Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Great details on my pet topic, raised beds. Or permanent beds as I like to 
call them. You have the background and knowhow to make comparing notes very 
useful. I don't make progress by being satisfied. Lots of people can grow; 
growing a lot in small spaces and growing well with a minimum investment of 
time and money is a whole nother matter.

It's late for me but I have to get in a couple things on this. My beds are on 
a slight slope, stepping down to the east with beds running north and south. 
I left 2 1/2 feet between for room to kneel transplanting and move a 
wheelbarrow between. They're 3x8 with four foot aisles running east and west, 
room to turn a wheelbarrow around in. I level the beds surface so water will 
soak in evenly, with hay mulch applied after transplanting or seeds 
sprouting, and use soaker hoses in most beds on top of the mulch. It cuts 
watering from once a day to about once a week in the hottest weather (arid 
climate, 5000 elev), and just by connecting hoses to the soakers in sequence 
I can get other jobs done while the beds soak. Saving time on routine jobs is 
the name of the game. Without some system I couldn't grow enough beds to make 
two markets worthwhile. Hope we can get back to this. Sunup comes early now.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 6/9/2010 at 7:17 AM Don Bowen wrote:

>I will be putting in a new garden at a house we are moving to in the
>Ozarks.  Right now between packing and tossing I am planning my new garden.
>
>I plan to do what I did in the last garden with some changes.  I made
>raised beds that were 4X16, aligned E-W, with 2' separation.  The size
>was fine, there was plenty of room in a bed and walking around was not
>too bad.  If I were to shrink the bed at all it would be by only a few
>feet.
>
>The major problem was alignment, there was a N-E slope to the land, one
>bed was at grade while th opposite corner was 24" above grade.  If I
>were to do it again I think I would follow the contour of the land.
>Where I am thinking of a garden location the ground is mostly flat.
>
>Next major problem was the 2' between beds.  That was not enough for
>some vine plants and working between beds.  I would dump shredded xmas
>trees on the paths to control weeds and that worked well.  I think the
>next garden will have 3' between beds and 4' between the ends.
>
>I also ran water to one corner of each bed and will do the same next
>time around.  I bought a shop sink at a garage sale and installed that
>in one corner, very handy.  One thing I always wanted to do was to build
>a garden shed, a small space to store stuff with a small porch along the
>front to provide a nice place to stop and watch the rain.
>
>I think the first step will be to till up a space for the bed.  I do not
>really know the soil there but I do know it has a lot of rocks.  Once it
>is tilled I would like to pay out the cardboard and build beds around
>that.  Put in some good soil, rotted sawdust, and manure to hold the
>cardboard in place then plant some sort of cover crop.  That would be a
>good time to build the first fence for the chicken moat and let the
>chickens have their way with the beds.
>
>The garden shed will be a long term project.  I want to replace the well
>shed as an early project.  I have plans to make it a garden shed for
>mower storage and the like.  There will be an insulated box at one end
>for the pressure tank and well head.  I want to experiment with solar
>heating and rain catchment with this little shed.  In the box will be
>water storage for rain collection and the south end will have a
>collection box with one side Polycarbonite.  The idea is that the sun
>will heat air in the collection box which in turn will heat the rain
>water as heat storage.
>
>--
>Don Bowen           KI6DIU
>http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html
>
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