Gardening and Horticulture - Raised bed garden

My wife wants me to build her some raised bed gardens for vegetables and plants.

From what I've read, they can be as long as you like, but about 3-4 feet across. She wants the beds to be 16" deep.

I'm wondering should the long side of the bed run east/west, or north/south.

Also, does anyone have a source for a simple, cheap, sturdy, and attractive design?

Any other comments or web links would be appreciated.

Jim

Hi JimSmith,
Welcome to the DIY Gardening Forum! :) I personally dont have any raised beds, but my experience with them has led me to the conclusion that the long end of the bed should face east/west.

Remember when preparing the bed, it is important to remove all of the sod so that it doesnt have the opportunity to reroot. Also keep in mind that it is a good idea to make sure that you check the pH level of the soil that you are going to add, and then adjust it according to what you intend to plant. Speaking of which, what to you plan on planting?

Good luck with your project this year. There is plenty of information available online as well. Check out the following link:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22building+a+raised+bed%22

Again, good luck :) Come back with any questions.

Eric

My cheap, sturdy design is to pile the dirt up. No supports needed.

Thanks for the responses.

I think she'll be planting a whole range of vegetables. She's a pretty knowledgable gardener, but since we recently moved to New Mexico (high desert), we will have to learn about what will grow here. She's pretty confident that she will be able to grow just about everything she could grow back east.

I'll remind her about getting supplies to adjust PH.

As far as a mound of dirt, good idea, I would be all for it. However, I don't think I can get it past her. I think she has a vision of sitting on a bench seat on the edge of the bed structure with a minimum of bending.

Oh well...

Hi Jim,

We use some raised beds on the Farm. Strawberries, Asparagus, Rubarb etc. We use perforated ground cloth under the Spent Mushroom Compost, a cheap way for us to fill the beds with nice black dirt to start building.

Here in the NC Mountains we have found a long southern view with the short ends facing East to West, makes it easy to grow longer rows of tall to short plants. Tall plants like Tomatos in back & down to radish's in front everything gets all day light that way.

http://www.seedsofchange.com
http://www.raised-garden-beds.com/index.htm#Advantages

We have a good source of RR cross Ties, and drive rebar through holes we drill & down into the ground. We also let the ground cloth run up the sides to help stablize the dirt inside from wasing out the cracks.

As the dirt is added we layer it with compost & Espoma Plant Tone. Plant Tone is a 5 year mix of organic goodies that will break down slowly to create very rich living soil.

Seeds of change is in your neck of the woods, so they would have good info on what you can grow. The other link is good for both those who want ideas to make the woden beds, & those who wish to buy the ready made beds. Good information on this site as to why raised beds are so good.

The key for us was long beds but not so wide we could not harvest the produce by sitting on the RR ties. Weeds are blown in also so you may want to look into drip iragation & good mulches to keep weeds down & the water in. NM is very dry so drip iragation will be worth it's weight in gold.

You may want to find or buy some red worms to let go in your beds. Also when you build keep in mind the size of the hoop or row covers to fit over the beds. With the plastic Row covers, you can get an extra early start in Spring & grow your plants well past the first frost date into Winter. We had Asparagus for sale a Month before the uncovered beds. So now we cover them all We cover the beds in March & beat some SC growers by a few weeks to market in NC.

Good luck to you in your building of the beds.

Marturo

I just moved into a house in the suburbs of St. Louis, MO and plan on building a raised bed for my veggies because of the slope of my lawn.
Marturo, the worms in the bed are a very good idea, also where in the NC mountains do you live? I grew up in Hayesville, Clay County, I've only been in Missouri about 5 years.

My biggest concern with the raised bed is that it will dry out too quickly and I will spend most of my time watering, maybe I can position it so that it gets the spray from my lawn sprinklers.

I plan on putting down landscapers cloth before I build it so that the plants and grass that were there previously don't come up through.

I am thinking of using cedar boards to build it with, but I haven't decided totally yet.

The things I plan on putting in it are:

Mixed Salad Greens
Tomatoes
Peppers
Cucumber (bush variety)
squash (yellow crookneck)
and whatever else strikes my fancy in the spring :)

Hi keziah, Welcome to DIYs Garden forum :)

We are at -14 wind chill just outside of Hendersonville. I'll bet it's cold where you are tonight :) We need a hard Winter too many bugs, these last 5 mild Winters we've had put us in an epedemic of grubs.

Yes to your question on RBs drying out. We use drip iragation for everything. We have been in a 5 year drought here.

Remember the cool 70s & 80s here in the Mountains? Well they have been the sweltering 80s & 90s for long enough to bring our water table down past 46 inches.

No mater what type of drip iragation you go with, it is a life saver. Having a small Antique & Heirloom Produce Farm, we can't do raised beds for 2000 broccoli plants etc so we chose perenial produce for raised beds. Eazy grow & harvest of Strawberries, Asparagus etc.

