Raised Bed Garden Conversion

[RebelRidin]

I have been more or less a flat gardener for decades. I plant double rows spaced about three feet apart. It's not that I never used raised beds but I had limited them to strawberries, asparagus and some salad boxes. About eight years ago when we moved into our current place the spring water table in our spot was so high I began using borderless raised beds that I just mounded up with my tiller, some compost and a rake. It has worked reasonably well except for the weeds. The weed seed load makes direct seeding of some things near impossible and even if I do manage to get good stands started keeping a row clear until it can be mulched is a challenge.

A few weeks ago I was moaning and groaning to my wife about the weeds as I was working up my garden plan for the year. She listened quietly for a while as she continued flipping through her flower gardening magazines. Suddenly she got up and left the room. A few minutes later she came back with one of her gardening scrapbooks. They are where she puts pictures she clips out of magazines when she finds them interesting. She placed it front of me and asked, “Honey, why don’t you fix it?” There in her scrapbook was a garden of four-foot square raised beds. I agreed with her that it was time to think about it so I started figuring up how to lay it out within the existing fence.

I thought the four-foot square beds wasteful of space and started making 3x8 or 4x8 beds with 3-foot paths. I ran into problems getting the beds to fill the space without either crowding the beds by narrowing the paths or having an odd sized/wasted area on one side of the garden. Finally I tried the 4x4 beds and … Bingo! I ended up with a two-foot wide bed along each side of the garden along the fence and between them I get fifteen 4x4 beds perfectly spaced within having 3-foot paths….

I asked her if the fence around the garden in her picture was what she had in mind when she talked me into putting the wooden one around mine six years before when some rabbits had set up shop.... Naturally, it was.
Anyway, today was a good day. The project actually got off, or rather onto the ground.

[janezee]

I love my raised beds, and will never go back to tilling, hoeing, and digging the way I used to. I just throw some compost on the top, and rake in.

Congratulations to your wife, and to you! Next thing is the covers made out of bendable pipe, covered with plastic for warmth, or netting, for the bugs and birds. Gardening is so much easier!

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by janezee

Congratulations to your wife, and to you! Next thing is the covers made out of bendable pipe, covered with plastic for warmth, or netting, for the bugs and birds. Gardening is so much easier!

Thanks Janezee.

Funny you should mention that fleece and plastic. This was one we did this winter. As mild as it has been we've been getting greens all winter. My wife took out some lettuce and spinach today. I noticed I will have a super early batch of carrots and the brocolli we set out when we put it up may give an early crop while I finish my beds...

The other green garbage... Even in mid-winter the weeds are aggressive...

[janezee]

In order to avoid weeds in my beds, I put down cardboard and newspaper, wet them down, then added bulk delivered mushroom compost to the beds, with a little perlite mixed in. If I had had the money at the time, I probably would have used coarse vermiculite instead. No weeds at all the first year, until a few blades of weed grass started to sneak in from the sides. Still very few weeds, easily pulled. The best thing is that the pure compost, which contains peat moss, gypsum, and chicken waste was just a few dollars more than topsoil, or garden mix, both of which have weed seeds in them. I mulch with seaweed.

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by janezee

In order to avoid weeds in my beds, I put down cardboard and newspaper, wet them down, then added bulk delivered mushroom compost to the beds, with a little perlite mixed in. If I had had the money at the time, I probably would have used coarse vermiculite instead. No weeds at all the first year, until a few blades of weed grass started to sneak in from the sides. Still very few weeds, easily pulled. The best thing is that the pure compost, which contains peat moss, gypsum, and chicken waste was just a few dollars more than topsoil, or garden mix, both of which have weed seeds in them. I mulch with seaweed.

I have located two options for bulk delivery. One offers a 50/50 topsoil and Leafgro mix. I've decided I am not interested in that. The other place lists a "4-part blend of Caroline County Field Run, Chesapeake Green, LeafGro, and Mushroom Compost". Caroline County Field Run would be a sandy loam. The Leafgro is a leaf, grass clipping, yard waste based compost. The Chesapeake Green is a chicken litter and straw based compost. I imagine I could get him to leave out the field run...

