Creating Raised Beds In Your Organic Garden

Raised garden beds have a ton of advantages over traditional ground-level gardening. In addition, they can look very attractive and give a unique appearance to your garden. They suit any style of home, and can help keep your garden organized and well maintained. Let's look at some of the advantages and the practical steps to setting up raised garden beds in your organic garden.

High raised beds. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Raised garden beds allow you to design your garden however you want. If you have a difficult shape to your yard, poor soil or limited access, you can change everything by raising the beds. You may have back pain or other problems that prevent you from kneeling and bending to regular ground level beds. Even somebody in a wheelchair can work with raised garden beds, provided they are high enough and there are good paths to navigate the chair around them.

For an organic garden, raised beds have the added advantage of making it much easier for you to see weeds and pests and deal with them in a way that avoids using sprays. Indeed, some pests such as slugs are less likely to bother your raised bed plants because they won't climb all the way up there, especially if you have brick walls on your beds.

When you get to building raised garden beds, you will soon discover that brick or natural stone is the best material to use. Of course, wood is also possible, but it has several disadvantages.

Raised beds with wood edging. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the problems with wooden edging to your raised beds is that it is likely to deteriorate. You would need wood that had been treated with preservatives, which is not the best thing in an organic garden. Those chemicals will leak into your soil as the wood slowly breaks down. After a few years, it is likely to sag. Eventually it will not support the weight of the soil any more. Compare that with brick and stone, which can be used for retaining walls that last a hundred years or more, and you can see the advantages of using more solid materials.

It is important not to make your raised garden beds too wide. You will need to be able to reach the middle easily. This is especially important for beds that can only be accessed from one side. The main paths through the garden will need to be wide enough for a wheelbarrow or wheeled trug so that you can bring in heavy items and dispose of waste.

When you are building raised garden beds you have the choice of what type of soil you want to fill them with. You could use soil dug from your own yard or you could buy something else, or you can take the lasagna gardening route. Take into account the acidity of the soil as well as the clay/sand mix, because these will affect the plants that you can grow.

You can grow anything in raised garden beds that you would grow in regular ground level beds, but you are likely to want lower-growing plants so that you can get to the tops of them. Keep taller plants to the middle of your raised garden beds and toward the back of the garden.

Square Foot Organic Gardening

Would you like to create an organic garden, but have such a small yard that you really don't think it's possible to have any sort of garden at all? Cheer up – you may just be able to create a square foot garden, and find yourself with a great vegetable harvest all through the growing season (and maybe even beyond).

If you've never heard of a "square foot garden", it may be because the original concept, and the PBS television series with Mel Bartholomew, started in the early 1980s. And while the idea is widely known in certain circles, this sort of garden is probably not the first thing mentioned in other gardening programs or advice columns. But it's a very feasible way to use limited space and produce great results.

Square foot garden bed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The idea is to create a new, raised bed on top of an existing space, with soil at least 12 inches deep, divided into squares of one foot each. The raised bed can be created inside a large cardboard box with the bottom taken out, or at least inside some kind of low enclosure, just so long as it enables you to have that 12-inch depth of soil. So if you have a space measuring four feet by four feet, for example, you'd divide it into 16 one-foot squares, separating each square with some sort of slat or raised length of twine so you can distinguish them as the plants grow and get bushy. And a different sort of plant would go into each square.

Using this method means that all the plants are quite reachable, so weeding, pruning, and even composting are easy to accomplish. You always construct the raised bed so that you are never leaning farther than a second row of plants, when watering or doing anything else. (So a four-foot square would need to be accessible from all sides.) The plant bed never becomes compacted from your walking on it, and therefore you don't need a lot of heavy tools that would normally be used for breaking up packed soil. Watering is easier, since it can be applied more carefully with a watering can, and not just sprayed indiscriminately with a hose. In addition, in the smaller space, water is retained better. And the plants will tend to help each other by "shading out" weeds before they can really take root. Any weeds that do take hold can be much more easily removed.

Diseases won't spread very easily, because the plant in the next bed over is likely to be resistant to something that might attack any particular plant. And often you can put "companion" plants side by side, so that one can protect the other from certain insects. (You may need to research which plants are good "companions" for which others.)

