Our raised bed garden

I've been asked a few times now to provide more details on our garden this year and I'm happy to oblige!

This is the layout for our garden this year.

The beds are made out of stone and pressure treated wood. The pressure treated wood does not contain arsnic as new regulations do not allow that to be used any more.

The beds are between 6 inches deep and 18 inches deep. Initially I made them all with stone last year and this year I wanted to change the look so I doubled up some of the stone and added the wood beds of different heights. I used 2x6's and 2x8's cut to 4 foot lengths and interlocked all the pieces. The wood beds have a piece of rebar sticking out of each side every 4'. This is so I can cover it with shade cloth and protect some crops during the cold months from frost next year. The beds warmed up quickly and allowed me to plant most of my seeds directly in February.

The ground had been prepared about 6-8 inches deep with a tiller and I added some soil conditioner, compost and tilled it all under. I removed the grass from the area. The ground here is bad clay in a new development, so the soil doesn't support much, not even the grass.

I filled the beds with a mixture of dirt and compost (60% dirt / 40% compost) that I had delivered. I used the dirt and spread it over the lawn also to give the grass something better to grow in. In the beds I used various Espoma fertilizers, phosphorus, meals, etc. in light quantity. I mixed this in well with the dirt. I also used bags of vermiculite (from Lowes) to make the soil lighter for root crops. I mixed a couple of bags in each bed to make the dirt friable.

I planted densly, most plants are 1 per square foot depending on the mature size. Squash, Zukes, etc. are about 1 plant per 4 sq. ft.

The tomatoes are support with home made trellis' out of conduit and trellis netting. The peas are supported by a copper tubing trellis that I built to make it look nicer. This year I added the leaning trellis' to support my vining plants like cukes and squash.

I water twice a day for about 10 minutes. Temperatures lately have been around 100 and some of the plants are taking it badly having to stand out there all day in the heat. On really bad days I'll water a third time.

I do not have weeds or problems with grass growing in the beds. Sure, some pop up once in awhile, but they are easily plucked out of the bed. I spend maybe 5-10 minutes a day looking for bugs and harvesting what we grow when I get home from work. Mother nature does the rest. I read lots of posts here and other places on the web about gardening and learn from other's challenges. I've read a few books including Square Foot Gardening and use a modified version of it. You can see some of the square grids I use in some of the pictures.

I'll be happy to go into more detail or answer any questions anyone may have. I'm no expert, I do this as a hobby becuase it's fun and I like to eat!

I'll follow up with some pictures about the leaning trellis. To see pictures of our garden take a look at this thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1108705/

Here's a pic of the leaning trellis' with the cucumbers hanging down. I find that the fruit is really easy to pick this way and doesn't lay on the ground to rot or have yellow spots.

Here's a picture of the cucumbers hanging down through the trellis.

Here's some umm... other squash? I forgot what I planted here. It's some sort of acorn or spaghetti squash I think... guess I'll find out when it matures.

Here's another view of cucumbers and the "other" squash just hanging out.

The space beneath the trellis is being used for lettuce and other veggies that need some shade during the hot summer.

Happy gardening everyone!

Ahhh, excellent. Don't know how I missed it, but thanks!!

You didn't miss it. I created a new thread so the other one wouldn't get too long. :)

Is there about 2 feet walking space between your rows. And what kind of cucumbers is that. I would like to grow some of those.

Love the pics and tutorial Qinx! Excellent set up you have there!

I have tried planting cucumber on my plot, but they just aint growing. I wonder is it because of the weather?? It should be summer here in Vancouver, but the weather is still below 20C...

Cucumbers have to have warm weather. Not cold and not hot.

Qinx,
Since you're using various depths of raised beds, maybe you can comment on whether the deeper depth is giving you an advantage -- perhaps allowing better root crops, or allowing you to plant more densely in general -- or did you do it just to have a variety of beds for aesthetic reasons? Is deeper always better (from a growing perspective)? Is there an optimum? Or a limit?

We are building our raised bed (4'x8') now and the plan is to use 2" x 8"'s stacked, so that the depth is 16" -- minus a couple of inches from setting it down into the soil a bit. So it's to be about 14". I know it will take a lot of soil, but we are okay with that.