Many gardeners in the area, do grow Veggies in raised beds for ease of growing & harvest. So what you have in mind planting sounds good for raised bed culture..

Cedar is a good choice it is antifungal in nature & will never rot just watch those splinters on your sitter LOL.

We have some fellow farmer friends outside of Hayesville, it's still Gods country up there. Only the trips to market in Asheville, are hard on a small Farmers profit margin.

Everything has changed so much in the last 20 years here. Hendersonville is like Asheville, a hot spot for Earth Friendly Produce, they can't get enough of it.

Sounds like you have looked into the Raised Bed way of gardening pretty well. If we were just growing for ourselves, that's the way we would go for everything.

You can build your own drip system, or buy the kits & customize them how you want it. With drip watering and so much sun, we have done much better than many who try the overhead methods. Also a good mulch is well worth the effort. We use newspapper & clean straw for a nice looking till in when done mulch.

Best of luck on your projects. Do you have a source of Mushroom Compost near you? We buy it from a Feed & Seed Supply. It's black compost that Mushrooms were grown in & needs plant food worked in before planting time.

Marturo

I'm not sure about the mushroom compost, I'll have to check my garden centers. Thank you for all of the information, I'll defintaly take it into account when building my beds in the spring.

My family were tobacco farmers up until the last generation, and I know that my grandfather would have to take his crop to franklin or asheville to sell and that was a huge trip over the mountains back in those days. There is not much in the way of industry in that area, which is one of the reasons I am not there anymore, but I sure do miss the mountains.

-Kristi

Marturo:

I am planning on building our beds out of rough cedar with smooth redwood bench seats on two sides.

I am thinking about using two 2x8 boards so the bed will be close to 16" deep.

Is this too deep? What depth would you recommend?

Jim

Hi Jim,

That sounds great. a deph of 16" will take a bit of fill however you can use 8" of inexpensieve sand or rock fines. This will also provide great drainage also.

That will give you 6" of soil to grow in, with a 2" space up top, to prevent heavy rain washout. Have you looked at some forms of under mulch drip iragation?

Lowe's or large home centers have RainBird drip systems with line and the different kinds of emiters. That way you can do a custom install, add a pressure reg, and water timer or I believe the new computerized water sensing water switches are more affordable now.

I have the water timer now but since they will water during a rainy period. I am working on a system that will only allow water to flow, when the soil is dry & not soggy. For now, since I am here most times, I am the judge & can just shut the water off to the timer when it rains.

As Gardeners Know, hot dry weather, where plants wilt and become stressed; is not near as bad, as the fungul infections we fight, due to over watering.

We use 5 sheets of open newspapper, no glosy sheets, but color is ok as the lead has been replaced, with all Sea Weed based dyes. After you plant just lay the newspaper down overlapping other sheets, right up to the plants stem.

Ask for good clean bedding straw at the Farm supply, and shake it over the now wet, to keep from blowing newspaper about 4 to 5 inches thick. Water it to help keep the straw in place after you clean the straw away from your plants.

This straw just works to cover and keep the newspaper from blowing away, as the paper does the work. It also sets the plants off, and reflects more light under the plants.

Don't forget to take before & after pictures & post them over at Garden Guides, so we can all enjoy your do it yourself project :)

Marturo

Marturo:

Thanks for your input. I have a few questions though.

I thought the idea of raised beds was so that the plants could grow deeper (more than six inches), and therefore get more yield from less surface area. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I'm not the gardener in the family. Is that depth sufficient for all vegetables, or do some require more depth?

Also, when you wrote about an under mulch irrigation system, did you mean that we would lay the tubing on top of the soil and then cover that with newspaper and straw?

Thanks for your advice,

Jim

Hi Jim,

The depth of a Troy-Built tiller is 8" however most annual plants live in that 6" zone due to many factors.

Oxygen, heat, bactierial life, ect, all are heavy in the first 6" of soil. We have had very dry weather, for the last 5 years so we plant our Tomatos laying on their sides with the last 2 or 3 inches left uncovered. Everything underground on a Tomato plant will root, so now we have more feeder roots up top where the food is at.

Corn is an exception. We plough trenches 12' deep and plant seed in the bottom. As the Corn grows we hoe the soil back to fill in the trench & the Corn roots on contact. This is not for food, but Corn will blow over unless it is deeply rooted.

At seasons end we pull all the dead anuals and shread them for the compost piles. I have seen so many times the root systems of anual vegetable plants, with that big bushy root system. All this growing in that rich moist top 6" of healthy garden soil.

We put the drip iragation right on top of the soil with mulch on top. Come late fall we remove the multh and into the compost it goes & then we put the hoses & emiters away for Winter.

Do you have a Lowe's store near by? The reason I ask is & it could be another store like Lowe's. In early Spring the Rain Bird Company, holds free classes on Drip Iragation using their products. I learned so much that I look fowared to classes every Spring. Rain Bird was early to get into the drip iragation so they have more emiters than many brands. Emiters can drip, mist, small stream etc, it is with Emiters you can custom design all your garden watering needs.

