How to build a raised vegetable garden
15.4 years ago garden planning, raised garden
Building a raised vegetable garden is a very easy and with the right planning can also be very inexpensive. First you need to answer a few important questions before you get started.
The first you have to pick a location. There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing the location; sun, water, convenience, and competition for nutrients.
SUN – You want to pick a location where the plants will get adequate sun for success. If this is an area where you will be growing summer vegetable a southern facing location should be used. For other cooler crops East/West facing should suffice.
WATER – You want a place that is convenient to water your plants. If you have to unravel/coil up 200 feet of hose every time you water you most likely will begin to have under watered plants during the summer months. If a hose is not really even an option the method of filling a couple five gallon buckets and bringing them to your garden is great exercise.
CONVENIENCE — The more often you walk by your garden the more likely you will not forget about (or neglect it) If it happens to pass it on your trip from my car to your back door you most likely will notice suffering plants or potential additions for tonight’s dinner to harvest.
COMPETITION FOR NUTRIENTS — Make sure your garden is not too close to other planting such as established plants or trees. This will force both sets of plants roots to compete for water and nutrients where both may end up coming up short.
Now you know where to build your garden next is to determine the best materials to build you garden out of. Personally I like cinder blocks since they never have to be replaced, relatively inexpensive, have ability to hold solar energy and as an added bonus have great little holes to grow strawberries in. Now on the negative side I will be the first to admit they are not the prettiest thing to look at and don’t really make the most comfortable bench to sit on.
Below I have included some of the pro and cons of various building materials.
| Building Material | Cost per linear foot | Tools required | Pros | Cons |
| Cinder Blocks | $0.97 | None (other big muscles) | Extra plating area in holes | Hard to sit on, not as aesthetically pleasing |
| Chiseled Wall blocks (2 high) |
$5.96 | None (other big muscles) | Most aesthetically pleasing | Expensive |
| Bricks (3 high) |
$1.36 | None (if dry stacked) | More aesthetically pleasing than cinder blocks | Expensive, and mortar may be required depending on height |
| Wood — Cedar (.75” X 8”) |
$1.60 | Drill (screws) | Looks good, natural appearance | Wood is organic so eventually will decompose. Some assembly required |
Third step is actual construction of your raised garden bed. I agree with Mel Bartholomew’s recommendation (from Square Foot Gardening fame)
For all methods I recommend digging about 2 inches around your perimeter of your planned raised garden bed. This first will give you a visual idea of your new space but also give the blocks/bricks/wood a good foundation to prevent slipping. Speaking of foundation the weight of block/bricks is enough to keep the dirt in place, though with wood I would recommend creating a 4 foot 1X1 as a cross support every 4 feet to help spread out some of the load as you add soil.
Finally it is time to fill your your garden bed with some great soil. If you happen to be luck enough to have this in your backyard go ahead and fill it up. For the rest of us this is a great time to start your garden off to a good start. I recommend a recipe of three main parts (compost, filler, and “fluff”) of equal quantities. Compost should be self explanatory, great organic material thriving with life. For filler I recommend materials like coconut coir, peat moss, or even some good topsoil. For “fluff” add a material such as perlite or vermiculite to add some moisture retention and some great aeration for your plants roots.
Now all my recommendations above all mention a height of less than 12 inches. There are some good reasons for this given there are not too many vegetables you can’t grow in less than six inches of good quality soil. Assuming you are lucky like me and have an abundance of clay in your backyard this means significantly less soil to purchase when filling. Now this is harder on the back bending over so for someone with limited mobility you can bring up the garden bed to a more comfortable height though there really is no reason to fill the garden bed with 2-3 feet of soil. This is an area to be creative, maybe some free fill dirt for the first couple feet, aluminum cans, anything that can take up space and not use your precious garden soil.
Now if your selection of tools are limited or you just want to get some beds up quickly to start growing some vegetables, there are a many commercial raised garden kits out there.
Tags: compost, led, organic vegetables, outdoor plants, raised garden, strawberry plants, vegetables
Aquarium with plant filtration system powered by fish poop (aka aquaponics)
15.5 years ago aquaponics, aquarium, fish poop
Yet another design concept, though seems like there are definitely plans for this one to go into production next year. The concept is very simple, fish poop in the water, pump brings “soiled” water to filter through some river sand, bacteria converts “impurities” to nitrates, and finally the plants absorb the nitrates as food returning cleaner water back to the fishes.
