Just Built Raised Beds... need advice.
Sydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years ago
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LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
7 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Nursing Home Raised Bed Advice Needed
Comments (5)I'm sympathetic to the challenges with mobility as I have a chronic illness with pain and fatigue complicated by a recent ankle fracture. Now my raised beds are more helpful than ever since I'm in a wheelchair for a season. I've done plenty of gardening with children both at my home & when working with our camp's nature center, so hope these tips help you out. 1. Plan ahead to have supplies ready for them to do something hands-on for each gardening session. It's not fun for them to watch you do it without getting their own chance. 2. Involve them from planting to harvest. 3. Ask what they want to grow & eat. 4. Include your food service staff in on the process. Might be fun to have chef/cook out in the garden, too. 5. Get donations for weed free soil mix ingredients like square foot gardening method suggests (bagged compost, peat moss, vermiculite). Method doesn't use any fertilizer just the compost, so no fertilizer burning of crops. Keep gardens weed free by controlling nearby weeds in the ground & mulching (especially in the off season if you're not year round gardening) 6. Plant short rows. 7. Assign space to people or individual crops. 8. Create themed gardens such as: salad, pizza garden, tea garden, soup garden, butterfly, hummingbird, etc. 9. Use transplants or only easy seeding with seed tape for small seeds (homemade could be fun project) or just plant large seeded crops from seed. 10. Plant transplants of lettuce at the same time as planting seeds. Can also be done with cucumbers. Then they can compare which is growing faster & how the seedlings may catch up with the transplants. 11. Encourage participation by having names of jobs like planter, gentle rain maker, garden scouts to look for the sprouts or fruit, insect spy, weather watcher, etc. That way everyone has a job whether than can be hands on or not. 12. Make highly visible secure labels (also make a garden map to keep track & redirect if gardeners get off track) 13. Take photos of seedlings when sprouted for future label to include seedling & mature crop photo on tag. 14. Expect labels to move around & replace as needed. 15. Use harvest baskets (check for 2nd hand or dollar store plastic coated wire baskets) & scissors vs knives for harvesting. Rinse harvest in the basket while outside or plunge into a clean bucket of water. Swirl in a circle overhead by handle or shake to reduce water. Put in shade or cold water as soon as possible. Wash again inside according to food service procedures. 16. Make gentle rain makers: Use smallest bit to drill holes in lids of plastic water bottles up to a liter. Squeeze to make rain & won't wash away seedlings. Store in laundry baskets or milk crates out to the garden & so water warms up in the sun. 17. Create a watering schedule or system to help make sure it gets covered regularly from edge to edge. The SFG soil less mix prevents overwatering, but does need more watering in hot weather especially if a raised to wheelchair height container with less than 12" depth of soil. 18. Provide for seating, sun protection, have alternative activities for those that don't want to touch dirt (just want to watch or tell others what to do). 19. Gather community partners to help directly or with money or in-kind donations for: seating, water features to attract birds (pondless fountain, concrete not slippery ceramic or plastic birdbath). 20. Encourage youth organizations to get involved such as Campfire, 4-H, Scouting, Awana, local horticulture FFA or college programs. 21. Start small & build on this 1st year experience to make improvements for next year....See MoreConstructing raised bed, need advice
Comments (17)Beautiful beds, Pam. To post multiple pics, you have to use a photohosting service...when you mouse over my pics, you'll notice they're hosted at photobucket. Bruce, my brother had 3 yards of top soil mixed with compost dumped on the street in front of his house. We wheeled the dirt front to back in that tiny barrow and a 5-gallon bucket! That part took the longest. The grass is invasive, and it readily grows into the beds around here. The key is to pull it as it apppears....easier to keep up than catch up, as they say. Josh...See MoreJust built new raised box bed, questions?
Comments (33)a few thoughts to add to this excellect discussion. Does no one add sand? I've heard pros & cons. Also when you bury manure deeper than 8 inches it naturally mixes in with the soil well even if it's fresh. different animals produce manure with differnt nutrients. fowl from turkey and chicken farms and processing plants are super high in nitrogen but will grown giant greens and broccoli or burn up everything. You can get horse manure from stables and people who keep horses. Sheep and cow stuff from dairies and slaughter houses. Check with 4-H they can tell you who is raising animals and would love to get rid of all kinds of poop. I get great leaf mold in the fall when people leave bags of leaves on curbs in plastic bags. the leaves age just fine left alone in the bags all winter long. I've had difficulty with large amounts of pete moss in that it blows around quickly. If you can get neighbors un treated lawn clippings they are very good with some extra nitrogen....See Moreneed advice on replacing soil mix in raised beds
Comments (78)Questions: Is it mulch on top of the soil or is that your soil mix that we can see? If it is the soil (as I assumed) then it's not a great mix in my opinion. In what way are you applying water? If it is by hand, then I think even more so that one of your main issues is not enough moisture. The parsley gives a clue to this because we invariably water less on edges and corners. So we have to water those more. Also, edges and corners dry out more anyway, due to exposure. This I wholeheartedly agree with: 'If your soil began as a composed medium brought in from an outside source, you really don't know its composition.' And this: 'I prefer native soil as the major foundation. This is where my experience is focused. Sitting here, a few hundred miles away, I can't feel or see your soil. Only you know the additions, and the amounts. Even if you told me, it would be tough for me to diagnose the problem.' I've just read: 'The problem I have with using native soil is that I don't have any.' And I think that this is half of your problem. (The other half is lack of water.) 'Unless, there's something I didn't see in the video (like a concrete pad,) the native soil that sits under your beds where they are should work just fine. You might be surprised at how much it will expand once it's tilled and amended with compost and organic matter.' Agreed. (But please use good, home made compost. Not perlite, not some bought bag of rot (unless its good rot) and not Mel's Mix - whatever that is. I have no faith and no confidence in almost anything out there that they claim is good.)...See Moredigdirt2
7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agodigdirt2
7 years agogumby_ct
7 years agofloral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
7 years agogumby_ct
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agorandy41_1
7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agoLoneJack Zn 6a, KC
7 years agoLoneJack Zn 6a, KC
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agogumby_ct
7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agodigdirt2
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agogumby_ct
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agodigdirt2
7 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
7 years agofloral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
7 years agogumby_ct
7 years ago
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