Raised Bed preparation for the spring of 2010

Hey Gang-

I live in the pacific northwest, just north of seattle on the west-side of the mountains & I am getting ready to build a raised-bed Veggie Garden & I had a few questions. I maintained a veggie garden in this same city(different yard) about 4 years ago & I was pretty successful with it. I grew corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, sqaush, oinions, peas, carrots, and melon. Everything did well except the carrots, melon, and onions; go figure..I thought the corn would have been the first casualty, but it was really sweet and tender. Are there any veggies or fruits I should try to stay away from in this area & did I do something wrong with the items that didn't do well for me?. I have picked an area that gets optimal sun for at least 6 hours a day. Is there anything else I should focus on, like adding treatments to the soil over the next couple of months to help fortify it for next spring.

Also, I heard something about going to the beach to collect seaweed to lay over the bed & let dry out & then incorporate it into the soil. Ever heard anything about that?

Thank ya' kindly for any support.

Tim, the needy gardener.

Hi Tim,

I don't have any wisdom for you, as we're also beginners at raised veggie gardening. But I posted a question a few days ago and it took a while before anyone answered, so I thought I'd reply just to say hey. We're also in the PNW, further north than you but also coastal - so probably have similar weather. We're growing a variety of things in a raised bed and so far only some of the lettuce and the corn are doing poorly. The lettuce seemed to have some kind of transplant shock - most of it's come back but a few plants don't seem to have made it. The corn is just not getting enough water and some of the leaves are turning brown.

Are you planning to go for seeds or starter plants? We used starter plants because of our late start date - we didn't build the raised bed until the weekend of the 4th.

Jennifer

Hi Tim~ when I used to live on the Sound , way below you, my neighbor introduced me to growing Bush Sugar Baby watermelons in containers with mostly home compost. The containers would be elevated on bricks and the soil mulched with black plastic to increase the heat that growing watermelons love. Most years, we enjoyed a good to great harvest, the first year we didn't was because I did not use the black plastic mulch. ( Didn't know that I could simply use a large black trash bag cut along the seams) Agree with Jennifer....start your seeds indoor. Hope that helps some.

I live on the east coast just off the ocean (LI sound) and some people do pick up bushels of seaweed after big storms, put they rinse them and make lasagna out of their compost pile. I keep intending to try it, but never have. washing off the salt is important. Lake weed - i pull plants from my pond every fall and compost them without rinsing.

as far as crops, start this year with carrots, turnips, parsnips and swede. They will overwinter and should do well I have a similar crop as you - not a raised bed the root crops keep the soil loose as well.

. I pull some root crops add chicken broth and have fresh soup all winter long. can't help with the problems though, someone from the west coast should be able to help out.

good luck
-joe-