Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Emery Mitchamore <emitch@att.net>]

One thing that I've never been satisfied with is the material to contain 
raised beds.  I know some people (who have actual "soil"), just mound the bed 
up in the middle, with no structural sides, but I need to raise the bed more 
than that.  BTW, how high should beds be?  Others use scrap lumber, but I 
can't drive vertical posts to support the sides (6" to Limestone), and I'd 
hate to rebuild it every few years.  Most other materials, like RR ties 
(poison!!) and stones (expensive - have to buy), make an unproductive border 
of 6" or so.  

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.net



On Jun 10, 2010, at 11:37 PM, Tradingpost wrote:

> 
> 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
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Livingontheland mailing list
>> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Livingontheland mailing list
> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland