fencing to construct the walls of your raised bed, and using plastic mulch as suggested...

I love the detail they go into, and the step by step pictures. I'm thinking of adapting this method... using scrap lumber for walls, and straw mulch instead of plastic, since that can be obtained for next to nothing where I live.

I anticipate watering to be the biggest problem. Who has the money to run thousands of feet of drip lines, set up a water holding tank, and incorporate liquid fertilizer? I certainly don't... pond water, a hose, and hours of standing in the sun will have to do.

I've seen links for square foot gardening before... It seems really labour intensive to set up the gridded beds. How did you find it?

[GypsyCat]

I've seen links for square foot gardening before... It seems really labour intensive to set up the gridded beds. How did you find it?

Much easier than setting up the other raised beds we had!  The nice thing is that the SFG soil mix holds water well but still drains properly.  I think it'll take less water to maintain over the growing season. 

Basically, it took us awhile to locate all the 'ingredients' (like coarse vermiculite), but once we had everything, we spent 1 whole day mixing the soil and filling the beds.  The beds themselves took a couple of hours to build.  The trellises were built later, and all told, probably took about 2-3 hours (tying all the netting was the most time consuming).  I altered the basic 4x4 bed to accomodate more trellising and we anticipate adding more beds in the future.  So far, it's going really well!



This is our 'field of boxes' in the early days.  We now have more trellises and more things growing.  I don't think I needed to leave so much space between them, but I wasn't sure how much the trellises were going to shade the boxes behind them.  Most of our boxes are 6".  There is one 12" box in the back row where we are growing carrots, parsnips, and onions.  I'll probably also put some garlic in there in the fall.  We also have a plot of tilled row gardening where we do corn & potatoes.

[Dasha]

In the most recent Square Foot Gardening book, the author says to put landscape cloth under the bed. I don't think this is a good idea, because plants have root systems that go much deeper than 6 inches. Heck, an alfalfa plant has 18 foot roots! By limiting the root development to 6 inches, you are limiting the nutrients that can be brought up from deep in your soil, and also the moisture that might be available there. If you want to put a new raised bed directly on lawn, put down cardboard or layers of newspaper first. That will compost the grass in place and the paper will break down over time.

I do think the square foot grid is a great idea. The act of planting one square foot at a time makes gardening less daunting for beginners especially. And you can put any mix in there that you want - a  "cheap as dirt" mix is 1/3 soil, 1/3 compost and 1/3 chopped straw, leaves, and/or dried grass clippings.

more on square foot gardening, including the "cheap as dirt" idea:

http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/26gardening.htm

[AnIowan]

Bumping this as we are all starting to think about "next year" all ready.....

[pamela]

Bumping this as we are all starting to think about "next year" all ready.....

glad you did too.
that is a great photograph!
and raised beds is my favorite way to garden.

[cygnus]

Hi everyone,

I don't know if this has been posted elsewhere on the site, if so my bad... I stumbled upon this site while researching different ways to construct raised beds economically.

www.noble.org/Ag/Horticulture/RaisedBedGardening/introduction.html

I live in an area with heavy clay soil and have always had problems with my vegetables. To make up for poor yields, we've simply planted more.... Next season we'll be cutting the size of our garden in half and constructing raised beds. This is the most comprehensive guide I've seen on so far on the net.

I'm interested in hearing what the more experienced gardeners think of this method.

I've used raised beds for a couple of decades now.  They work great for everything I've tried.  The only caveat is, if  you live in a hotter, drier climate, mulch them very well - put soaker hoses on the ground for watering and pile several inches of mulch on top.  Otherwise they dry out too fast.  But other than that, they are absolutely a great way to go for smaller gardens.  The soil stays uncompacted and easier to weed, and you can put water and compost right where you need them, on the plants you want to grow - not in the pathways to be wasted and grow more weeds. 

Another good thing about them is they warm up better and faster in the spring in cold climate areas.

[DimLightbulb]

I have Mel's "old book", the one where he looks hippy'ish on the front cover and his beds look like they were piece-mealed together with scraps of lumber.
I also looked at his new edition and it looks like he's gone yuppish with the pretty  raised beds.  Nothing really new in his latest book but the yuppy, pretty turned me off.

If you're going to get his book, I recommend the older edition.

http://www.amazon.com/Square-Foot-Gardening-Garden-Space/dp/0878573402/ref=ed_oe_h

[Barter4Booze]

I strongly recommend the raised bed site that Imememine recommended in an earlier post:
 

http://www.noble.org/Ag/Horticulture/RaisedBedGardening/introduction.html

They have a plan for a galvanized steel-lined beds that they claim is quite cheap, but from my perspective, it's fairly labour intensive.  Once built, however, I think it would last for decades.

