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27 Comments

  2. We use rabbit poop; it can go directly on the garden without any composting time. We have a lot of chickens so their poop gets composted for a couple of months before using it.

    1. Timely for Chris. Here are a couple quotes that are timeless for all of us.

      If you have a garden and a library you have everything.–Cicero

      Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.–Anonymous

      Carry on

  4. This year, I want to try the Shou sugi ban method on some 2×6 raised beds, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakisugi, using a weed torch, brush and Linseed oil.

    I also would like to try some aircrete precast modular raised beds.

    For Trellises, I’ve been thinking about 1V and 2V domes, but I am not sure if the 1V is strong enough for pumpkins, using 2inx2inx8ft lumber for struts, 3 in conduit cut 2in wide as connector hubs, and either zip ties, or #36 bank line to bind them together.
    http://www.desertdomes.com/dome1calc.html
    http://www.desertdomes.com/dome2calc.html

  5. Helpful hints:

    Don’t build boxes out of pressure treated lumber if you plan to eat the plant.

    Blend chopped seaweed into soil mixture if available …. no composting necessary.

    When setting boxes on the ground without a black plastic barrier, allow for the width of your lawn mower so you can run it between rows.

    Order from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm and add composting worms directly to the soil.

    A trellis can easily be made using firing strips and self drilling screws. Easy, cheap and effective.

  6. Concrete for raised bed! We have tried many different over the years.
    NEW: we will be using DIY concrete modular https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuSBwFkCiAw

    Best for new ground we used several times in the past IF you have access to a LOT of free sawdust: I call these non-raised raised beds. Dig out the paths and put the dirt up on the beds (that thin soil just became twice as thick!), and fill the paths in with sawdust up to level with the tops of the beds… it will settle a little and the beds will be raised an inch or so. Sawdust on the beds is BAD, sucks up too much nitrogen… but in the paths we never had any problem. In a couple years, things start looking a little rough, so till the whole area up again in the fall (adding some manure) for a winter green manure crop too and then start over with new paths, new sawdust the next spring = adding an huge amount of organic matter to the garden (sawdust, now partly broken down)

  7. We have heavy clay soil and Colombian ground squirrels. So we have most of our garden in raised beds. We are serious gardeners and canners so the amount of raised beds we need is more than our budget could afford to purchase. While I love the neat and tidy look of the beds made with galvanized metal, we couldn’t afford that. We have plenty of logs but I wanted a tidier look as our garden is quite close to the shouse.
    We solved the problem by using used garage door panels. They are powder coated painted, insulated, and come in various heights and lengths. Usually even if the exterior of the panel is a different color the interior is always white so you set the box up with the interior out and all of your boxes are white. For instance, we would take 3, 8’ panels, cut one of them in half with a saws all for your end pieces. Brace the corners with scrap metal that you predrill with holes (you could use wood but it won’t last as long) and using bolts, washers, and nuts put the box together and you end up with a raised bed that is 8’x8’x4’. If the panels are 24” tall I set wheat straw bales in the boxes (after I line the boxes with wire to keep out the ground squirrels) as tight as possible, taking loose straw and filling any spaces between the bales (remove the baling twine after you have the bale where you want it) then I put a mixture of soil, compost, manure, etc. on top of the bales. It’s basically a bastardized hugelkulture method.
    The first year the box doesn’t produce much. That fall I plant the box in wheat or oats for a green manure to till in in the spring. Every year the box is in production it produces more.

    1. TeresaSue, I admire your resourcefulness. Garage door panels. I never would have come up with that one. I reckon they last a long time. My kind of re-purposing. The next time I build some beds, that is on my list.

      Carry on

      1. They’re useful for other things too. We have several long doors that came out of a huge shop that we are going to use for two walls of a three sided machine shed. They interlock together and the paint is practically indestructible so you don’t have to paint them unless you just want to. They look very decent. The best part? We got them free. The garage door companies have to dispose of the doors they take out and they were happy for us to take them so they didn’t have to pay dump fees. When scrap metal is high they might be harder to get but they are still a great resource to recycle. You would not believe how many people get new garage door to have a different “look”. They will spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on a whim.

        1. Wow, “The best part? We got them free. The garage door companies have to dispose of the doors they take out and they were happy for us to take them so they didn’t have to pay dump fees. ”

          Where I come from, we call that win/win.

          Carry on

  9. Good article! We also use raised beds. Most are 3 ft. wide with a few at 4 ft. wide. I would add to nail wire mesh to the bottoms before setting the beds. This will keep the voles and ground squirrels out. We have a lot of deer and rabbits that like the salad bar so we also have netting over the top of our beds. We place rebar down in the soil just on the inside of the side of the bed, sticking up about 8 inches. Then we fashion hoops out of black irrigation hose that fits over the rebar. We attach the netting to the hoops with zip ties, making them tight enough to secure but loose enough to slide up and down for weeding and harvesting.