Now this has a couple of good target markets for environmental friendly types who can feel good about the natural filtration of the water. Second is lazy types who can use this as a reason to not have to change the water for an extra week. I fall under both categories so if priced right I may be seeing one of these on my desk in the next year, unless the price is horrendous in which I will be creating my own version which I will be sure to share here.
[Duende Studio via CoolHunting vi Gizmodo]
Tags: led, outdoor plants
Make a greenhouse out of plastic bottles
15.5 years ago cheap, greenhouse, recycle
Not sure how long it would take to accumulate 1500 2-liter plastic bottles but if you happen to have that many piled up in your garage you have some makings for your own greenhouse.
Basic idea is you take the labels off the bottles, cut the tops off slide a pole through a hole in the bottom of the bottle, and repeat. After over a thousand iterations you have yourself a pretty cool looking greenhouse and saved most of over 1500 plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill.
This is not practical for construction for me though am considering a smaller version for a cold frame…I better start drinking up this summer.
If you want to see the full instructions check out the detailed plans.
via New World Geek
Caring for your pet caterpillar – UPDATE
15.5 years ago butterfly, butterfly garden, caterpillar, cheap
I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, named by the kids as “Emily”
Now normally these are some critters you want to keep out of your garden but with my kids asking for the “Live Butterfly Garden,” bringing in a caterpillar from inside and putting it into a jar seemed like a much more cost effective option.
Growing up I have caught caterpillars with the great hopes that I would be able to witness its metamorphosis into a butterfly. Unfortunately, the lack of the internet or a nearby library I never got the knowledge of the particular “butterfly” I caught wouldn’t eat just any leaves I threw in it . Caterpillars are very picky eaters and each specie only will consume particular types of leaves.
If you found your caterpillar munching on a plant you are in luck and you can just pick a couple leaves a day for your caterpillar. They will not eat old or dry leaves and must be replaced daily. In our case our caterpillar was found on a plastic play set, which sort of limited out options. My girls did pick some leaves of various plants in our yard, and if we are lucky we may find one our caterpillar enjoys.
To improve the odds I was able to identify this caterpillar as a Painted Lady, which enjoys nettles and thistle. Both of which grow great in my area, though none is growing in my yard (which normally would be a good thing)
This led to a nice walk in the woods to attempt to find some leaves for the caterpillars distinguished palate, unfortunately we did not find any nettles or thistles though came back with a good variety of leaves.
That Butterfly Garden is looking like a bargain at the moment.
UPDATE — May 31, 2008
We are happy to announce that “Emily” has started has started her transformation into becoming a beautiful butterfly (or moth if my amateur identification is incorrect). We were successful in finding their favorite food which happened to be the little clovers growing in our back yard. Definitely a case of good reason to not kill all weeds with pesticides in your yard, by the way the rabbits love the stuff more than my lettuce so added bonus.
As you can see in the background “Emily” has some friends with her (3 total) though currently unnamed, though I am sure by the time my daughter reads this post she will fix that.
Stay tuned in 7-10 days hopefully we will have a butterfly/moth release.
UPDATE — 06/26/2009
Well 7-10 days turned into more like 26 days, just when we were thinking the worse, Emily emerged as a beautiful brown moth.
For info on the flight lessons and release, check out this post.
Tags: butterfly garden, cheap, led, outdoor plants, vegetables
Winner of $100 Gift Certificate from Home Depot
15.5 years ago contest, free, Home Depot
There were so many great entries I couldn’t just pick one and with no budget to select multiple I settled using random.org.
And the winner is lucky number commenter 33…Chandra. Please send us a email using the “Contact” link at the top of the page within 72 hours otherwise I will select another random commenter.
We have partnered with The Home Depot Garden Club to offer a $100 Home Depot Gift certificate to a lucky reader.
To enter the contest is simple, just respond with a comment on how you would spend $100 at Home Depot with a home/gardening project and we will pick our favorite and send you out a gift certificate.
If you don’t have any ideas, here are some things I would do with the money (unfortunately I am not eligible) that may would help:
- Create a nice cold frame to extend my growing season
- Add drip irrigation to my garden which I neglect to water
- Install a rain barrel (they have complete kits there)
- New and improved grow box
- Shelves and lighting for seedlings next season
- Summer vegetable plants (peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc) for those I was a little too ambitious with earlier this season.