[Hendrek]

The method I found easiest to grid out the raised beds for the square foot method: just hammer in some small nails halfway every foot around the perimeter, then wrap and extend some twine across the beds and around the nails until a grid is formed.  I did 124 ft^2 in about 5-10 minutes this way.  Very simple, and exceedingly cheap.  You really only need the grid to do the planting part, so if the twine rots away, no biggie.  Once the plants are growing, the grid doesn't seem to matter anymore, and may get in the way, IMO.  Besides, my situation is a temporary rental location, so I wasn't going for long term infrastructure... just a quick and cheap answer! (I didn't even bother with treated wood for the frames, so they'll probably start rotting soon, but who cares!)

Still, this is my first attempt, and I have a lot to learn.  Will revive an old thread of mine later with some pictures... and look for feedback!
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Any thoughts on using a red heat lamp in a greenhouse to keep the temperature up over the winter?  I was thinking of trying this in the colder months once I have some seedlings in there.  I'd keep the light facing the ground, not at the plants so as to not screw with their light cycles...

[imememine]

Hello everyone,

I'm glad this thread has been bumped; there's still plenty of time to get a head start on next year.

If you're thinking of trying out the Noble Foundation method, I can now say from experience that the plastic mesh method is an easy and cost effective way to construct raised beds. I have not tried the galvanized steel-lined beds, Barter4Booze, because I think you're right - it looks labour intensive, and after pricing it out, I found it would be much to costly for me. The advantage is that they likely would last forever, and you can make them slightly taller than plastic mesh beds, around 12 inches deep rather than the 6 to 8 inches.

So, here are some tips and photos I can share for those who are interested.

We started off following the plastic mesh method on the Noble Foundation Website. It is by far the cheapest method, and it’s easy to scavenge materials for construction – I found a roll of plastic mesh fencing on the side of the road, and used old shingles we had lying around to line the walls of the first two beds.

This is the plot we’re using, after constructing two test beds.


It’s also easy to acquire old tires to cap the beds, ask your friends or the local auto shop. Around here they have to pay someone to take old tires away; you will get them for free. You can see the tire “caps” from this angle, and my little brother, who gets very excited.


You need to cut the tire walls so you’re left with tread. A reciprocating saw works well, but be sure to have a saw blade that lists rubber as one of the materials it’s rated for. We struggled with a wood blade at first and lost quite a bit of time.



You will have to shell out for rebar stakes. A scrap metal dealer is likely to have what you need. I paid just over $300 for enough rebar for 10 30-foot beds, far less than what I would have paid for treated lumber. It also helps to have a chop saw so you can cut them yourself as the scrap yard’s fee for cutting is ridiculous. We stack similar lengths of rebar five high when chopping our stakes, and that task went very quicly.

Setting up the walls of the bed is tricky at first, but you get it down pat quickly.
Make a loop with an 8-inch piece of rebar

Loop that over one of the 5/8” end stakes

Hammer down!

We used a winch to stretch the plastic mesh the first few times, but found it was much faster to put on gloves, dig our heels into the ground and stretch it by hand to fit over the other end stake.

I like to level the stakes and pull the plastic mesh to the top of each to ensure the beds are level.

Lay newspaper and position the tire “caps” before lining the beds with shingles or whatever else you’d like to use.

Holding the shingle liner up with a scoop of soil


After struggling with shingles as bed liners, we tried using the same tire treads used for caps as liners. It worked very well. Just pull them out tight, and stake the end of the “tire boards” so they’re pressed up tight against the plastic mesh wall. 9 cut-up tires will line a 30-foot bed. You’ll notice they won’t flatten out against the plastic mesh perfectly. There will be “bumps” but once you add soil you can push the bumps flat to the edge of the plastic mesh, and pack soil in behind. That gives the edges a straight, uniform look. I don’t have a great picture of the beds in which we used tires as liner, but you might be able to see the result in one of these




I think that tire-lined beds are a neat improvement on the Noble Foundation method because it’s an easy way to get the benefit of their recycled tire bed method without all the fussing around.

We’re also putting up some square foot gardens

[Meg]

Fantastic series of photos!  Thanks for putting them up.

One suggestion - put something on the paths between. Grass has a habit of making it into veg beds any way it can - so you want to reduce your exposure, by making sure you have as few edges beside grass as you can. 

I have used a few methods: 
i) lay membrane on your paths then sand or other path material on top
ii) several layers of cardboard & then sand  (this has worked really well between rows of raspberrries where there is less light)
iii) paving slabs

I have just found that anywhere that grass is up against the raised bed boundary, you will get runners trying to sneak in.  Of course keeping the grass very short (I pull it by hand) next to the edge does help a bit.

I'm looking forward to seeing your photos next year.  That looks like nice soil you have put in the beds.... don't forget some manure too!