Chris and Michelle asked me to contribute my experience creating a raised vegetable bed in our back yard. While my wife, Bridget, likes flower gardening, I like growing herbs and vegetables. I base a plant's importance on whether or not I can eat it. If I can't, it ceases to interest me, much to my wife's dismay.
Since my wife decided that there wasn't enough room to plant vegetables in the existing flower bed, so coveted because of its full-sun location, we ended up creating a new bed just for vegetables right next to it. My wife found an
interesting article on the HGTV site about building raised beds. However, as you'll see, ours wasn't as elaborate.
Below are some diagrams of the design and dimensions (Sorry for the poor renderings, I was in a hurry). We ended up using untreated pine, though we wanted to use cedar because it’s a hardwood and would last the longest. The cedar planks, however, were very expensive and didn’t come readily available in the dimensions we needed.
The materials used were
- (2) 1.5x3x12 planks
- (2) 1.5x8x12 planks
- (4) 4x4x12 planks
- (16) 3/8 Carriage Bolts
We stained the outside, top and bottom edges of the frame to make it more water resistant. We didn't stain the inside because we didn't want the chemicals to leach into the soil.
*Disclaimer: As you'll notice in the images below of the actual construction, we messed up the on the corners and created a gap. Something to learn from in the future. Moral of the story: Measure twice, cut once.
After we bought the materials and assembled the frame, we marked out a spot on the lawn that receives the most direct sun throughout the day.
Because the area had some really nice grass that I didn't want to just rip up, we transplanted it to an area next to the compost pile that had sparse grass.
We set the frame of the vegetable bed into the hole created by removing the grass sod. We dug down a little further on one side (about 2-3 inches) to level the frame because our backyard has a gradual slope.
We then headed down to a local garden center and asked their advice on what to put into the box. They recommended we get 3 bags of stones for drainage, 14 bags of Bumper Crop organic top soil (a combination of soil, peat moss, and organic fertilizer), and a jar of Soil Moist Plus. The Soil Moist Plus is supposed to absorb water, and then when the soil begins to dry, it releases water back into the soil along with extra nutrients. We loaded up our VW bus with all our supplies, which filled up almost the whole car, and headed back home.
We first layered the rocks in the bottom of the bed and spread two bags of Bumper Crop on top. Then we sprinkled the Soil Moist Plus, watered it, and waited about ten minutes to give the gel beads a chance to absorb the water and expand.
We then spread the rest of the soil in the box but only wound up using 11 bags. We started out by planting asparagus, 5 zucchinis, 5 cucumber, 2 cherry tomato plants and a basil. The zucchinis and cucumber I sprouted from seedlings using a Jiffy Peat Moss growing kit.
We decided to put the cherry tomato plants closer to the asparagus because asparagus beetles hate the smell of tomato plants and could help ward them off. from what I've been told planting even one zucchinis or cucumber plants is one too much, so we might giving away a ton of vegetables to friends and family soon enough.
So that's it for now! More was added to the garden since these images were taken and will post them soon.
-S
I use the Florida Weave to keep my tomatoes propped up off the ground, so the first thing I do before planting is get everything setup to receive the tomatoes. I space my tomatoes two feet apart with supports essentially every four feet putting two tomatoes between supports with about a foot between the nearest tomato plants and the support. To help keep everything marked I push little pieces of wood where the tomatoes will go. There won't be any stringing for a while yet, but since driving the 8 foot tall stakes into the ground is a production I do it well in advance so as not to disturb the root systems of the tomatoes.
I then go around and dig out the hole for all of the tomatoes at the same time. Last year I didn't do this and had issues with excavating holes next to planted tomatoes. This also let me sprinkle some Tomato Tone fertilizer over the whole bed once the holes were dug. The theory being that when I fill the holes back in there should be a fairly even distribution of fertilizer at all depths. I like to bury my tomato plants so that only the top one or two branches are above ground. The stem should produce roots along the length that is buried for extra nutrient absorbing power! I place the tomato in the hole to make sure the depth is correct and either remove or add soil to adjust the height.
Once the height it correct I then remove the leaves from the lower branches leaving just the branches. These two can potentially put out additional roots. I label all of my pots with the variety of tomato in them. At this point I write the variety name onto the side of the stake closest to the plant. I use a sharpie and this helps me keep which plants are which straight.
After that step is done I fill in the hole with soil and water liberally. If you have mulch available to prevent soil splash onto the leaves then now would be a good time to apply it. After I planted my tomatoes I planted carrots and beans around them to provide ground cover when they come up, so smothering them with mulch was out of the question. I also plant basil among the tomato plants for easy access to basil + tomato when I'm munching in the garden and because the basil discourages some tomato pests from hanging around.
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