Size of new raised bed garden

13 years ago

I am putting in the garden of my dreams as a special gift from my family. Plan is for 16 3x9 or 4x8 raised beds of composite lumber. If I can figure out how to do it - I will post the graph paper plans. I plan to include cut flowers, asparagus, and strawberries. Is this a crazy idea for a lady working it herself? It will com out between 430 or 500 sq ft - depending on final size of beds. Looking for input. Thanks, Carol

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Comments (8)

chudak
13 years ago
That's a lot of square footage and the lumber costs will be very high if you use composite lumber--I'd imagine higher than redwood.

I built new beds this summer using 2x12 redwood. I built 4 4x4 beds and 1 3x8 bed. The lumber alone was almost $400 and I built them myself.

I'd like to have some more space during the summer but not 5 times as much space. That's some serious square footage to take care of, especially if you are hand irrigating it.

If I were you I'd add a few beds and if you find yourself wanting more space add some more. Starting out with that much may be quite intimidating.
curt_grow
13 years ago
How nice to get a dream garden! Boy that is a lot of square feet to work. My main bed is 58 square ft. with trellis and it gives me more vegetables than I can eat in the summer. I have an extra 150 square ft. but that is for storage crops and is not watered or intensely managed.
I guess I have my dream garden at least just what I need!

Curt
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I will just add to the good advice nancyjane and gardengal have given. The beds you have built sound ideal and the amendments are good. But gardengal really nailed the best approach. This is not a container; you are not creating a soil medium from scratch. What you need is dirt, i.e., what is already there in the beds. You just want to dig it up and add amendments and mix it all together. But the actual dirt is the most critical ingredient - it has all the minerals and biology. The rest of the stuff is just to add organic matter and improve on your native soil and also work some air into the soil. I usually go 60% dirt and 40% amendments by volume. Dig down 1 to 1.5 feet and break up the soil. Add the amendments and then turn it in, mixing it all up. This is hard, sweaty, work. I am now getting up there in years, so for this phase I usually recruit some neighbor high school kids that would like to make some extra money to do the heavy digging for me. The amendments and the air will raise the soil level up 4 to 6 inches. That is perfect, because your 10" sides will accommodate that plus a thick layer of mulch on top. (We are coming up to the fall season - be sure to save and shred all your leaves because they make the perfect winter mulch.) Once things are dug in, you can plant. Carrots, lettuce, spinach, kale and brassicas can be grown from seed for the fall. Don't feel obligated to plant the whole thing. Use a part of it, and then when you get some leaves, heavily mulch the whole raised bed. That mulch will start to decompose over the winter giving you free compost by the time you are ready to plant things like tomatoes and corn next year. Another option is to plant a cover crop in unused portions of the beds - like hairy vetch and rye grass. Those will survive the winter, then you can cut them down and add them to the soil about a month before you need to plant next season. So there is lots of good news here. You have built a great raised bed, you have some good amendments ready, and you are going to be able to plant right away. And you will be able to take some of the stuff you purchased back and get cash! It doesn't get any better than that.
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amymhm
13 years ago
That is a fairly significant garden. My husband and I have seven beds that are about three by six and have harvested plenty of food for our family of four. According to one of my books, 16 1x1 blocks will provide a single adult with a salad every day of the growing season. Another group of 16 1x1 blocks will supply an adult with supper veggies for the entire growing season. One more set of 16 1x1 blocks will allow for canning, drying, and preserving. In all, for a single adult, 48 squares should be enough.
One note of caution: Make sure that you allow time for harvest if you have a large garden. We sometimes found that there was quite a bit of waste because of the lack of time (we are getting better about this). We now time our plantings so that not all of each vegetable comes off at the same time. We also built a greenhouse which helps the process.
Good luck and have a great time with this.
carolnp
Original Author
13 years ago
I should add that I have been gardening for a long time, about 27 years, most of that time as a square foot gardener( I think I bought the first book when it came out!) at two houses. I have always had raised beds, but, never the exact ones I wanted or in the right configuration. Right now I have ten 2 x 7 s but they are starting to fall apart and need to be be redone. I also installed drip irrigation 2 years ago and that has been the single most amazing thing I have ever done!!! No weeds grew - it was unbelievable. The water is delivered in such a focused manner that the top soil stays dry and discourages weeds...so I didn't mulch - and had no slugs. Again, amazing! So, I have a BIG birthday coming up....and all I want is the perfect raised bed garden of my dreams: wood that never rots, automatic watering, and lots and lots of room to satisfy my craving for plants. Yeah. Now all I need is good trellising(which I have never been able to master)
Amymhm- you are right about time for harvesting. I sometimes feel a little guilty about that. Picking beans takes a looooong time. And I do work full time. But, hey, it's a dream. Will keep you posted.
beth_b_kodiak
13 years ago
Carolyn, if you have been doing this for that long I'd say "go for it"
keep us posted.
bb
PepperNet
13 years ago
Carolnp,

Tell us more about your drip irrigation. Did you make it yourself or did you purchase it? If purchased, what brand? How is the water supplied, city, ground,or rain?
liisa_rwc
13 years ago
Hey we have the same dream! I think it's awesome. You can have spring crops going and still have beds to start summer crops if the spring crop are still going strong. Same for Summer to Fall. Bed rotation! Not a problem! You lucky..lucky girl!

Liisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Liisa's Garden Journey
carolnp
Original Author
13 years ago
PepperNet - I am so spoiled, we had it installed by sprinkler guy. Don't recall cost. Don't know brand.
I also think I might be developing more of a "potager". With all the space I am going to include flowers for cutting, herbs, and perennial edibles. In the center of the garden I envision a circular bed with a tuteur or obelisk for morning glories or hyacinth beans. Within the potager beds I will square-foot garden. I am going to mulch the paths with wood chips - maybe with landscape fabric under. Surround the garden with a little picket fence. Hey, instead of 'bling' for my b'day - this is what I have been waiting for!

Size of new raised bed garden

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Size of new raised bed garden

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