Thinking about building another bed

[nnjjohn]

I want to frame out another tomato garden bed in my backyard.. enough room for about a dozen tomato plants.. what dimensions and how deep do I need to tiller up some jersey dirt..would hey work to build a base for leveling a new soil bed in a framed landscape bed of tillered earth? I have enough experience framing and fencing a garden ,, but asking what might work best for building a good bed of soil from the bottom up for a dozen or so plants..My yard in basically jersey soil .. clay red rock sandstone and stones i know i must dig out.. i don't want to go crazy hauling loads of top soil in if i can help it .. was thinking after tilling the lawn to spread broken hey bales and topping it with town earth i can drag in using 5 gallon buckets for a base and from there top it with few bags of potting soil from hd .. for a new garden thanks in advance, John

[Worth1]

6 inches deep and 4 feet wide and 12 feet long will give plenty of room for 12 tomato plants.

All you need to do is saw one 8 foot board in half and buy 2 2x? 12 feet long and 1 2x? 8 feet long


Worth

[frankbenjones]

Originally Posted by Worth1

6 inches deep and 4 feet wide and 12 feet long will give plenty of room for 12 tomato plants.

All you need to do is saw one 8 foot board in half and buy 2 2x? 12 feet long and 1 2x? 8 feet long


Worth

I did this and fit 12 plants no problem.

[nnjjohn]

cool... i can dig it.. i probably will get deeper than six inches but it is good to know.. i know even this small project is going to be work with an eight in. electric earth tiller.. i plan to bed frame it with those cheap 8 ft treated landscape ties from HD .. they roundabout 4 each.. fencing will cost about 50 bucks for that size ..i fed the dang deer this winter and now they are playing in my backyard.. i have a dog that will chase them but they always come around.. eat everything they can through the summer too. but for the most part, they never jumped into a fenced bed yet.. i plan on making sure they don't .. before i used fencing, i learned the hard way.. i have four beds about that size and want to add another this season.

[RJGlew]

If you wish to have 24" spacing between plants then the smallest bed can be 8' by 4' 3" (outside measure). The 4' bed ends are placed inside the 8' sides, adding 2 * 1.5" to the outside measure (assume we are using 2 by 6s/8s/10s).

The layout shown is drawn "to the inch," so what you see in the diagram is accurate and obtainable. The down side of a bed this small is that the 8 tomatoes along the sides of the bed are only 3" from the edge, meaning they will have to be staked, not caged.

Obviously bigger beds will make it a heck of a lot easier space wise, but this certainly gives you a sense of the minimum size.

rg

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by nnjjohn

i plan to bed frame it with those cheap 8 ft treated landscape ties from HD .. they roundabout 4 each..

I know concerns have been raised several times on here about using treated lumber for vegetable gardens. You may want to find out what the HD landscape ties are treated with and do some research on it first.

[ScottinAtlanta]

I would go with 2 X 12s to give you extra depth. I find that with manure and compost, I lose 2-3 inches every year.

[nnjjohn]

Originally Posted by RJGlew

If you wish to have 24" spacing between plants then the smallest bed can be 8' by 4' 3" (outside measure). The 4' bed ends are placed inside the 8' sides, adding 2 * 1.5" to the outside measure (assume we are using 2 by 6s/8s/10s).

The layout shown is drawn "to the inch," so what you see in the diagram is accurate and obtainable. The down side of a bed this small is that the 8 tomatoes along the sides of the bed are only 3" from the edge, meaning they will have to be staked, not caged.

Obviously bigger beds will make it a heck of a lot easier space wise, but this certainly gives you a sense of the minimum size.

rg

That is about good for4 to six plants because i don't want my plants growing outside a deer fence..i always have deer chewing off anything growing on the or through my deer fencing. I plan on keeping off my fencing at least foot and a half...even though the mature plants still branch through ,, the deer don't get much to chew on to worry me. I also like being able to walk inside my bed between the mature plants and inside fencing.. so i keep two rows in at least 6 ft wide by 24 ft long. i will likely go with a 6 ft wide x 12ft long =72sq.ft bed for 8 plants tiller the landscape soil .. rake out the rocks .. form it with 2x8 ,, btw, i thought i read somewhere today's chemical treated woods are not as hazardous as the earlier pressure treated woods made using arsenic. I may go with composite mason parting strips instead.. but i'll research the treat chemicals and be sure.