Up, Up and Away, Raised Bed Gardening

When I bought my house many years ago, the people who lived here had some garden beds but it was in a dirt area with no watering system and they were full of weeds and where we live is red clay dirt. They didn't use anything to break up the dirt. I planted grass between the beds but the mower didn't fit between them and I fought for years trying to grow things and hated every minute of it. I ripped out the beds and put down grass and sprinkler extending the lawn in the back. Here it is full of weeds. Even looking at the picture stresses me out remembering how horrible it was all the time.

My 4th daughter loves to garden so for her birthday last year, we put in a raised bed garden. We put down the black weed barrier and within weeks had grass growing in the garden. My sister used flattened boxes and old newspapers under her raised beds and has had no problem with grass growing through.

I bought the lumber for my raised beds from Ace Hardware and went to the pile of seconds and bought the wood for fairly cheap as it wasn't quite straight. I went to the local IFA and bought some cattle guard fencing to use for the vines and tomatoes to grow up. I put these along the back and used old piping, clothes lines and fence posts to stabilize the cattle fence.

I bought vermiculite, top soil and manure and got some composted manure from the fair grounds and mixed it all in the raised beds with my own mulch. I mulch all veggies and fruit left overs and grass clippings and just dump them in a pit I dug and sometimes throw on some dirt from the field next door making lovely soil with lots of worms. You can see how dark the soil is. I just pull any weeds right out and there are hardly any.

Last year we had about 5 large pumpkins and tons of tomatoes and squash hanging off the fencing. One year, before I put in the raised beds, I used the fencing but didn't have it stabilized and the weight of a few pumpkins pulled it down. I suggest you anchor the fencing well in order to keep it up when the melons and squash start growing heavy.

Peas, beans, melons, tomatoes and any vine will grow up rather than out and doesn't take much space. I usually buy my tomatoes however last year we had some volunteer along with some melons. This year, we had red potatoes plants come up in the mulch so I transplanted those into the shady area of the garden. The garden goes along the fence line. The only thing I haven't tried growing there is corn. I find that it takes up so much space and the frost is so late that I find it is better and cheaper to buy it from the local farmers.

You can see how long the garden is and the thing I like is that it is all accessible from the grass within arms reach. It is in the yard, it looks pretty, it gets watered with the yard and trees and we planted edible flowers so that it looks beautiful as well as tastes wonderful. We have rows of about 5 different carrots, two types of radishes, several types of lettuce, 2 types of tomatoes, many types of squashes and melons, potatoes, kale, spinach, peppers, peas, beans, onions, and a few things I planted that I couldn't remember what the seeds were from, I think cabbage or broccoli.

Happy Planting!