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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] [KC No-Till] Growing Veggies on a Former Parking Lot

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "Liz" <liz@allslash.org>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] [KC No-Till] Growing Veggies on a Former Parking Lot
  • Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 19:27:07 -0400

I do something pretty similar, same general situation. I garden on a slope, and my soil is dense clay. Though it has been heavily amended with lots of things, it turned out to be a lot easier to layer those things on top than to try digging them in. Now the soil is soft and loose to a good depth, but if I'd had to dig or till that deep to begin with, it would have been a lot harder than it was. I built beds with sides of 4x4's, and then set more on top as the soil level grew. Most of my beds are roughly 4 x 16, but in the more uneven areas, some are only 4 x 8, or even 4 x 6. Should have made them narrower than four feet, but I was trying to use the lumber most efficiently. All the ones I build in the future will be 36" across at most. My original ones weren't even screwed together. I drilled a hole in each end and rammed a length of rebar down into it to anchor the 4x4 in the ground. I left the rebar sticking up a few inches so I could put another layer on top when I was ready.

It doesn't look like anything out of a Martha Stewart magazine, but it works.

Liz

Fairly extreme terracing, hmm? It's always about adapting best methods to wherever we hang our hat. To begin with we have shallow topsoil so it needs raised beds to get soil depth. Also we're on a slight slope, not bad but enough to rule out flat gardening. So I've made a LOT of framed beds with salvage 2" lumber, wider boards on the downside. Sides sit in a shallow trough with dirt fill around to help keep water inside the bed. And since the ground is uneven I make 8' sections 3' wide and join the next 8' section a little higher or lower so beds can be as long or short as needed on uneven ground. All screwed together cheap, no fancy brackets or kits. Somewhere else it all might be different, huh?






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