My Plan to fill the new raised-raised beds...looking for comments

[Annie]

Your raised beds look great, did you use concrete blocks? I may do that next year if I survive this year. I used whiskey barrels because it is so hard to weed. I mixed rose soil, mushroom compost,mulched leaves and rabbit manure. So far everything is growing well except the trouble with the early blight on a couple of plants. I fertilize every two weeks with a tomato fertilizer half strength and I have loads of tomatoes. I really like your raised beds. There is a place about a mile from me have built about 15 of them in the shape of a cross. They are growing vegetables for a food bank and it looks great. Annie

[z_willus_d]

Annie, I'm glad you like my beds. It was a lot of work building them up. Yes, I did use concrete cinder-blocks for the main beds. They set atop a platform of earth that I built up using the retaining wall blocks you can see in early posted pics. I wish I had access to rabbit manure -- it's great! -- but here I can only find free horse, which I've been using here and there.

I have to say working on the raised beds up above on the raised platform is great right now. I really like the breeze that comes through and the exposure. I'm sure things will get tight and far less pleasant as the season progresses and those tomato branches start running out into my narrow walk-way. I'll enjoy it while it's easy going.
-naysen

[Annie]

We can get it free, there is a rabbit farm about 20 miles away and my grandsons went and got a pickup full in large garbage bags. You just have to shovel it in. I threw hand fulls all over my flower beds and my day lilies have never been as pretty and as bright in colors. Everything has picked up. We did get some rain finally after a year of none so that helped also. Now it is dry again, wish we would get some more. The rabbit manure doesn't have any weeds in it like the horse manure and it doesn't burn. I had a rabbit build a nest under of my tomato plants, had two little bunnies in it and that tomato plant is much larger than the rest. Good luck with your raised beds. Wish they were mine. Annie

[kurt]

Looking at the time stamps how much sun are they getting?Might want to spray the fenceboards with some bleach to knock down any windborn fungus that might arise.Had some problems myself with some everglade cherrys that I tried to grow on fenceline.

[z_willus_d]

Ah, the never-ending possibilities of effort we can go to for our tomato plants. I might as well spray down the whole hill side with bleach. Honestly, I'm starting to have a hard time keeping up with it all. I think it will get easier once I have the beds mulched and I feel comfortable making use of my "fancy" irrigation setup. Right now I'm watering everything by hand, and it takes time.

I'm also noticing a lot of blossoms that are going un-pollinated. I've had bees in the area like crazy, but I swear they're all forsaking my vines. They make a beeline for the large Lavender plants and ignore the veggies. So, I think it's time to get out the vibrating brush and get it on with the plants. Yet another chore. Ugh, yes this can be fun too.
-n

[babice]

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

I'm also noticing a lot of blossoms that are going un-pollinated. I've had bees in the area like crazy, but I swear they're all forsaking my vines. They make a beeline for the large Lavender plants and ignore the veggies...

Hmmm...have you thought about putting some basil in right next to (in between) your toms and letting it flower or something? (I apologize if you've already done this and I missed that in an earlier post in your thread).

[z_willus_d]

Babice, I'm right there with ya. I've got 20-something Basil sprouts in a cup under light right now. I'll be breaking them out to transplant to individual cups sometime this coming weekend. I hope to have that basil interspersed between each tomato vine. There should be room for them. I also have thyme, dill, and something else I can't recall. I love herbs and need to get them out!

[babice]

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

Babice, I'm right there with ya. I've got 20-something Basil sprouts in a cup under light right now. I'll be breaking them out to transplant to individual cups sometime this coming weekend. I hope to have that basil interspersed between each tomato vine. There should be room for them. I also have thyme, dill, and something else I can't recall. I love herbs and need to get them out!

Awesome! I'm doing the same with the basil! Now on the dill (again - please, please forgive me if you already know this) - do NOT let the dill flower if it's close to the toms. Toms like dill but only when it's immature... NOT when it's flowering. Thyme - yes, very good. Also - rosemary. I have good success with rosemary attracting bees. Someone on this site said "rosemary is bee crack". Break down and buy an already grown rosemary from your nursery and put it close to your toms (not as far away as your lavender or you'll have the same problemo). It beats all that trouble you're talking about going thru with the "vibrating brush"! Right? Oh - something else - put in some carrot seeds and let the carrots flower. Bees like those flowers. Put them in there in a row right in front of the toms. I don't do that for the sake of the carrots. I do it for the sake of the bees (you can also get Queen Anne's Lace which is actually where we used to get carrots from).

[Crandrew]

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

I'm also noticing a lot of blossoms that are going un-pollinated. I've had bees in the area like crazy, but I swear they're all forsaking my vines. They make a beeline for the large Lavender plants and ignore the veggies. So, I think it's time to get out the vibrating brush and get it on with the plants. Yet another chore. Ugh, yes this can be fun too.
-n

Or you could plant a few lavender plants in pots and set them on the boarders of your beds. Moving them based on what is flowering

Originally Posted by babice

Also - rosemary. I have good success with rosemary attracting bees. Someone on this site said "rosemary is bee crack". Break down and buy an already grown rosemary from your nursery and put it close to your toms (not as far away as your lavender or you'll have the same problemo). It beats all that trouble you're talking about going thru with the "vibrating brush"!

