New raised bed garden. How did I do?

13 years ago

So this is my first year growing vegetables in a raised bed. I decided to build it in the back of my backyard (18' x 3' x 6"), sun from 7:30am until 1:30pm but it will have nice shade in the afternoon. I dug about 6" under the bed and removed all the grass since I wanted to plant now :) I filled it with top soil from our township. I realize that a lot of people have a problem with that because its mostly recycled leaves but it was really nice looking soil. I mixed in couple bags of top soil from Home Depot as it seemed a little too light for my liking and some lime as our soil has naturally low ph. Top dressed that with some compost and planted couple days later. Since this is my first serious attempt I wanted to try couple different types of tomatoes (Bradywine, Rutgers, Beefstake, Earlygirl, BigBoy Hybrid)), peppers (Valencia, Anaheim and Thai Dragon), cucumbers plus I seeded radishes, carrots and chives.

So far everything looks good I guess my only concern is the Valencia Bell peppers. They seem to have very light green coloration compared to the rest and slight leaf curl I noticed last night after I watered the bed. It might be just me though. Kind of looks like slight N deficiency but considering the rest of the plants dont have any issues I dont want to take any drastic measures just yet. I have always been a green thumb kind of person. I have fully planted aquariums that are CO2 injected with very high lighting and fert requirements {{gwi:49476}}so I'm not unfamiliar with growing plants by any means.

So how did I do?

2 plants in the back are Valencia peppers and Anaheim in the front. You can see the color difference.

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Comments (13)

priya_like_tropicals
13 years ago
perfect...happy gardening!!!
Jeff B.
13 years ago
Looks very nice.... Great job!
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I like a combination of fine redwood bark (sold as mulch), home made or bagged compost, and clay cat litter or Napa Aui\to Parts Oil Absorbent (part #8822). You can read more about the mix on the container forum. Roots grow best in the intersection between water and air and a chunkier mix with good water retention encourages healthy root growth and everything else follows from that. I kind of stumbled into the mix of chunky stuff years ago. For years I used chopped garden waste along with compost and clay cat litter, but getting the right mix of garden waste that would last an entire season without completely breaking down was always hit and miss. Then I stumbled on Al's information on the container forum and the redwood bark which is cheap here in California turned out to be a great replacement. I've just started experimenting with the Oil Absorbent in place of cat litter. The peat moss and vermiculite additions are not very useful although they are traditional. The peat moss is hard to wet and doesn't provide for the light, porous mixture that promotes root growth (and is not a sustainable choice, either). The vermiculite breaks down very rapidly so that it provides little value and is quite expensive to boot. Additionally, I dump leaves and clippings between the plants to compost in place and dump kitchen waste into small holes that I make in random spots. My tomatoes grow to about 14-16 feet tall (there's a pergola overhead for support), so I must be doing something right. Here is a link that might be useful: Al's Container Soil
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Raised beds have upsides and downsides. On the upside, raised beds are tidy-looking, easier to work with hand tools, and correct drainage problems if you have heavy soil. On the downside, raised beds for a whole garden are EXPENSIVE -- you have to buy soil (which may be the exact, same lousy ground in need of amendment that you would have had anyway), as well as building material (free only works if you either luck into a large amount of matching building materials or don't care what the beds look like) -- they heat the roots excessively in areas with blistering hot summers, and they are hard to keep watered if the soil is sandy or the local climate is dry. Raised beds are very fashionable right now, but they aren't magic. Essentially, they are very large containers and subject to the advantages and disadvantages of container gardening. As I continue to experiment, I think that I will be wanting to use some raised beds for specific purposes -- mainly keeping invasive things like bramble fruit and mints under control -- while doing most of the gardening in the ground. But I'm in a hot climate with very sandy soil that is so hard to keep watered that I'm considering putting some of the water hogs into sunken beds next year. Raised beds may meed your needs perfectly. And if you're gardening for just one or two people or as a hobby rather than expecting to provide a significant contribution to a family's meals the cost won't be as much of an issue for a couple 2x8 or 3x10 beds as if I were to put my 1600+sq feet (and expanding), garden into them.
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tree trunks need air.. if buried.. they will rot and kill the tree ... they can NOT cope with constant moisture ... with me so far ... in contrast.. roots need near constant coolness and moisture .. which we call soil ... once 'established' ... they can take care of all that ... so ... take your blocks... make a 6 to 9 foot circle ... bring in top soil that nearly matches you native soil ... and plant the tree .. so the root/trunk interface is at the level of the second bricks ... we do NOT use potting media or foo foo soils for backfill, especially with trees ... regardless... it will need to be staked for a year.. to get some roots down.. until the soil settles ... if you have clay soil.. advise and i will change the method ... perhaps .... you would be better off.. getting native soil from behind the garage.. and using that.. than bringing in mismatching soil ... if you were wanting to put in a perennial garden.. you would be better off.. stealing the native soil for the tree.. and bringing in a good soil for that bed ... its getting a bit late for planting trees.. unless you have a warranty .... where are you ... ken
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Contact your counties office of your state Agricultural Universities Cooperative Extension Service about having a good soil test done (usually in the $6.00 to $15.00 range). These simple soil tests, 1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drainsÃ¯Â¿Â½ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. may be of some help in determining what you have. A good soil for plant growth will have between 5 and 8 percent organic matter.
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sowngrow (8a)
13 years ago
Looks good. I've had a raised bed for years, growing herbs, peppers and tomatoes. This year I'm growing squash as well. Tomatoes and bell peppers don't grow in the extreme heat. Fall production has been better for me.
ditnc
13 years ago
Nice job! Good luck with your garden. (Are you going to mulch your plants?)
marek88
Original Author
13 years ago
Yes ditnc I'm planning on mulching but I have a lot of voles in my area which hopefully wont invade my garden. I should have installed a screen under that bed but it was too late for that this year. Voles love to dig their tunnels in mulch so until it gets hot I'll leave it uncovered and mulch later when I have to. I have some nice leaf mold that I cold composted over the last few years that I want to put in there.
spaghetina
13 years ago
It looks great!