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But how will you know which plants work best in just one square foot? It's not that hard to figure out. For a large vegetable, such as cauliflower, you would plant just one, in the very center. You would put one tomato plant in the square, and set up some kind of trellis so it could grow upward (large tomato plants may require more than one square - see the Square Foot Gardening book for space requirements and spacing for different plant types). The same principle would operate for other trailing plants like beans or cucumber.

On the Square Foot Gardening Foundation website, originated by Mel Bartholomew, the recommendation is that you take your cue from the seed packet itself: "If the seed packet recommends plant spacing be 12 inches apart, plant one plant per square foot. If 6 inch spacing; 4 per square foot. If 4 inch spacing; 9 per square foot. If 3 inch spacing; 16 per square foot." Plant only two or three seeds in each spot, and save the rest of the seeds in your refrigerator.

In many ways, this sort of garden can produce even more than would a regular small garden planted right in the ground. If one sort of plant is harvested early, you can then remove that plant, toss on some compost, and put another vegetable in the same spot.

If you've got quite a small space, but still want an organic garden, the square foot garden just might be your solution. It's relatively easy, requires less maintenance than a regular garden, and produces great mini-crops for you to enjoy. Check out the resources below if you would like more information on this unique type of gardening.

Learn More About Square Foot Gardening:
   

Getting Started With Gardening - Part 1

The thing to remember when starting a garden for the first time is to start small.  A small plant bed, about 25 or 30 feet square is perfect, is just enough room for about 30 plants.  This will give you a chance to try out your green thumb and if you find that you enjoy your garden you can always expand and increase your plantings.

Image via WikipediaThe next thing you will want to do is choose a site. Gardening must be done in an area that gets at least six hours of sunlight.  Try and stay away from large trees that will take your plants water and nutrients, and at least three feet from any fences or buildings.  In hot climates it is a good idea to choose a place that will have shade from a part of the intense late afternoon sun.  It is possible to have a healthy garden with even ten to twelve hours of sunlight, but the type of plants must be adaptable.  While soil can always be improved, a site with good soil is a plus.  Avoid areas that have rocky soil, steep slopes, or areas where water stands.

Now comes the fun part: start digging.  Gardening is not a clean hobby; you’re going to have to get some dirt under your nails.  First remove the rocks, debris, and any grass and weeds then dig the spot up about one foot deep.  Level up the dirt and add compost or minerals if the needed.  If your soil is too acidic, add lime; if it is too sandy, add peat moss.  Plants will thrive in neutral to acidic soil with a little added fertilizer.

Be sure to check back Thursday for more beginner gardening tips on choosing plants (or seeds), planting, watering, and taking care of your new garden!

Related Articles on Starting a Garden:

• Planning and Creating Your First Garden (choiceofhomes.com)
• No-Dig Gardening (nhlsustainablegardening.blogspot.com)
• Gardening in Small Spaces (choiceofhomes.com)

A Community Garden Right in My Backyard!

This week I had a very exciting surprise....I came home a little early from work, and decided to take a walk - which I haven't done since I don't know when. Across the street is a small elementary school, and one of my favorite walk circuits takes me around the block and behind the school. It's a nice walk through a nice neighborhood, and takes about 15 minutes, so it's one of my old favorites.

Image via WikipediaThis time, as I came up behind the school, through the trees I noticed some people in a garden, but as I drew closer, I realized it was actually on the school grounds.  I stopped in amazement (guess it has been longer than I thought since I took a walk!) and then I just had to go over for a closer look.

As it turns out, it is actually a community garden, started by the school's third graders last year - this is the first full summer of production.

It is a very small garden, but absolutely beautiful! The raised beds are lined with beautiful tiles painted by the children, and the entire garden is encircled by a border of lushly blooming marigolds (to keep out rabbits and insects). I spoke to the woman who was watering - Tish was her name - she is a volunteer and it was her week to water. Her 4th grade son was there helping her (he helped start the garden last year).

As I was there, a young woman who spoke little English came up with her 3 little girls, and we loaded them up with vegetables. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, green beans, Swiss Chard, broccoli - all kinds of goodies.

Image via WikipediaTish was very excited to see the community using the community garden, and she said many times they just donate food to a local food pantry - she said this small garden has donated almost 100 pounds of food so far this year.