We could use just a single 2x8 depth which would give us only about 6." The underlying soil is pretty awful so really can't be part of the equation -- it's just a thin layer of hard-packed earth over rock (limestone). So given those two choices, I'm thinking to stick with the taller box.

What do you think? Comments from others are appreciated also.

The various depths of the beds serve two purposes, the first being astetics, but the real reason is to support a variety of depths and drainage.

Thus far the few root crops I have planted and harvested have formed much better with the added depth and better soil mix. Note that the depth is not the only factor. I mixed in a lot of vermiculite and mulch to make the soil more friable. The looseness allows the root crops to grow so much better and not be malformed. My original attempt last year was not deep enough and my carrots looked like funky shapes from another world.

The depth and soil mix has also made an impact on the drainage. The plants get the right amount of water because the water does not flood the roots. I water on a more regularl schedule and the plants have grown better this year.

One more note, I have noticed that the beds bordered with brick tend to not produce as good of plants near the edge. Probably due to the heat absorbed and given of by the bricks. The dirt on the edges seems to be drier and the plants are poorly developed. I think I may go away from brick totally in the future.

Thanks, Qinx. I'm glad to have your comments. The more I read, the more I was pretty sure that deeper would be better, so I had hubby go ahead and build for the higher depth. I have one 4x4 section filled now with what I hope is a good mix of stuff (including vermiculite as well as sawdust, manure, compost and Espoma Plant-tone) and I put a few tomato transplants in it as of today for a fall crop. Next, will work on filling the second half of the box.

I hope someday to have a garden as lovely as yours -- minus the extraterrestrial carrots, perhaps. :-)

Thanks again for the advice and inspiration.

Hi Qinx....

Where do you get the 'trellis' wire..??.. I see that you describe it as "conduit" --??-- Do you get that at Leows / Home Depot..??... so if I went there and asked for 'conduit' then they would know what I'm asking for..??..


Also... what are the white pvc pipes for..??.. they look about 2-3ft tall ..??..

This message was edited Jul 20, 2010 10:46 PM

LiseP, hope your garden grows very well for you!

The Tomato trellis' are made from the following:
Qty 2 - 10 foot 1/2" Electrical Conduit
Qty 1 - 1/2" Female to Female Conduit Connector
Qty 2 - 18inch(or longer) 3/8" Rebar

I bent one end of each of the conduit pipes. so the look like a rounded L shape. When the two pieces are joined together in the middle, the base of the trellis is approximately 4 foot wide and the entire trellis stands approximately 6 feet tall. The trellis support will look like a huge upside down U.

I used trellis netting that I hooked to the metal frame.

I drove the rebar into the ground leaving enough above ground to provide support to the trellis. Make sure it is deep enough to support a full trellis with any wind and/or weight of the vines on the trellis.

The metal leaning trellis' supporting the cucumbers were purchased from a website and are not home made.

Thanks Qinx --- I'm glad you specified that the cucumber trellis was store-bought and not home-made.

I see your diagram / illustration but do you have a picture of your home-made trellis..??... I'm not exactly understanding how it's used. If you've posted it already I must have missed it.

Here's a picture of the coupler on the top putting the 2 sides together.

And here's the trellis' in the garden. I have 4 of them side by side and they are 3 deep across the bed.

Additional angles.

More...

I weave the plants in and out of the trellis netting as necessary to provide support... some of the branches grew to much on the outside and I never got them woven into the netting.

Here you can see more of the netting and the plants.

Wow --- your tomato plants got HUGE. Thanks for posting the pictures..... I can see that you've got a really nice garden....looks like it gets lots of attention.

I go out and pick veggies from it almost daily. I weed once in a while when something pops up. I mow between the beds about once every two weeks. I've been lucky I guess and not too many bugs.. I did find a family of hornworms which got eviceted... I posted about that adventure in another thread.

I spend maybe 1-2 hours a week tending to the garden. The rest of the time is spent nibbling on what grows before it gets in the house!

Also, Jannz2 you asked about what the pvc pipe was for. It's for safety to cover the rebar holding the beds together. Here's a more detailed thread about how I build the beds. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1117901/