I have heard of people using old tires or cinder blocks, but I still think wood is the way to go. So don't worry, there is a lot of old redwood or cedar boards out there that may no longer be safe as a deck but can still give you years of life as a raised bed.
What are raised-bed gardens?
Raised beds are planting areas enclosed within a structure and constructed aboveground in a sunny spot. While you don’t need raised beds to harvest great-tasting produce, they offer many advantages to gardeners:
Wood in the US is insanely expensive, so a DIY raised bed is the practical way to go. With a few leftover deck boards and handy tools, you can easily build your own raised-bed.
Here I will show you how I built my raised bed from an old redwood deck, and you won’t need much to build your own too.
What you will need:
1. Sourcing and Transporting the Wood
I think this may be the most difficult part for some people if you are not lucky enough (or really unlucky, in that case I'm sorry!) to replace your own deck. Great places to find deck wood include:
A few tips:
If you don't have a pick-up truck or (better) a friend with a pick-up truck there are a few solutions:
2. Measure and Cut
Once I’ve decided where to place my raised bed (remember, vegetables love the sun!), I used a tape measure and ruler to work out how big my raised bed should be.
My raised bed is 3 feet wide x 9 feet long based on Robert Kourik's idea that a narrower bed is easier to work on, but Kellogg Garden advises that you should aim for 4 feet wide beds that are at least 6 to 12 inches deep for best results. You can choose whatever length works for you based on the size of the deck.
Remove old nails, then cut off those bad ends.
Smart tip: Make sure there are no nails where cutting and ALWAYS wear safety glasses.
3. Assemble
Pre-drill holes and use 2 1/2" to 3" deck screws. For extra strength, put a 4x4 in the corner. Put it on a flat surface and get it roughly square - these are great projects to learn from, so think about inviting kids or anyone who wants to improve their woodworking skills.
I cut mine at a 45 degree angle, but you can cut them flat and butt one against the other.
Smart Tip: Always make sure you can reach the middle of your bed, otherwise what’s the point? Also, it's better to work in the shade :-)
You can easily make the beds taller, but you are going to need a 4x4 in the corners and a 2x4 or 2x6 in the middle to hold them together.
Smart Tip: Instead of going higher, dig out the bad soil on the bottom of the bed and replace it with rich compost.
If you are on a slope, cut the bottom side boards at an angle.
This is what we are doing and we hope you find it helpful. I hope to get some plants in here soon and give you an update. Let us know what you are doing.
As always, happy gardening!
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Nothing is more frustrating to a new gardener than finding an ugly, brown spot on the bottom of an otherwise beautiful tomato. If you see it, you probably have blossom-end rot, a common problem that is easy to prevent.
On tomatoes, blossom-end rot appears as brown, leathery rot, while on peppers, the spots resemble sunscald and appear on the sides. If this is what your tomato or pepper looks like, read on.
What causes blossom-end rot?
Blossom-end rot is a plant disorder caused by calcium deficiency, according to UW-Madison. Tomatoes and pepper plants use active transpiration to move calcium from its roots to the fruit. (Active transpiration is a fancy way of saying water evaporates off of the top of the plant, new water is drawn up from below.)
Blossom-end rot can be caused by:
Ironically, not enough or too much water could be the problem. A good way to tell is to grab a handful of soil (1” or 2” deep), and you should be able to make a ball without water coming out.
For plants to properly uptake calcium the soil Ph should be between 6.5 and 6.8. Over fertilizing, especially synthetic fertilizer can also interfere with your plants ability to absorb calcium.
Quick Fix
Once you determine you need more calcium the only way to get it into your plants this season is a liquid Cal Mag Plus (Calcium Magnesium with positive ions) Your local garden supply store should have it in stock. Apply it to the roots according to the instructions. You can also make a foliar spray and apply it the leaves. This should save the rest of your harvest.
Long Term Blossom-End Rot Prevention
Once you have solved your issues for this season, you need to make sure you have enough calcium in your soil for next year and going forward. Even if you don’t have blossom-end rot you should be adding calcium to your soil as part of your soil amendment program. One way is to add garden lime from your local garden store, but we have a better and more sustainable way—eggshells.
Eggshells are an incredible source of calcium for your plants.
Here is how I do it:
The first step is rinsing the eggshells and drying them out on a dish by my windowsill, or any place where the sun can do its part. Sunlight both dries the shells and helps kill any Salmonella that could be in the shells.
After drying them out for about 2 days, I add them to a jar and crush them using the end of a wooden spoon. (You can be as innovative as you wish to be!) I have a pint-sized straight mason jar on the counter that can hold many dozens of egg shells. I would recommend keeping it open to air by using a lid with holes on it or no lid at all - I haven’t found it attracting any bugs yet.
You can stop here, but the finer you make it, the sooner the tomato plant can absorb it. So, what I do is pulverize the chunks using a coffee bean grinder. I strongly suggest using a separate, dedicated grinder. It can be tricky to clean the eggshells from the grinder—the shells may have Salmonella and homegrown unwashed eggs may add a certain ‘Je ne sais quoi’ to your coffee. Yikes.
My homemade 'mortar and pestle' vs electric grinder:
What you don’t want to do is throw giant chunks of shells in your garden. They do not work as efficiently as the powdered form, and they are a bit of an eyesore. (Believe me, I’ve been there, these shells have been here at least 2 years and aren’t doing anything for the soil.)
Again, a quick comparison between hand crushed and ground. I could have hand ground a little better, but never close to what the electric grinder can do.