None of these sound good to you? Feel free to check out some of the DIY Projects at The Home Depot Garden Club or many of their content and tools on their site.
Entry Deadline: 5/21/09 12:00 PM (Pacific)
Tags: garden seeds, growbox, led, outdoor plants, pepper plants, tomato plants, vegetables
Make your own upside down tomato planter
15.6 years ago cheap, peppers, tomato
Every time my daughter sees the upside down tomato planter (Topsy Turvy
Though this has been commercialized recently, the concept growing plants upside down is not a new one. Many people have been growing plants like tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets or hanging baskets for decades. Not having any spare bucket or hanging basket to sacrifice I went with my daughters suggestion and used a 2 liter bottle.
Materials required for you upside down tomato planter
- Empty 2-liter bottle
- Eye bolt with washer
- Duct tape, contact paper, or spray paint
- Drill or hot nail
Step 1 — Create access hole
Make a hole on the side of bottle, this has two purposes: it allows adding soil much easier and also provides an convenient way to water your plant. I used a 2-inch hole cutter, though you may also carefully cut a hole with a knife.
Step 2 — Add the hanger
By design 2-liter bottles are extra thick in on the bottom immediate center which will make a perfect place to hang it. I used a drill of the same diameter as the eye bolt. This allowed me to thread the bolt right into the bottle, which was pretty strong it itself. Though expecting a great harvest, I also added a bolt to prevent the discovery of my plant on the ground after having a hard fall.
Step 3 — Covering your planter
Roots can be damaged if exposed to light for long periods of time so you need to cover your planter. You should consider color depending on where you live. In colder regions a darker color will help keep the soil warm on cool mornings, though in hotter climates a dark color could fry the plant. I would recommend a medium to light green color for moderate heat absorption and little more aesthetically pleasing in the garden. Not having any paint I used good ole duct tape. Wrapping around the entire bottle (even covering the access hole.
I then cut an X through the access hole and bent the corners in to soften the rough edges caused by cutting the hole.
Step 4 — Decorate (optional unless you have kids)
We used permanent markers to personalize both of my daughters upside down tomato planters.
This completes the construction of your upside down tomato planter. I will admit the first design flaw of this planter is its size. It will be fine for root growth but it can dry out very quickly. In response to this water retention was my primary concern when deciding on medium to fill the planters with.
I chose 2 parts (peat moss or coconut coir okay substitutes) , 1 part perlite, and 1 part Groden granulates. WonderSoil
To give the plants a good head start I also mixed in a couple of tablespoons of bone meal and tablespoon of balanced organic fertilizer. Add some water until the mix has the consistency of a wrung out sponge .
Lastly I used my tomato plants from my hydroponic experiment and carefully fed the roots into the now bottom opening of the bottle. We then added our soil mix until it reached the bottom of the access hole. Given the plants had a well established root system just the friction and weight of the soil is enough to keep the plant from falling out
Even though the medium retains water well the plants should be watered every day to the point until some water comes out the bottom. Within 24 hours we can already see the leaves turning over to face the sun.
You can also try other heat loving plants such as peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini. So if you every wanted to try growing plants upside down with the directions above you can have your own for less than $0.50.
If you want something a little more aesthetically pleasing there is always the commercial option, this one from Gardener’s Supply seems much more sturdy than the ones I have seen on TV:
UPDATE: 05/24/09
It has finally started to get a little warmer at night in my garden so seems like a good time for a little update on the upside down tomato planter. I wish I could give a direct comparison of the growth of these plants with plants a planted at the same time in the ground though unfortunately we had a light freeze that killed them off. Interesting enough both plants in the upside down tomato planter survived and even are showing some small blossoms.
Now as part of my pepper planting experiment, I also put a pepper plant in an upside down tomato planter with much less exciting success. Just to test if my super paranoid water retention worries had any backing I simply filled this one with regular potting mix. And the plant dried out very quickly which shows in the following results.
Given these results I am going to stick with my 2 parts WonderSoil
Tags: cheap, led, organic vegetables, outdoor plants, pepper plants, tomato plants, upside down tomato planter, vegetables
