Florida Gardening: My first raised bed garden for vegtables, 3 by jamibad

jamibad wrote:
Hello to all, I've been busy in the garden, and starting to see some progress! Being my first raised bed garden, and also, an in the ground garden on the other side of the yard which was started for corn only, I read about the 3 sister style of gardening, so in that part of the garden I'll be putting in some cucumbers, beans, and squash, and along the fence, watermelon, things are beginning to take shape. I managed to handle the last cold spell we had, nothing was lost due to the cold temps, 34 degrees here in Flagler, I put a heater in my green house, and in the am checked the inside temps, it showed a toasty 64 degree's, better than the outside temps, for sure! It's funny, the more I read on here from everyone's experience, the more I think I'd do some things differently, But, so far so good for the first time. I went to my favorite store today, and purchased a lot of things I needed, didn't know anything about these things till I started reading about them, I bought a meter to measure the wetness of my soil around the roots of my veggie's, it works, as I tried it in different places, very dry in the middle of the lawn, damp in my bed's, and than directly into my bird bath, lol, measured top red line of wet!!!Being a beginner I decided to be on the safe side, last year with my container garden, I ended up with over watered plants, and had mold, and lot's of blossom rot, I think it's called, my poor squash looked so good, and I got a few nice pieces, but because I was watering to much, things went down hill. This time, I'm not taking any chances, I'm a beginner, and I'll do what it takes, any advice I can get is good advise. I also bought a very good soil testing kit, I got the colored coded capsules to measure the different aspects of my soil,( nitrogen, potash, and phosphorus) I has originally bought a metered one, got it home, tried it, than read all the reviews on the one I bought, Bad, Bad, Bad Reviews, packed it back up, and returned it today for the kit I got, plus, was able to buy 2 plants for the yard ( a confederate jasmine and an oleander) , with the money I had returned for the soil meter. Yeah for me! I'm learning, slowly, but it's an on going process, and I feel very good about the process of it all, dreamed of a day when I could have the time and energy to do something like this, and only want the best for the out come, plenty of good stuff for me and my DH to eat healthy, and some to give to my friends and neighbors who can't , for what ever reason, produce their own garden. I also bought some blood meal, bone meal, fish emulsion, and some neem oil. I have seven dust, but have read great things about the neem oil, so I got soem, just in case. These are things I never knew, and because of belonging to DG, and reading everyone's threads, each and everyone on here who have the knowledge, you all have been a blessing by sharing what you know. Hopefully I can be an inspiration to someone who is just starting out, by posting my ups and downs of a first time raised bed gardener. I did do a little of my container garden on here back in 2010, but I was more into my mosaic art, as I really didn't have much of a yard for gardening, which is why I started out with the containers. Now, I'm excited. I can't wait to see the transformation of my yard, I have all I could want with the DH building my shed, and GH, now the real work begins. Thanks to everyone !!! You've all been a big help, and too many names to mention! I just know this site is invaluable to a beginner like me!

Question Time:

I'm still a little confused about some things. I mulched my gardens, so when I add certain things to the soil to feed, or even like compost, do I move the mulch out of the way, I know not to put anything directly on the stem/stalks, but I watched a few videos, and the one's I saw, they didn't have a mulched bed, just dug up the soil added the amendments, and chopped it into the soil, my verbage may be in-correct (sp too), but would really like some feed back on this.

Next question, at this time I water in the mornings, because of the size of my 2 gardens, I've thought about soaker hoses, but it's a little late for them this year, I am on a budget and can't afford them either, would it be OK to hook the hose to a sprinkler and water from overhead? I've always heard this is bad for the foliage, causes mildew and other damaging diseases, so I've been watering each and every plant as I walk the hose through the garden, very time consuming, but will keep doing it, if over head watering is bad. Another question related to watering, when is the best time to water and for how long. Most plants don't like soggy feet, I know for certain squash, but what about other vegetables? When their all grouped together, (I did companion planting), they're all going to get the same amount of water, so I think this is all good. Another question on watering, what's the latest part of the day to water? My DH said not in the evening as it causes mildew. But what if the ground is dry? We have such hot days here, it sucks the moisture out of the soil. Doesn't it? I used garden soil, lots of compost, dried leaves, cow manure, and some top soil to do my raised beds, but the area where I have my corn is "in the ground". I dug a trench, using some of the original soil and the above mentioned items, turning all the amendments together and than refilled the trench and created a mound, which is where I planted the corn, cucumbers, beans and some squash. That would seem to me to dry out quicker through out the day, and would need a drink sometime in the late afternoon. This soil was tilled a few times prior to us doing the trench, all the big stuff dug out of the soil, grass clumps, rocks, what ever seemed to be yuck, was tossed to the tree line, I measured a depth after it was tilled and filled back in to be about 24" deep, all soft , you can dig your hand in and pull a nice hand full of soil out. So would it stay moist all day, till the next? I know, to much info for what I'm asking, Right? I just have a hard time explaining things, and do my best to give the right information, for the answer I need.

Next question, where do I get worm castings? lol ! I've read so much information on here and other sites, I think I'm going to have an exploding brain soon! I did find worms in my compost, but what are castings? worm poop? where do I get it? BTW, not a lot of worms in my compost, but a few here and there when we're turning it. My DS use to tell me when I'd take him fishing and he'd be tearing the worms in half and I'd ask him what he was doing " mom, you have to make 2 worms out of one, they grow back if you don't use them, and you have more than you started with to " I don't know how true this is, I never fished, only took the DS when he wanted to go, but while tossing the compost, I've often wondered if I happen to cut 1 in half, will it make more worms? Not that I'm going to do that, I don't harm anything, and always try to save a living entity, no matter if it's a bug, spider, snake or plant. I have a hard time thinning my seedlings when their growing.

On a last note, yesterday was an interesting day in the garden! I had, what I think was a Monarch Butterfly just flitting around, at least an hour while I was watching "him", I even came in the house and got my camera, went out and filmed him on video, ,and managed to get a few picture's as he settled on different things in the raised bed garden. I even caught him in flight, in a picture:). Than while I was surveying my plantings, I found a caterpillar, I didn't look him up yet in the bug files, I did the butterfly, but I picked him up and put him in the woods. I didn't see any others, he happened to be in a potted sweet pea plant. He was a fast moving one, he was very lively, I had to take several picture's before I could get one where he wasn't shaded by a leaf, or pea pod. I was quite surprised he was as active as he was. When I went to pick him up, using a small garden tool, lol, he rolled up into a ball, and ended up getting under a piece of mulch, and it took some time to roll him out, and onto my garden spoon to get him out of the pot to take him to the woods. I think I spent an hour between him and the butterfly. I love filming the wild life in my yard, as we live on a border of a nature preserve, That's another thread I'd love to start, surely there is one already, I have great pictures since moving here and would love to share. I also added a birdbath to my raised garden area. I just finished it, was a discarded item my DH seen and picked up for me, now it's a beautiful piece, worthy of mention on the mosaic thread, my old DG home, and for Trash to Treasure, another of my favorite threads!
OK folks, I've had my say for tonight, Thanks to all who have read this the whole way through, I hope someone can answer my questions, and also hope that maybe someone is reading this who wants to do a raised bed garden and doesn't know where to start, as one newbie to another, "just do it" !

Happy Easter to All, May You All have a Joyful and Blessed Day ! God Bless!