You can have a nice, productive garden anyplace there's sun and access to water with Grow-Boxes like these.
Jim Kennard
Try These!
Are these purchased or hand made?
The Grow-Boxes are hand-made.
You can make them, and fill them with materials that will make your gardening a real pleasure.
Go to www.foodforeveryone.org, then to the Gardening Techniques page. Look for the section on Grow-Boxes, then Preparing, and Constructing Grow-Boxes. Everything you need is there.
JIm Kennard
Containers with open bottoms, which we call Grow-Boxes, can be used for many years, and will allow you to produce tremendous yields in a small space. Check this one out.
Doesn't work too well on a balcony, which is where I do my container gardening. I wish I could find a grow box with a bottom. I used to have one, but it wore out. I got it from Gardener's Supply years ago -- it was cedar and it came with two other boxes, one square and one long and narrow. I just got rid of the long and narrow one last summer when I wore out, but I've still got the square one. I drilled holes in the bottom and put screen over it, then filled it with potting soil. It was great! Anybody know where I might be able to get another one?
revclaus...
Lots of people seem to really enjoy these "Earth boxes". Apparently they are wonderful, and easy to use. (I sent my parents one for their anniversary last year!)
Check them out here:
http://www.earthbox.com/
The container gardening methods as taught and demonstrated by Dr. Jacob Mittleider work just fine when the Grow-Box has a bottom.
Just build a box of any length - preferably 18" wide and 8" deep. Use painted or treated lumber, so it will last longer. Then nail 2 - 9"-width boards onto the bottom with a 1/4" gap between the two boards. Nail the bottoms to the sides for strength, and then drill many 1/4" holes along the bottom for drainage.
Free information on growing using this procedure is contained in the Gardening Techniques section at www.foodforeveryone.org.
the picture shows one on a flat roof.
Now THAT's a nice grow box, Jim! Purty!
Not too sure I'm ready to recommend treated lumber tho...too many negative reports about the copper arsenate moving into the soil and the fact that it is absorbed into the plants. For food crops I'd go another route. For flowers/shrubs etc it might be be fine but still, I'm really glad to see that CCA treated lumber is finally being outlawed even for standard building purposes.
Personally I either use redwood, cedar, cypress, or painted whatever I can get.
Jim
Those would be my preference also, Jim.
Another member and I were looking for alternative woods to use and saw where someone used linseed oil to preserve his wood (can't remember if it was pine or what right now). He stated that one coating of linseed oil did fine and that his wood had been in ground contact for three years and showing no signs of breakdown.
If that works I'd be tempted to go visit our local sawmill and pick up some good-sized rough cut!
I haven't tried linseed oil for grow-boxes, but it works great to preserve wooden tool handles.
Jim Kennard
Jim,
This thread has given me an idea for a problem I have had for 3 years now.
We built a raised bed garden in an area where the ground is clay. I have never been able to get the soil like I want it and was considering digging it all out and ordering lots of compost. (Don't have any of my own yet, but was working on it.)
I have been looking over the material at your website, and I'm thinking I will experiment with the grow boxes and one of the suggested "soil" mixtures. I would need to find out which ingredients I can get easily. (I haven't gotten to the section on fertilizers yet)
What do you think? In this garden, I have 4 beds that are 10 feet x 6 feet, and the two middle ones are 6 feet x 7 feet. The bottoms are Clay, and they aren't very deep, but I could add another board to the sides if necessasary.
Here's a picture of the Garden when we had just finished it.
Tree climber...now that's a pretty garden area! Looks great!
I'm obviously not Jim but just wanted to chip in, too.
I saw the soil mixes at Jim's site too. They look like an excellent blend and would certainly do you justice.
Your boxes look plenty deep enough. Not sure how far down you dug into your clay but most plants have their feeder roots in the top six inches of soil. If you've fed your beds good they won't need to travel far seeking foood.
No sense changing your beds around but I've made them only about 4 feet wide in the past, mainly so you can work them from both sides w/out having to step in them, thereby tramping down your dirt. In your case I'd suggest laying a "walkboard" in the middle on your frame that you can walk on, work your plants, and not tramp down the soil.
Again, that's a great job on your garden! I really like the look of it!