Yes I know my local grocery store (trader Joes) carries lavender and rosemary plants in 1gal pots for 4.50 and carry basin in 1gal pots for 3.

I have a 5 foot by 5 foot rosemary monster that is like a hotel/dayclub for bees. They party all day long, but still manage to find the other items.

[z_willus_d]

Originally Posted by Crandrew

Or you could plant a few lavender plants in pots and set them on the boarders of your beds. Moving them based on what is flowering

I have several of the types of lavender plants in pots I think you're referring. I have them over by the peppers away on the patio right now, but I should probably move them closer to the main tomato farm. I doubt too many bees are visiting those potted lavender plants since the flowers (both quantity and quality) pale in comparison to what the large out-of-control in ground lavender bushes have to offer.

Originally Posted by Crandrew

Yes I know my local grocery store (trader Joes) carries lavender and rosemary plants in 1gal pots for 4.50 and carry basin in 1gal pots for 3.

I have a 5 foot by 5 foot rosemary monster that is like a hotel/dayclub for bees. They party all day long, but still manage to find the other items.

Yeah, I think some of my plants com from TJ's (I hate that shortening but love to say it...ha). I also like to buy their 2.99 sweet basil plants, which always seem to take off once planted in the ground. I always end up with more basil than I know what to do with, but not quite enough to justify a serious pesto undertaking....perhaps this year I will.
-naysen

[z_willus_d]

Bab- all good ideas. I'll consider those carrots, as I do have extra carrot seeds lying around.
thanks,
Naysen

[Crandrew]

I love lavender man. Just love it. A friend made me lavender shortbread cookies and they were num num.
I need to go buy some more.

[babice]

Originally Posted by Crandrew

I love lavender man. Just love it. A friend made me lavender shortbread cookies and they were num num.
I need to go buy some more.

I haven't had success with lavendar yet here in zone 5. I am ambitious though and bought another pot that I'll put in the ground on the south-facing side of my house. I've done that a few years in a row, though and for some reason it just isn't taking off?

I have thyme, sage, chives and asparagus there and they are machines. Doing very well and survived the winter (although it was a very weak winter this year). Had rosemary out there but it didn't make it even with the weak winter we had this year.

[Crandrew]

they do great out here , but I believe they are somewhat native to my area.

[z_willus_d]

I've started work on a 2nd, or perhaps strictly speaking 3rd or 4th, raised bed at my home. Last year, I grew tomatoes in the raised bed(s) described earlier in this thread; in half-barrel (55-gal) containers and at a 5x10'x1' bed at my work garden. I found that the vines in my work garden quickly succumbed to various diseases and really turned out to be a great disaster. This was partly because the location of my bed is on the outskirt of the larger garden and adjacent to fields and fields of dry grass (think all kinds of bad critters) and partly because I wasn't available to constantly watch after the vines, spray things like Neem to help with the bad vectors. A friend had a bed adjacent to mine that was planted only with the Early Girl variety, and he didn't experience any of the issues that I did. Suffice it to say, I will not be planting heirloom tomatoes at that site any time soon. It will have to do with peppers and corn. The half-barrels on my hillside also did not fare so well, probably for similar reasons. I've decided to commit them to eggplants this season.

In general, I also want to give my tomato vines more breathing room this season. I hope that will help with any foliar issues I might have suffered last season.

So I'm left with far less area/volume for tomato growing, hence I commissioned work (my own) to start on this new bed. It is carved into the hillside of my backyard property. That hill is nothing but various sized rock (say 2/3rds of gravel to bowling ball sized river rock), sand and the top-soil that's accumulated as weeds have broken down through the years and the workings of earthworms. It's not easy work.

The bed is roughly 30 feet long across the width; it runs out over the hill by nearly 5 feet, and it's dug down at least 2'. I expect the back 2-3' to be devoted to tomato plants. In front of that will be some room for lower plants, like zucchini and melons, basil and other herbs. And I'll have a small foot space to walk on in the front. I also will have about a foot to walk on flat behind the wall face.

I've calculated that I will need around 8 cubic yards to fill the bed, and right now I'm leaning towards using a formulation similar to what I used on the other beds (described at the beginning of this thread). I think I'll cut back on the sand component, given how sandy the soil is already in this location. Also, I believe the soil in my other beds turned out a touch too sandy overall, which might have contributed to some of the issues they suffered in the rising heat of summer (nematodes and such).

I'll post the end result here for my own record keeping and for any to enjoy sans all the work it took to erect. Any ideas on what to use in the filling, please post on here.
Thanks,
-naysen