Raised bed gardens

These are really no different than old fashioned cold frames upon which we used to lay down our storm windows back in the day.  Most of the pictures here are showing them stand alone which is not great.

The real potential is in converting former lawn into a full on garden.  All you really need is the wooden frame screwed together which anyone can do.  Use cheap 2X6 planks for this and at least treat them with some form of paint.  These can be taken up in the fall and hosed down to allow recovery and drying to allow a longer life.  Nice if you have an empty shed.

Assume a four foot by six foot frame.  Now lay them down side by side on top of a layer of cardboard over your lawn.  Atcual frames are touching and this quickly produces a long bed a full six feet deep.  The layer of cardboard separates your prepared bed soil from the underlying sod in particular.  Now put in a layer of sand and perhaps sawdust that is several inches thick to build up the bed.  Then cover it all with two inches of prepared soil. Go crazy here if you like.

The roots will go deep  and some will penetrate the cardboard as well.

Even better plant early and cover your frame with a clear plastic sheet with a couple of inches sprouting room.  this will be super warm and enhance early growth.  then take the cover off and start adding extra soil as the plants grow.  A little tender loving care and you can have a hugely productive garden bed that is seeded in early april even and productive all through May and June.  Ten frames is forty feet by six or eight feet and over twenty four square feet.

If you go for a four by eight config, plant the back two feet with four hills of corn along with some bean seeds.  

A little building, a little paint for protection and you have a robust household garden in your back yard.  And perhaps a chicken house with three hens to provide eggs and consume garden waste..

Raised bed gardens

You don't need a huge garden to grow a bumper crop of vegetables. Raised bed gardens have a lot of benefits. Here's how to build one.

By

Jodi Henke

Published on April 23, 2022

I have a raised bed garden in my yard for growing everything from tomatoes to green beans. It's easy to weed and there are no compaction problems because I don't walk on it.

Raised beds warm up earlier in the spring and dry out faster, so you get a jump start on the planting season.

Brooke Edmunds is a commercial horticulturist with Oregon State University Extension. She says you can just mound up soil and plant into it or use some sort of framing material to hold the soil in place.

“That could be pressure treated wood, you can use concrete blocks, cinder blocks, but you can get really creative. Some folks have old watering troughs, just drill some extra drain holes in the bottom and then you can fill that up with a soil mix and plant that out,” says Edmunds. “There are a lot of great custom designs out there depending on what your needs are.”

The soil for a raised bed depends on the quality of your native soil. If it's good soil, you can rototill it and raise it up a few inches. If it's made of heavy clay or has lots of sand, it's best to buy garden soil that is well draining and has organic matter in it.

“Usually folks may buy a bulk load, have that delivered and use it to fill their raised bed. I wouldn't necessarily recommend potting soil,” she says. “One, it's a little more expensive and sometimes it has things like perlite or other things mixed in which will float to the top of your bed. Look for a well-draining garden soil. Take a look at it before you buy it, may want to also purchase some compost or well-composted manures to mix into that, to help with the drainage.”

How deep should the bed be? It depends on your needs, but Edmunds says the soil should be deep enough to support the roots of what you're growing.