I thought it was so awesome and amazing to see such an initiative - especially at such a small school. This such a great idea, and I think every school in the country should have a garden like this! The kids get a closer connection with the world and where their food comes from (and probably become more adventurous and healthier eaters because of it), the school could benefit by producing some of it's own food, or even like this one - serving the local community and providing healthy fresh, organic food (this garden is run by organic principles, and they are even planning on installing rain barrels to make the garden more self-sustaining) to those who need it most.

Sorry I didn't take a picture, so the one above is just an example, and not of this particular garden, but I will try to remember to take one on my next walk (which will be soon!).

Extending the Life of Your Summer Garden

Well, my potato plants are dying down, and I'm seeing some yellow leaves in my garden. Although I don't want to admit it, I know in the back of my mind that unfortunately summer is already drawing to a close.... But this doesn't have to be quite the end of your summer garden!

Whether our gardens are meant to produce colorful blooms and fragrant flowers that delight the senses or plenty of vegetables that will keep our families fed throughout the long cold winter months, there is much to be said and enjoyed about keeping a summer garden growing and thriving. In fact, many of us look for ways to prolong the lives of our summer gardens in order to get that little bit of extra life from the flowers, plants, and vegetables that we plant in them. Keep reading to discover a few ways that you can prolong the life of your summer garden for a few more days, weeks, or even perhaps an extra month of color or vegetable production.

Image via WikipediaOne thing you can do to prolong the life of your garden is by planting in a raised bed. This is basically planting your summer garden in a specifically designed garden box that rests above ground. These boxes will heat up quicker and cool down more slowly allowing a little extra growing time. For small flower or vegetable gardens these are often ideal allowing flowers to continue flowering and vegetables to continue producing after the initial seasonal frosts that often signal the end of growing seasons for those plants planted below ground.

If raised beds aren't going to work for you, it is possible to begin the plants in the warmth of the interior of your home or a smaller scale raised bed and then transport them once they have matured a bit and the frost season is over with. This gives your garden a bit of a head start though it will do little to prolong the life of your garden once the first frost hits. For that, raised beds are truly the most effective method for small vegetable gardens. Those with large crops often find alternate heating methods and acceptable expense to prolong the lives of their gardens or to ward off against frosts that occur either early in the fall or after the initial spring planting.

You could also invest in garden row covers to protect your plants and extend their life a little beyond the average growing season or at the very least protect your plants through the first frost or so. These covers keep the plants nice and toasty warm in fact, it is important that you monitor them closely when covered to avoid overheating and do not use the covers when not necessary as this can affect the growth of the plants and the yields negatively as much as it can impact them in a positive manner.

Image via WikipediaYou should understand that there is no requirement that says you must prolong the life of your garden. Many people get what they want from their garden whether it be the enjoyment of beauty from the bright and colorful flowers or enough vegetables to last through the leaner winter months when vegetables come at either a premium price or lack in flavor to some degree. Once you've gotten what you want or expect from your garden there really is no reason to prolong its life. There is especially no reason to take extraordinary steps to do so.

That being said there are many families that feel an extra month of color will help get them through the long and drab winter months that seem to be absent of bright and vividly colored flowers and that an extra week or two to harvest their vegetables will provide an extra month of two of food. These are very valid reasons for making the effort to extend the life of a summer garden. My hope is that the information above will help you do just that. Good luck with your summer garden and hopefully you will be able to enjoy your garden well into the fall or at the very least beyond the year's first frost.

Summer Gardens for Small Spaces

There are many people who relish the idea of having a summer garden but feel that it is not possible for them, based on their living situation or location. The good news is that in the modern world in which we live, nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing is you may have to rearrange your idea of what a summer garden is and is not. You can still manage to have the beauty of flowers or fresh picked vegetables in almost any situation if you are willing to take the necessary extra steps required to do so.

Image via WikipediaFirst of all, those who live in high rise buildings often feel as though they have no options larger than a window sill for their gardening needs. This is often not the case. Discuss with the landlord the option of establishing raised gardens on the roof top of the building in which you live. These are becoming more and more popular and some buildings also offer greenhouse possibilities, usage, or space to tenants to satisfy the urge many of us get to give our green (or not so green as the case may be) thumbs an adequate workout. Raised gardens are a great choice for many landlords and building owners as long as they are created and maintained at the expense of the tenant who proposed the garden. (See our article series from last week for more on raised gardens.) Some buildings even offer gardening co-ops as perks to those who live within the building and a system of contributing and sharing the fruits of the labor of those who have contributed to these gardens by planting and maintaining flowers, plants, fruits, and/or vegetables. This is also a great way to meet neighbors that may share your passion.

