Raised Bed Garden
Maylith says Very cold, hard rain here in Virginia, and our
lawn already needs mowing (aside from the salt-killed portion that is!) Anyone
here tried to put in a cottage stone retaining wall? I can't decide if I'm
ambitious or insane....
Lometa says raised bed gardening is a good way raise veggies.
GrouchyOldMan says, Building a proper stone wall
is a big undertaking, so you should first decide if you want to be a stonemason or a
gardener this spring. I'd suggest knocking together some
wooden raised beds out of treated 2x12. Feed it with a drip irrigation system
and you'll be all set.
- Chatter in the E2 Greenfingers Group
Raised bed gardening avoids many of the problems and headaches associated
with the average small garden by growing plants in long narrow boxes of soil
above the ground. Here are some of the primary advantages:
- Raised bed gardens are typically long and narrow so you can
walk all the way around them without compacting the
soil,
- They are very space efficient so you can fit them into almost any
growing space,
- Because you don't need room to walk in the garden, you can space the
plants closer together without crowding them, resulting in a greater
yield,
- They have excellent drainage allowing the plants to "breathe,"
and allow you to control the water and fertilizer efficiently,
- Extended growing season; raised beds warm up quicker in the spring and
last longer into the fall,
- Many garden pests, such as gophers, are unable to plunder raised bed
gardens,
- Because you don't have to bend over so far to reach the plants, they are
significantly more comfortable for grouchy old gardeners like
me to work in.
Below you'll find plans for constructing a simple raised bed garden planter suitable for most anything that will grow in your
local climate. I've used
these for a wide variety of vegetables and herbs, and they should be equally
capable of hosting any variety of bulbs or flowers. There are countless
"how-to" plans available for similar raised-bed garden projects, and
the primary advantage of this particular one is that it's inexpensive and easy
to build and in the twenty-odd years I've been using it, I've never had a
problem adapting it to the available terrain.
The basic unit of the raised bed garden is an eight foot long by two foot
wide box, standing one foot tall (2.4 meter x 0.6 meter x 0.3 meter) with screen on the bottom to keep the critters out and a simple drip
system irrigation system to reduce watering and allow you to feed your plants
conveniently. The system is modular, so if you have more room you can just
add another bed without much fuss. The beds are made of treated lumber, so
they last virtually forever and they are cheap to build in the first place, so
you can even justify using them when you're a temporary resident on a strict
budget. I used to brag that you could pay for them with one good summer's
harvest of veggies.
So that's the premise and the steps below will lead you directly to it.
I'm using a cookbook format for convenience but, obviously, you can and should
improvise as needed to fit your local needs, resources and inclinations.
Materials List
2"x12"x8' treated lumber: 2 pieces.
2"x12"x2' treated lumber: 2 pieces.
This wood forms the sides and ends of the box. The long pieces are
standard lengths but the shorter end pieces will probably need to be cut out
of a longer length of lumber. Most lumberyards will do custom cuts for
you for a nominal fee and, unless you have a good saw and a steady eye, it's
probably worthwhile to have them do it for you. You might try asking
for one eight footer and one twelve footer with the two two-foot pieces cut
off one end. I make my boxes out of a twenty footer length of 2 by
12 cut at three places (cut at: 2-feet, 4-feet and 12-feet), to make the four
boards.
Don't use untreated wood as it will rot out after a couple of years.
Studies have shown that treated wood1
won't harm your plants and that it doesn't transfer any of its nasty
chemistry into the vegetables grown around it. Depending on where you live, the
"treatment" used on "treated" wood may be the older
arsenic-based process, or the newer, environmentally friendly,
copper-based
products. Regardless of which you use, remember to wash your hands after
handling it.
2' x 8'-6" galvanized hardware cloth screening (1/4" mesh): 1 piece.
This metal screen will keep moles and gophers from burrowing into your
garden from below. The typical mesh size for hardware cloth is 1/4"
which is big enough to let roots squeeze through, but keeps the critters
out. Our raised bed garden is only two feet wide, so this piece will
cover the entire bottom.
Simpson Strong-Tie A34 angle brackets: 8 pieces
Welcome to the world of pre-engineered connectors!2
These little metal widgets come in an abundant array of shapes and sizes and
are used to replace or enhance traditional nailing for the floors, walls and
ceilings of wooden houses. As a group, they have virtually revolutionized
modern house construction, reducing construction time and cost while creating
much stronger buildings. Even a brief overview of their history and modern
usage is beyond the scope of this discussion, but the reader is encouraged to
peruse the Simpson website at their leisure. The Simpson A34 is a
small, galvanized, metal plate formed into a 90 degree angle with holes for
nails and a "Speed Prong" shaped like a little nail that is used to
temporarily hold the bracket in place before nailing.
In this project, we'll use the Simpson A34 Tie Plates to hold the raised bed garden
frame together so securely that you could literally drive a tractor over it
without breaking the box. Embarrassingly, I can attest to that claim personally:
'friends don't let friends drink and garden.'
Simpson Strong-Tie N8 nails: Box of 100
These stubby nails are designed for the A34 brackets and are the easiest
things in the world to use because they don't bend. You're going to be
hammering in a bunch of them, so these are worth a few bucks more.