Horseshoe,
Thanks, for the information and the pat on the back.
Yes, we discovered that the dimensions were not the best. I don't know why, but I didn't think about the walkboard idea. Thanks!
I think we dug down about 8 - 10 inches, so it sounds like we have them deep enough. I would have liked them deeper for tomatoes, but I just grow most of those someplace else.
We needed to fence our gardens in, mostly due to our dog, and partly because of the Deer.
Wow...that is plenty deep enough then. I think you're gonna have a fantastic garden this year!
I, too, have a fenced in garden. One of them anyway. It's a "demo" garden on the Ruth Stout 'no work' garden and I fenced it in to keep the chickens from scratching all the mulch around!
All you need now is to find an old mailbox someone threw away, mount it near your gate, and use it to store misc tools in it (trowel, clippers, note pad, etc)!
Horseshoe,
Great minds think alike. (And We have chickens too)
We replace our old mailbox last fall, and I saved it just for that purpose.
Did you paint yours with rustoleum? Love the color.
Beautiful Garden..............
Horseshoe,
Anytime I hear about something new pertaining to gardening, I have to check it out. So of couse I had to type Ruth Stout into my google search window. Sounds interesting, and reviews say she has a way with words.
I had noticed your hay/straw mulch in the picture. The reason I did was because I did that last year in the very garden I posted a picture of. Unfortunately I had disasterous results. I bought what was called Straw (my husband always told me that Hay had more weed seeds in it) from a farmer, and boy did I get the weeds !
Actually it probably wasn't weeds, but grains ..... it totally took over one bed where I had strawberries planted. I couldn't pull the weeds, without pulling out the strawberries along with them.
I should have put black plastic/ground cover down first .... but I didn't think it would be necessary. Do you have plastic or newspapers under your straw/hay?
That is some indoor-outdoor paint from Walmart. It's a little cheaper than the name brand and works just as well. I love sticking those mailboxes up here and there. One in Dw's garden, one in fruit tree area...
This pic gives a better view of the size of my "No Work".
Tree_Climber
The bed widths are difficult to work with for sure. If you could find some 2 X 12's to lay down the middle it would make it easier, but I believe the best solution for the 10'-wide ones is to remove the soil in the center 2', put up sides, and make 2' aisles The space is needed so the plants can have adequate light anyway, and you may as well set it up so you will love it forever, rather than hating it forever.
How do you water? A chapter in The Mittleider Gardening Course has an automated watering system that would make that chore into a joy that an 8-year-old child can do quickly and well (I know because my own daughter watered the garden all summer when she was 8).
I can send the file if you want.
Jim Kennard
Jim,
I'd love any files you want to send.
I have been pondering what I can do to make the dimensions more manageable. One thought was to divide off the back of each bed, and add two boards to create a narrow path that would divide the front from the back. That way I can still use the fence to grow things vertically. So we were sort of thinking about the same solution.
I've been visiting the Food For Everyone site off and on all day. I did see the watering system ......... plan on trying that for sure. I've always "sprinkled" .... I've known that's not the best method, but it always seemed the easiest thing to do.
The website shows a manual watering system, but the automated watering system is in the "Advanced" second half of the Mittleider Gardening Course. I'll email you, and when you give me your email address I'll send the file.
Jim
Jim, could you possibly mail me that file too? missytig@REMOVETHIScharter.net
thanks
Done:
Best wishes for successful vegetable gardening.
Jim Kennard
This article was in the last Organic Gardening and can be viewed online:
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-22-35,00.html
Many of you are aware of our member Jim Kennard, who posts threads related to the Mittleider Method of Gardening which he teaches all over the world, mainly in Third World countries, enabling those people to feed themselves. He has just lost his wife, and here’s the note:
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 15:48:54 -0000
From: "Joe Kennard"
Subject: Death in the Family
It is with much sadness that I inform the group that Eleanor Kennard, the beloved wife of Jim Kennard, passed away last night.
Eleanor and Jim have fought a long and courageous battle with Breast Cancer for several years and today she is released from the intense suffering she has been enduring.
Services are slated to be on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2004 at noon.
Thanks,
Joe Kennard
Jims' "little" brother