If you live in a smaller apartment setting that has little or no lawn space you still have a few options available to you. First of all, many of these types of apartments come with balcony space or a small patio area. This means that you can use ferns or flowering plants to add a little bit of green and other colors and have the plants hanging along the patio or balcony. Another thing that is growing in popularity for small spaces is hanging vegetables such as tomatoes. This is a little outside the area of traditional but provides the opportunity for fresh tomatoes to even those who have very limited gardening space. Small peppers also do well growing upside down though this isn't recommended for the larger sweet peppers as they are too heavy for the vines to support. Hanging part of your garden this way frees up whatever valuable ground space you have for must-have plants to be planted in containers or raised beds that can be made quite small to accommodate your specific needs.

Image by basswulf via FlickrA vertical garden is yet another option. This requires some degree of handyman skills (or a friend who has them) for designing and building a platform for your gardening needs that allows you to grow the flowers or vegetables you crave without taking up nearly as much ground space. This is also a convenient way of gardening for those who are in wheelchairs and cannot get up and down for regular gardening tasks as easily. A vertical garden can be planted with very little ground space, such as what would be available on a patio or a balcony and allows for many more plants that one might expect with such a small growing space. Combine this method with hanging plants and you may find that you have quite an impressive little summer garden growing.

Do not allow limited real estate to be an obstacle for your summer garden needs. One way to overcome this is to begin thinking vertically when it comes to real estate rather than horizontally. You may discover that you have a lot more room with which to work than you realized. The important thing to remember is that your summer garden does not have to conform to anyone's idea of what a summer garden should be. Make it your own and have fun.

Related Articles:

• Small-Space Urban Gardening Solutions (casasugar.com)
• Gardening on your roof? It’s not as hard as it sounds (theglobeandmail.com)
• Balcony Gardening Explained and Extolled (treehugger.com)
• Condo Gardening, Here We Come! (bakerrealestate.com)
• Green Enthusiasts + Urban Living = Rooftop Gardens (apartmenttherapy.com)
• 8 Reasons for Vertical Gardening (urbangardensolutions.wordpress.com)

Video - Easy Raised Bed Garden

If you don't want to cut lumber, drill holes, and all the other typical work required for building a raised-bed garden, this quick video shows a great alternative method, which takes only a few minutes, and is super-easy. This is great for Square Foot Gardening, or just creating a raised bed garden to provide some added height and ease of maintaining.

Raised Garden Bed: Natural Cedar
Watch as we assemble an innovative raised garden bed in just a few minutes. See more at www.eartheasy.com

To learn more about this nifty and easy raised-bed garden technique, visit www.eartheasy.com.

Sustainable Gardening: Choosing and Planting Perennials

If you’ve been growing a vegetable garden for a while, you might be wanting a bit more showiness, as vegetable gardens alone can sometimes look rather plain (although you can certainly grow some colorful vegetables to add some contrast). The use of perennial flowers is a great sustainable gardening technique that can also be a great way to liven up your garden without adding a lot of extra work.

Image via WikipediaPerennial flowers are strong, local or native flowers that come back every year without having to replant or do any extra work. During their off seasons, the flowers and stems die back and you can hardly even tell the plant is there. When it’s time to bloom, entirely new flowers shoot up where the old ones were.

Before deciding whether to put in perennials or not, you need to make sure that your soil has proper drainage. If the soil stays saturated with water for long periods of time, you should build a raised bed. To test, dig a hole and fill it with water. Wait a day, and then fill it with water again. All traces of water should be gone within 10 hours. If the hole isn’t completely dry, you will need to build a raised bed.

Picking your perennials can be a complicated process. The goal should be to have them flowering as much as possible during the year, so you should create an outline of the year. Research the different types of flower you want, and create a timeline of flowering. If you plan it right, you can have a different type of flower blooming at any point in the year. Getting just the right mixture of seeds can give your yard a constantly changing array of colors.