Voila! Your powdered eggshells are ready. You can add them directly to the soil around your garden, but it is better to add them to your worm bin or a compost pile — I do both. Adding it to your worm bin has the additional benefit of acting as grit for the worms, balances the pH, and (I believe) should increase the bioavailability of the calcium to the plants after it's gone through the gut of a worm.
A quick note - it’s always a good idea to do soil tests before adding lime or any amendment.
Don’t let a little blossom-end rot discourage you from gardening.
Let me know how it goes. As always, happy gardening!
My master gardener friend showed me how she does this on my recent visit.
Note: The two pots with red leaves still need to be cleaned and repotted, the rest have already been cleaned up.
1) She takes out each strawberry plant removes the dead material. (BTW - Our Hori Hori Garden Knife is the perfect tool for cutting through the roots an digging up the plant
2) Next pull the strawberry clump out and divide it into a few parts.
Getting your hands dirty is the best way to accomplish this.
When you're done, you'll be left with a rhizome.
My friend adds some compost and a little organic fertilizer to refresh the soil and replanted about dozen back into each pot.
We took home some leftovers and planted the rhizome starts. This apple container worked great.
As the weather warmed up we replanted into larger buckets. Grab your favorite garden spade and child (optional) and plant into some refreshed soil.
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First to place the lines, I asked my landscaper to rent a ditch witch to dig the trench.
This is expensive, but hopefully this will be trouble free and last a long time.
While trenching is expensive, PVC pipe is pretty cheap. While my Master Gardener said to put in as much PVC pipe as possible, my landscaper recommended to limit the PVC pipe to a max of 4 - he said anymore and it gets to difficult to fix a leak.
I installed two 1 1/4" PVC lines in the pipe with tees going to risers every 14'. Either line should have plenty of pressure for the 20 risers I ran on each line.
By having a double system I can have two watering schedules. For example I could have mature trees being watered deeply every few days, while young sapling could be on a short, daily schedule. Simply connect the drip irrigation line to the right pipe. My Master Gardener also recommended a tee value at each tree. This would allow me turn off the water to spot if the tree dies or something else. I am just adding these as I add trees.
For my drip irrigation I am using an in-line drip emitter. Robert recommends 12" spacing. As you can see from the photo, i used way more than I needed for a small tree and the timer only goes on for a few minutes a day.
But there is a method to the madness. First notice the drip line is not just where the roots are, but also where I want them to GO. As the tree grows and the roots extend, I can simply widen the drip spiral and lengthen the time on the timer until it gets to a 12" x 12" spacing. It will take years before I need to worry about adding to or replacing these emitters.
Next I connected my system to a irrigation valve and timer. My old-school landscaper wanted me to get an old-school timer, but I opted for an intelligent Rachio system instead. By linking in to local weather it can calculate tree evapotranspiration and give it the water it needs. It will even delay watering if rain is forecasted. It took some time to get the time right (only 15 minutes with all the emitter line and very clay based soil), but since then the only issue I have had is a valve being stuck open from a pebble in the water line.
For the pies de resistance, I added two outlets where I planted my citrus trees. This will allow me to give the trees a little heat with old Christmas tree lights in the winter if it falls below freezing for a few days. But wire is expensive, so I just set it up to hit 4-6 trees close to the house.
Finally, we planted the tress with a gopher mesh to protect the roots and more wire mesh to protect the leaves from goats and deer. Then it was topped off with a nice coating of wood chips.
I set up spots for 20 trees, but only got 5 in the ground. That's OK, I am all set to go this spring.
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The ground beat containers if possible – It takes time to build good soil, but the rewards are worth it. Spread your irrigation wide and encourage the roots to expand. It is a little more forgiving if you don’t have a chance to water for a few days. And don’t forget to use mulch – lots of mulch – to retain moisture. I’ve tried drip irrigation systems, but personally I would go back to an efficient sprinkler head link X connected to a smart irrigation timer. Drip irrigation always seems more prone to failure. In Carol Depp’s, The Resilient Gardener, she also goes back to sprinklers to keep her garden green. I’m using Robert Kourik, the author of Lazy Ass Gardening advice on my fruit trees with a timer and an expanding soaker hose. More on that later.
If you’re feeling more ambitious – build Hugelkultur mounds – Hugelkultur is the idea of using woody mass – logs, branches, etc – to act as giant sponges soaking in extra water and releasing it as needed. In the process, they slowly decompose turning into beautiful compost. According to Paul Wheaton from Permies.com, he could grow tomatoes without watering all summer. Paul and his mentor – Sepp Holzer – recommend large logs to breakdown more slowly and steal less nitrogen from your plants in the process. Paul has a full description here, which talks about some techniques to make this more successful like pre-soaking your logs. But, Robert Kourik, the author of Lazy Ass Gardening told me he has had success with throwing dirt over plain old wood chips and it did the exact same thing. So, don’t stress too much about your material – just mix what you have or better yet make one mound with logs and another with wood chips and see which one works best for you (and let us know!)
If you prefer raised beds, all is not lost. Make them 2 feet tall – this will allow you to put a foot of woody material on the bottom (a mini hugelkultur) – and your back will thank you. I have seen several people doing this on the web including this YouTube video from Gardner Scott – some of them not even realizing they were making a hugelkultur. Sticks and branches are cheap fill – big box soil bags to fill your raised beds can get expensive. Plus with the extra water retention benefits, they make for cheap insurance in case you need to go out of town for a week or so – it probably wouldn’t last all summer. But for some people (like my wife 😊) who want a more organized backyard garden this is a great compromise. We will be trying this next year.
Next year I will do one or several of the methods above and update you on my progress.
Happy Gardening
Patrick
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