Drip System Irrigation
This part is entirely optional, and probably not justified for a single
raised bed box, but if you're feeling ambitious and want to impress your gardening buddies, you can easily add a simple drip irrigation system to
the project for some pocket change and a couple of hours of work. Maybe
it's a grouchy old guy thing, but I get totally jazzed every time
the automatic timer for my drip system clicks on and I hear the flood of water
rushing through the pipes. It's like having a gardening robot to
do my work for me. The drip system information in the Apple Orchard
writeup is easily adaptable for this project and includes technical info,
construction tips and purchasing sources.
Compost, peat moss and potting soil
Each raised bed box will nominally hold 16 cubic feet of soil. You
can fill this space using any soil type that
meets your needs and either amend it or replace it each season as you
choose. If you are an experienced gardener, you probably already have a
good idea of what soil composition will best suit your intended use, but here's
a good starting point based on materials you can purchase at any garden
center.
The ideal vegetable garden soil is a deep, loose, well drained, loam with
significant organic matter content. Towards that end I'd suggest using one
part peat moss, two parts compost and three parts potting soil as a good
general purpose mixture. Each of these components is available in bags of
varying sizes, so you can purchase what you need to fill as many raised beds as
you intend to build. For more information on soil types, see the excellent Simple ways to test your soil
writeup on the subject by karma debt.
Construction
This project is designed to be completed by a complete novice, and it's been tested on my teenaged
daughter, who is in fact a complete novice. The only skill you'll need is
swatting nails with a hammer, and that's a skill that tolerates a wide range of
expertise. By the end of the first box you'll be be so good at this that
you'll want to make a second one just for fun. Trust me on this.
1. Lay out the boards. Hopefully you talked the lumberyard into cutting your
boards for you, so they're ready for assembly. If not, get it done
now. Our starting point is four boards: two end pieces and two side
pieces. Lay these out on a hard, flat surface so that they are
standing on edge and the long side pieces fit inside the shorter end
pieces. I'm wretched at ASCII art, but it should look something like
this:
---------------------------------------
| End Piece |
---------------------------------------
| |A B| |
| | | |
| | | |
| S | | S |
| I | | I |
| D | | D |
| E | | E |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| |C D| |
---------------------------------------
| End Piece |
---------------------------------------
The outside dimensions of the box should be two feet wide and eight foot -
three inches long. Admire the box for a few minutes, to get the configuration clearly in your head before continuing. If you
have a tape measure check the dimensions. Breathe deeply, savor the
moment.
2. Take a pencil and scribe a line on the inside of the End Pieces
where the Side Pieces connect. These points are marked "A",
"B", "C", and "D" in the drawing above. You
want a nice dark pencil line running the whole width of the end piece.
We'll use these to guide the nailing in the step below.
3. Lay the end pieces flat on the ground and position the eight A34 brackets
on them so that the "Speed Prong" on each A34 points down at the
end piece and the bend lies along your pencil line. Since you're using
two brackets per corner, position each of them about two inches in from the
top and bottom of the end piece. Here's more bad ASCII art to
illustrate:
(End View)
| |
| |
| |
|____\____ ____\___|
-----^---------------------------^------
| End Piece |
----------------------------------------
4. Tap the Speed Prongs into the end pieces with your hammer to temporarily
position the brackets along the line, then hammer four of the N8 nails into
the round holes. Repeat this to nail all eight A34's to the two end pieces.
5. Flop one of the side pieces over and position each end piece over it for
nailing as shown below:
------ ------
| E | | E |
| N | | N |
| D | | D |
| | | |
| | (End View) | |
| || || |
| || || |
| |/ \| |
| ||_________ ________|| |
| |----------/-----------/-----| |
| | /Side Piece / | |
| | / / | |
----------------/-----------/-----------
6. Repeat step 5 with the other side piece to complete the
box.
7. Lay the hardware cloth (screen) over one side of the box
so that it's evenly positioned along the sides and extends about three
inches beyond each end. Use more of the N8 nails to secure it to the
box. Fold the overlapping ends up the end pieces and nail the excess
screen to the end piece.
8. Turn the box over so that the screen is on the bottom and
position the box where you want it. Be sure it's in the right place
because it will be too heavy to move again. The optimal orientation3 for
the boxes is generally along a Southeast, Northwest axis, allowing all
your plants to receive the maximum sunlight, so consider that where
possible. If you have more than one box, put taller plants, like corn, in
the more northerly boxes so they don't shade the little guys. Spread
a layer or two of newspaper along the bottom to keep the soil from eroding
during the first few waterings, then add the soil components until you've
filled the box. Compact it by stepping lightly down the length of
the box, then fill it to the top again
9. If you've decided to add a drip
system to your raised bed, now's the time to install the drip tubes.
10. Saturate the soil with water and let it drain over night
before planting, then get those plants plugged into that rich moist loam
and stand back!
We must cultivate our garden...
- Voltaire, Candide
===================&===================
1 Treated wood information: http://www.treatedwood.com/
2 Simpson engineered connectors: http://www.strongtie.com/products/connectors/ltp4-ltp5-a34-a35.html
3 Primer on Raised Bed Gardening: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1641.html
--Special thanks to the E2 Greenfingers group for their helpful comments
and suggestions.