    We live in a dry, high altitude climate. I have found that Eliot Coleman’s composting methods work well here and have also used his plans for trellises and a greenhouse. These were found in his book ” Four Season Harvest”. Although I always enjoy a bit of winter’s rest, I’m getting excited for the new growing season. I get most of my seeds at Territorial Seed. I ordered the last of what i needed a few weeks ago and was surprised to see some varieties already sold out! If you haven’t gotten seeds yet, better get on it! Happy gardening!

    1. I agree with you. A combination of edible perennials, fruit trees, fruit bushes and annual veggies provide a much bigger annual yield than just growing annual veggies in raised beds. Our soil is mostly clay as many have said, but fruit trees tend to grow just fine. We also include berry bushes such as raspberries, strawberries for ground cover and bush-type blueberries in containers.

      Don’t forget layers as you can plant vines next to structure plants like trees (think three sisters-corn being your structure plant, beans are your climbers and squash moves on the ground around the corn) and magnify your yield. Permaculture resources have plenty of ideas for increasing your options to grow.

  11. Hey Paul, nice article, lots of good information.

    “I have also toyed with using garden twine, string of various gauges and wire to hold the bamboo together.”

    I’m going to finally try the bamboo tripod trellises this year. I hope they work as well as people say. Have you though of using bailing twine for tying them together?

    I’m surprised how few people mention bailing twine on SB. For $25 you can get 4 miles (20K feet) of polypropylene twine that’s UV stabilized so it lasts at least a couple of years (some of my garden stuff is now in its third year and going strong). It’s super lightweight, surprisingly strong, and has a bazillion and three uses. I keep one roll up above the door in my shop with the end hanging down through an eyelet by the door so whenever I need a piece I just pull and cut. The other roll is in my garden shed for the projects when I need a lot more and want to carry the roll around. Four miles should last most of us a lifetime and is much cheaper than almost any other alternative. I’ve even braided it for times when I’ve needed a little more strength. Check around for pricing, you can find it cheaper if you just need a single roll instead of the 2-pack. All the farm stores carry it and other locations as well.

    Good luck on your garden this year and wish me luck on my bamboo trellises. 🙂

    1. As a kid, baler twine was the only string we ever used for anything. We used it to tie gates shut, to hang heat lamps, to secure things in the truck bed, and any other use for string. We had an old empty five-gallon hydraulic fluid bucket in the barn where we put all the strings that we cut off of bales of hay and straw so there was always a ready supply of strings that were about 5′ long.

    2. St Funogas I use a lot of wheat straw on our place and I use twine all the time. I save it from the bales though, I don’t buy it. My husband teases me and calls me twiney Sue if I forget to pick it up. I believe a good lot of ranches and farms would totally collapse if all their twine was removed, lol!

  12. I was wondering where we in the USA could get Gorilla Hair. Asked Grandpa Google. Found this.

    Gorilla Hair mulch is made from the fibrous bark of redwood trees. The bark is mechanically shredded and the result is fibrous, tufted mulch that makes an aesthetically pleasing flower bed cover that is different than more traditional forms of mulch.

    And here I was going to recommend human hair or waste wool. Joke’s on me.

    Carry on

  13. Last spring I couldn’t find any seeds to plant. I searched all the local usual places and there was very little variety and most beans, lettuces and kale and chard where just gone. I then remembered my trip to Monticello, in Virginia about 24 years ago and falling in love with Jeffersons garden. They sell mostly heirloom seeds there of what they grow in the garden. I figured not many people knew that so I looked them up on line and, low and behold, they had everything I needed. Everything grew well and I have saved the seeds for this years garden, too. One of my new favorites is the heirloom pumpkin. It looks nothing like a pumpkin but grew many large squash and is a great keeper and delicious.

    Sharing my secret source with you and wishing you all great success with your gardens!

    1. Jill we loved Monticello too. Very clever of you to think of them!
      Our son in law, before he retired, was a Marine and he was stationed back east the last 12 years, bounced between Virginia and South Carolina. Anyway when we would go visit we would go see so many amazing places and Monticello was one of them. President Jefferson was an avid gardener and I admired his seed collection. We also got to see President Washington’s farm. One of the best places was Polyface farm in the Shenandoah valley. All three places have influenced my gardening.

      1. Excuse me, my son in law will probably never read the above comment, but if he did I would be reminded that he is, and always will be a Marine.
        I want to always be on the son in law’s good side. : )

          1. Next time I see him I will. They retired to Tucson, where he’s from. They bought 10 next tour acreage but we’ll see if they do anything with it. For some bizarre reason all of our kids live in cities. They didn’t get that from us!
            If we ever meet in person you have to sign the back of my Iwo Jima (spelling?) quilt.

    2. Jill –

      I went to Mr. Jefferson’s University so Monticello is one of my favorite places. As soon as I saw your comment (I’m a little behind in my reading), I went to the Monticello site and ordered 8 kinds of seeds, including a second pack of hot pepper seeds to give our son. He is on a quest to find the hottest peppers he can handle. We will see how he does with these.

      Thanks for the source, even though our local stores are just beginning to display their gardening stock. The shipping charges are pretty high ($9.95 for standard) but I am hoping at least part of that goes toward the restoration and research work. At any rate, we shall see if their seeds can stand up to Texas conditions.

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