How to build a raised vegetable garden
15.5 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
Gardening Gadget Deal of the Day
15.6 years ago cheap, EasyBloom
Want a EasyBloom but $59.95 is a little out of your price range? Well good news, right now it is on sale for $20 off so you can have this little gardening gadget for the low price of only $39.95 with free shipping through Amazon.com. I have no idea how long it will stay at this price so if you were thinking about picking one of these up, now is the time.
If you have no idea what I am talking about, check out my full review of the EasyBloom Plant Sensor.
Tags: cheap, outdoor plants, vegetables
Kids eating vegetables from the garden
One of my many reasons for growing a vegetable garden was to encourage my daughters (four and seven) to eat more vegetables. Currently other than a few raw carrots they do everything they can to avoid them. In the previous years, with the exception of strawberries and potatoes in “Baked French Fry form,” I have been the primary consumer of our garden harvest.
This changed this weekend when my youngest daughter tried and decided she loved peas (pea pods) I even heard the quote, “I like peas more than fries” and if you only knew how much she loved fries you would understand how much of a compliment this is. Not to miss out on the extra attention her younger sister was getting, our older daughter tried the peas with less stellar results though definitely gave her points for trying.
Right now our plants are not keeping up with demand with my daughter eating every pod that comes out. The old primary consumer is patiently waiting for the time when the plants are producing way more than we can keep up with so I can have some extra sweet peas myself. But really who could deny that cute face any delicious peas.
Tags: cheap, outdoor plants, strawberry plants, vegetables
Caring for your pet caterpillar – UPDATE
15.6 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
15.6 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
3rd Annual Ladybug release
15.7 years ago aphids, kids, ladybugs
In case you missed the first and second annual lady bug release, you can follow those posts. We have never had a serious aphid or spider mite problem and I like to feel our annual release of lady bugs is the reason why. Either way, great entertainment for the girls for a couple hours for a $6.00 bag of lady bugs.
Lady bugs sometimes naturally choose to wander from the location where you release them and may just take residence in your neighbors yard, so I have thought about releasing them in my neighbors yard so they will end up in mine. Fortunately there are a few tricks to help entice your lady bugs from leaving your garden.
Give them a nap. Before you release them put them in your refrigerator for at least a couple hours. This will make them go asleep (dormant) until you are ready to release them. This way when you bring them outside in their sleepy stupor they may be more inclined to check out your garden before heading over your neighbors.
Feed them. After watering your garden before releasing them spray the ground with some sugar water. This will entice them to feast on that while waiting for a the aphids and spider mites to show up.
Choose the right time. Put your lady bugs out as the sun is falling and ensure that they are shaded from sun when releasing. This will prevent them from hiding from the hot sun and possibly finding a new place to make home.
Encourage your neighbors to have their own lady bug releases. One of our friends and neighbors had a great time with their girls releasing lady bugs last year and fortunately they are close enough that we may be sharing some bugs from both of our releases.
In the past I have had good results with the releases maybe seeing 30-40 lady bugs still crawling around on my plants the next day. This year had great results with hundreds of lady bugs in my aphid killing army.
Tags: cheap, outdoor plants, vegetables