[kath]

I enjoyed your story and hope both you and your wife are pleased with the results. We plant mostly in the ground but also have some raised beds that I prefer for carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, herbs, etc.. They are also handy for overwintering spinach and getting earlier spring crops if they're narrow enough to cover with old storm windows to use like mini-greenhouses. With this crazy winter, there wasn't a month without fresh spinach this fall/winter even up here in PA!

[salix]

RR, you are SO going to love those beds!

[RebelRidin]

Our raised bed garden conversion has made a bit of progress in the last two weeks. When I saw the weather forcasts I arranged to take a few days of vacation to work on it. Thoroughly enjoyable vacation .

We went with the 1 part topsoil to 3 parts various composts.

[Tracydr]

What did you make those overhead frames with?

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

What did you make those overhead frames with?

The trellis frames are 1/2" thinwall electrical conduit with 1/2" PVC electrical conduit corners. They attach to the bed frames with thinwall conduit clamps. Very easy to make. I know they will work well for beans, cukes, peas, etc. I think they will work OK for tomatoes too. That's the plan anyway...
.
.
.

[janezee]

That's amazing, George!
Just beautiful. How did you make corners on your trellises?

[RebelRidin]

Hi Janezee,

I am tickled with the corners. They had perplexed me for awhile. I thought about a conduit bender but that still left the problem of joinig the conduit sections. As I was looking at the prebent conduit coners at Lowes I realized that even with those only one end was flared... Then I had one of those "hey what if" moments and realized I could combine PVC conduit elbows with metal thinwall and pin them together with a bent over galvanized nail... The pictures should make that part fairly clear.

The total cost per trellis is about $8.50 including the netting and I get two leftover 36" pieces of thinwall that will become pepper stakes. I was also considering buying some flat 44 inch by 84 inch concrete remesh panels they sell at Lowes, bending one end over and hanging them on the frame but my DW didn't like the idea of the remesh rusting.

Each trellis is 4 feet wide and rises 6 feet 4 inches above the bed. The trellis netting starts a foot above the ground and can be pushed up the sides and out of the way if I don't want to use it. If hope they work out ...


.
.

[janezee]

Oooooooo! I love it.

I, too, was thinking about buying a bender, but I didn't think the cost justified the purchase. I'd probably never need it again. (I hope)

I've never seen the pvc corners. Verrrrrrry nice!!!!!

You now have one of the prettiest raised bed gardens I've ever seen.
j

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by janezee

Oooooooo! I love it.

I, too, was thinking about buying a bender, but I didn't think the cost justified the purchase. I'd probably never need it again. (I hope)

I've never seen the pvc corners. Verrrrrrry nice!!!!!

You now have one of the prettiest raised bed gardens I've ever seen.
j

Well kick me in the tuckus Jane. I forgot to say... Thank You.

[zabby17]

Rebel,

Wow, that looks FABULOUS.


Are your tomatoes trellised by string across and up those frames? I'm surprised that's sturdy enough. What's your secret?


A new gardener friend has seven tomatoes planted in a row at the edge of the garden and is looking for ideas for support. I may send him your photos...




Jane,

A few more questions about your mushroom compost raised bed experience, if I may?


- You say you don't dig at all but just "rake in" your new compost. I find that by the spring, the soil in my beds is a bit compacted---nothing that can't be taken care of with a spade and a garden rake, but it isn't work free.


My usual method is
- pull big weeds
- turn up one spade's width along a long side, dumping it in the middle
- rake the rest of that half of the bed all toward the middle till it's all loosend; rake back into the trench
- then repeat last two steps along the other side
- put amendments (homemade compost and/or components like coffee grounds, leaves, etc., lasagne-style; this year, in half the beds, mushroom compost) on top, or sometimes rake them in while turning as mentioned above
- spread paper, then straw mulch
- poke holes for toms & plant


But are you saying you
- don't have weeds in your beds by the spring?
- don't have to loosen soil before putting on/in compost?


Finally, a grumble. According to the guy who loads it, the mushroom compost available around here is in fact kind of weedy. Sigh. (His suggestion was to "spray it before you use it," but I'm not a sprayer. I'm happy to mulch for tomatoes, but it's a bummer for more delicate things. I may splurge on sheep manure for my few other beds.



Meanwhile, Rebel, enjoy your garden. It's fantastically beautiful!

Z