I keep seeing people with radishes they've snuck in around their summer plants. I think I'll take a cue from you and seed some today also. Even if they get killed off or don't grow well, it's worth a shot.

If you get around to it, post some more pictures as the garden progresses. We love love progress pics 'round these parts!
aloha10
13 years ago
Just hoping you have enough sunlight.
organicislandfarmer
13 years ago
put down newspapers under the mulch, no weeding later. Looks nice sorry bout the voles. My dad uses juicy fruit gum to control his problem.
glib
13 years ago
cute. but those cucurbita planted one foot apart will be very very crowded. Next year try 4ft apart, one row.
oregonwoodsmoke
13 years ago
Very nice.

Unless my monitor isn't reading the color correctly, those pepper plants look the right color to me.
mlch
13 years ago
what zone are you in? your bed looks great. one thing that i am dealing with now is getting to the back of the beds in the middle even though my beds are 4x8. i have 2 raised beds with soil from a 'cricket crap' farm here, and one bed that is a lasagna bed with layers of compost, newspaper, chicken hay, cow manure, etc...it is the BEST. my peppers are dark, dark green.

blessings from the garden.
ML
marek88
Original Author
13 years ago
Update time. So far everything except peppers is growing great. Since the last post I have mulched with leaf mold that IÂve been saving. Mulch looks funny on pictures because I was feeding my lawn with alfa alfa pallets so I threw some in there as well so they are starting to break down and thatÂs what you see on pics.

I donÂt know why but all peppers are looking very weak even after I gave them epsom salt as foliage spray. I read that that might help but it didnÂt make a difference. They donÂt look sick just weak like they are missing something. I donÂt think I picked a good spot for them neither. I think next year I'll make a separate raised bed for peppers only. I think they need more sun and maybe slightly different soil mix.As for tomatos Early girl has the biggest tomato of course but Rutgers and Beefstake arenÂt far behind. Brandywine just keeps dropping flowers I guess they are not getting pollinated but I didnÂt have much hope for brandywine anyway, I just wanted to try a little bit of everything to get an idea whats going to work for me. Cucumbers are growing very well too I just need to build some sort of trellis for them.

Overall so far so good for my first year. I just have to figure out peppers for next year.
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eyesofthewolf
13 years ago
Very nice garden, I would like to share my pepper experience, I started from seed tomatoes, peppers and eggplants this feb 15th indoors, now my tomatoes are at least 6 feet tall and producing like crazy, my eggplants are 3 feet tall and just have started to fruit, my peppers are 1 foot to 2 feet high and I am getting a few peppers, correct me if I am wrong but since peppers are perennials in the warmer zones, it may take them a bit longer to get going, by the end of summer last year the pepper plants I had were about 5 feet tall and really setting fruit, so just be patient they will take off when the weather really warms up. Thats my been my experience anyway. I have one pepper bush that is called a petine that can freeze and it came back and is setting fruit now. But that type of pepper is only for the people that like super hot peppers. Good luck :o)Deanna

New raised bed garden. How did I do?

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priya_like_tropicals

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New raised bed garden. How did I do?

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