We have a loop of line running from Tree to Tree, with emiters around our Fruit trees under landscaping cloth covered with 4" of limestone rock size 1/4 to 3/8" in size.

The line is dug in at 5" and blown clear with compressed air in late Fall & again in early Spring to clear any obstructions before we start the water to the Trees.

In fact you might find some good info on their site and that could be. http://www.rainbird.com just a guess for now.

Having any plastic on top of the mulch will cause sun damage & shorten the life of your system. You can tell I'm a farmer I oil, grease & put everything away every Fall so I can keep from rebuying sooner than I have to :)

Let me know about Lowe's Jim, I would like to see how far they go west or any super home repair and Garden stores, I can refer folks to out west. Thanks :)

Marturo

Marturo,

Again, thank you for your input. You can definately tell you have a love for your work. I like your advice on keeping your equipment in good repair over the winter.

When I was young I spent four summers doing groundskeeping on a golf course (still the best job I've ever had) and we washed our equipment after each use. During the winter the permanent employees worked getting all the tools ready for the spring.

We do have Lowes and Home Depot in Albuquerque and I will ask them about Rainbird irrigation demonstrations. I think my parents had a Rainbird in ground sprinkler system in Cleveland, Ohio (right next to Lake Erie). I remember each sprinkler head putting out a radius of maybe 50' and spilling great amounts of water everywhere. My how times have changed (at least in my circumstance).

Another irrigation story. I spent a couple of months when I was younger on a Kibbutz in Israel. If my memory serves me correctly, this Kibbutz was instrumental in inventing and/or developing drip irrigation as they were located near Bear Sheva (sp?) at the northern reaches of the Negev desert. I worked on one of the machines that put together the male/female coupling that let the water drip out.

It seems the Israelis had more than one reason for wanting to water by drip method. Obviously they dealing with the lack of water in the region, but they were also concerned that when water becomes airborn in such a small country, it will float across the borders and be lost to competitive nations.

I don't know if this is really true, but it was an interesting story.

Thanks for your help

Jim

Hi Jim,

That indeed is another good example of water conservation. I remember a few ideas the Israelis used over the years.

One thing about the weather is there is plenty of sunshine, it seems the whole country, has been using solar power to heat water for their houses quite a long time.

An Idea that crude oil could be sprayed over desert sands & hold water in, so they could plant trees to halt further desertifcation form growing. It worked, the trees grew & the land with the oil soaked sand was replaced by plant material as the oil left & tree leaves made sand into soil.

Yes we have learned much about not giving up on growing plants in hostile enviroments, from Israeli Farmers.

Great! You have a Lowe's, that will make it easier & less expensieve also. It is getting close to the time, Rain Bird holds their classes. I think that somehow DIY is connected with Lowes now just what that means, I don't know.

I think I saw it on the Lowes site. Ya know, I have wood working and garden tools, that are older than I am. Some Farmer took good care of them, & now I am their care taker. Almost every job I have had that involved Tools, if you listen to the old guys, they say. A craftsman is only as good as his/her tools. How very true.

I am only as good as my tools, as a Mechanic, I chose Snap-on. Not for status, but because of their patented design of the socket, contacting the part of the bolt or nut between the points. Not the points so you could never see except for a little paint loss that I ever had a socket on you car bolts & nuts. It gave me a little extra pride in the job, & left a bolt or nut in good shape for the next mechanic.

Now I do it myself, more to get the job done right. Labor prices may have gone up, but work ethic has gone down. What a shame. With the PC today, I can only dream of how much beter I could have become, if I had this PC & the Internet back in 1970 :)

Yet I wonder if I would have worked so hard to learn the basics, if I could just look up the answer online. Looking back is fun, as long as you don't let the past stop you from living for today LOL.

Drip & underground forms of watering Crops are going to be a big part of the US as we enter the new century. We are facing people overcrowing & water shortages due to natural weather conditions. Here in Western NC was one of the wetest places in the lower 48 & we are all hoping that our drought has broken.

Farmers lost water & crops for the first few years but then came drip iragation & black plastic mulches to combat the lack of rain. We went way over 40 some inches below normal on rain fall. The Mountains were filled with Waterfalls, creeks & rivers not to mention the very large resivoirs some deep mountain vallys that ran for 50 miles or more. Dry creeks & waterfalls dying trees on top of dry ridges, a very hard time for all.

Billions of gallons of water & for the past 5 years forest fires ate away at our vast forest ranges. I know it's a pattern or cycle of Nature, & hope it goes back to the land of the Waterfalls soon.

New Mexico is a nice state, I would think you can grow as much as we do here, as long as the water keeps dripping. Do you have a Well? The nice thing about drip watering, is you use so little water compared to any above ground watering method.

Talk with you later :)

Marturo