Raised beds
May 27th, 2008 by Julie Kirkwood
This week’s Yard Dirt column is about the garden project that almost didn’t happen:
“Going soft in the garden, but still working hard”
Luckily, it did happen. We made two new garden beds, nearly doubling the size of our vegetable garden. Here’s how we did it.
The frame is made from three 2″x8″x8′ boards, one board cut in half and used as the end pieces. I put a stack of old newspaper in a garden cart and filled it with water. Then I layered the wet newspapers over the grass inside the frame.
I sprinkled the newspaper with some organic fertilizer (Hollytone, because that’s what I happened to have in the garage), then spread one garden cart full of compost from last year’s compost pile.
Then I added the soil. Half a cubic yard was the perfect amount to fill the bed to the top.
The whole project took about two baby naps, or about 2-3 hours.
The baby didn’t nap much yesterday, so my husband made the second bed.
Now I just have to surround them with chicken wire for rabbit protection and I’m ready to plant … a little late, but not bad!
to “Raised beds”
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1Jeremy - Pittsgrove Farms said:
Great job on the raised beds. We build similar beds for our iris and veggie beds in NJ. They do a nice job of keeping a good balance with the water by retaining it when it is dry and allowing drainage when it pours. Last weekend we had so much rain that there was 2-3 inches of water in the walkways, but fortunately the lettuce and tomatoes were wet but not swamped like much of the rest of the property.