Image via WikipediaWhen you go to buy the seeds from your local florist or nursery, you might be able to find a custom seed mixture for your area. This takes the really tough research part out of the job. Usually these blends are optimized for the local climate, and thus may be grown very sustainably - practically on their own. If one of these isn’t available, you can ask the employees what they think would be a good mixture. They should be happy to help you put something together which will be optimal for whatever you desire.

You should definitely use mulch when planting perennials. This will reduce the overall amount of work you have to do later on, by reducing the amount of weeds and increasing the water retention. Bark or pine needles work great, I have found, and depending on the rest of your yard you might have them on hand at no charge. As for fertilizer, you should use an organic fertilizer only sparingly once your plants start to come to life.

When you actually go to plant the seeds, you should put them in small, separate clumps according to the directions. This is because they tend to spread out, and if you have too many too close together then they will end up doing nothing but choking each other out. As you plant them, throw in a little bit of weak fertilizer or some compost. Within a few months, you should have a well-established variety of perennials, which will continue to decorate your garden year after year in a natural and sustainable way.

Improving Your Garden with Raised Beds

Good morning!

I hope you are enjoying the sustainable gardening series so far. We will be covering some juicy topics soon, but today we are throwing in a special bonus that may prove extremely helpful in your gardening efforts!

Since we’ve just covered landscape design, there is one important element that can really make an impact on the success of your garden. Here it is:

Creating Raised Beds Image by VeggieGardeningTips via Flickr
If your current planting goals involve plants that require good water drainage, I am sure you know how frustrating it is to have a yard that just won’t cooperate. Some plants can handle the extra water that comes about from being in an area that doesn’t drain properly. In fact, it might just cause them to bloom more lushly. However, other plants don’t cope as well, and it could cause them to die a gruesome, bloated death. You should always find out about the drainage required for every plant you buy, and make sure that it won’t conflict with any of the areas you are considering planting it in.

To test how much water your designated patch of soil will retain, dig a hole approximately ten inches deep. Fill it with water, and come back in a day when all the water had disappeared. Fill it back up again. If the second hole full of water isn’t gone in 10 hours, your soil has a low saturation point. This means that when water soaks into it, it will stick around for a long time before dissipating. This is unacceptable for almost any plant, and you are going to have to do something to remedy it if you want your plants to survive. (This is most usually a problem in very heavy, clay-type soils.)

One great (and relatively easy) method for improving drainage in your garden is to create a raised bed. This involves creating a border for a small bed, and adding enough soil and compost to it to raise it above the rest of the yard by at least 5 inches. You’ll be amazed at how much your water drainage will be improved by this small modification. If you’re planning to build a raised bed, your prospective area may either lie on grass or on dirt. For each of these situations, you should build it slightly differently.

If you want to start a raised garden in a non grassy area, you won’t have much trouble. Just find some sort of border to contain the dirt you will be adding. I’ve found that there is nothing that works quite as well as a few two-by-fours. After you’ve created the wall, you must put in the proper amount soil and manure or compost. Depending on how long you plan to wait before planting, you will want to correct the ratio to allow for any deteriorating that may occur.

If you’re trying to install a raised bed where sod already exists, you will have a slightly more difficult time. You will need to cut the turf around the perimeter of the garden, and flip it over. This may sound simple, but you will need something with a very sharp edge to slice the edges of the sod and get under it. Once you have turned it all upside down, it is best to add a bed of straw to discourage the grass from growing back up. After the layer of straw, simply add all the soil and manure that a normal garden would need.

Image via WikipediaPlanting your plants in your new area shouldn’t pose much difficulty. It is basically the same process as your usual planting session. Just be sure that the roots don’t extend too far into the original ground level. The whole point of creating the raised bed is to keep the roots from growing way down in the soil which stays oversaturated. Keep your garden properly watered, and you shouldn’t have too many problems.

Once you have plants in your new bed, you’ll notice an almost immediate improvement. The added soil facilitates better root development. At the same time, evaporation is prevented and rot is discouraged. All of these things added together makes for an ideal environment for almost any plant to grow in. So don’t be intimidated by the thought of adjusting the very topography of your yard. It is a simple process as I’m sure you’ve realized, and the long term results are worth every second of work.

Be sure to stay tuned for our next blog, when we’ll cover the proper soil preparation methods to make sure your new plants grow optimally and stay healthy!

Rose.

P.S. To learn more about starting your own sustainable garden, please visit http://www.newholisticliving.com/sustainablegardening.html.