This is my garden... And more is going in down below because there is never enough room for tomatoes or melons or peppers or.....
Drew
Anyone do anything like this?
Here are some I have used for the past couple of years... Obviously I just dream of being a farmer this is not the cheapest way to do things but it sure reduces the weeding time (the soil mix is 33% EKO compost, 33% Sand, 33% is a mixture of peatmoss, vermiculite, pearlite, and sawdust.
Drew
OK here is a picture, got distracted and forgot to post it...df
And another angle...
Drew,
What are you doing in the perimeter? Putting in watering system?
I should try something like this - I have this huge vegatable garden
the previous owner had sectioned off. I keep turning in mushroom
soil, leaves in the fall and occasionally a cover crop. The soil
is still not as nice as I'd like and the weeds are just really really hard
to keep up with (especially grass). Is this the first time you're doing
these raised beds?
Woops...
With my previous ones I put big size gravel in but that is not working as well as I wanted as there are some places where soil has spilled from the beds and weeds can grow... I am planning to put down a couple of layers of landscaping fabric... Then sand... then pavers between beds. I am going to use pressure treated 2x4s as a border... With the fabric stapled to the inside of the beds so no weeds can get in the isles. Then if I spill... Who cares... I have rerouted the sprinklers and added an extra circuit (as well as cut the sod all off) and will have pop ups instead of rotors for the lawn on the outside of the beds and then for the inside of the beds will have driptape as one of the circuits on the sprinkler system. It keeps it all pretty much mantenance free.
Drew
I hope those are the new type of pressure treated 2x4's? The
old ones had arsenic & heavy metal in 'em.
No HOA, huh??? LOL...
What.... You no like?... Actually I would not buy a home in a place with really restrictive CC&Rs... here we were one of the last homes in and knew what we were going to get as neighbors. We live on a very strange half acre lot where we have 3 sides... about 180 feet of frontage and therefore the little place where we are building boxes now is in our front yard but it is down below our home on one of the triangular shaped corners... I have only recieved compliments from neighbors thus far and actually never for a moment thought that perhapse someone would not like what we are doing. It is more waterwise than the sod that was there till I cut it all off.
The new beds have the new wood. The old ones do not but are lined with plastic on the inside. I have actually been thinking of some things I could paint on as some of the plastic has deteriorated. I did get a book (I have a million gardening books) titled cubed foot gardening and the author grew in the arsenic treated beds and actually had the veggies tested for toxic compounds and found none at all. Aparently the plant actually filters such stuff pretty well if it does get into the soil. Arsenic for example is actually a naturally occuring compound (I used to be a rockhound and it was in some of the rocks I had and the "grownups" were always warning me about how to handle certain specimins.) I still figure it doesnt hurt to play it safe and try to isolate as much as possible. It is just that I am not going to be able to afford cedar or redwood and am spending enough on these I do want them to last a few years...
P.S. the field across the street was an apple orchard till this past February when they cut it all down (Market for red delicious has died... the apple sucks in my ever so humble opinion) and the owners kids promised not to develop till dad dies so they just put it into alfalfa... We are small town and have some old but very agricultural roots here....
Drew
This message was edited Apr 24, 2005 9:31 PM
I have started the square foot gardening boxes too. Only have pansies in one of them right now and another with strawberries. If our weather ever behaves, I'll start putting in more stuff. Did you dig all the dirt out of yours to make the soil fluffy? I sure am tired of digging. But, so far, I have survived all the digging. I mixed my zoo doo mulch in with the original soil. Hope it works ok. Sure don't want a bunch of little zebras popping up in my maters or green beans.
I live in a trailer park and I'm planing to do up some boxes like
that, loved the photos , gave me a idea on watering instead of
buying soaker hose.