4-9-13 Establishing New Garden Beds

Establishing New Garden Beds 

     Ask a million gardeners and you will probably get about a million different processes or techniques to make a garden bed.  I’ll show you what I do … it may not be the easiest … it may not be the best … but it sure does pay off in my garden.

     When you get started in gardening, you will come across many new ways of doing things that you haven’t thought of before.  You will come across many “gee-whiz” gadgets, cool looking yard ornaments, hanging paraphernalia, and all kinds of stuff made from junk around the yard.  I have tried a whole bunch of different techniques and what I am going to show you are the techiniques that work better for me and my garden than anything else I have tried. 

     The first step in establishing a new bed is to select the site.  You should be looking for an area that gets the amount of sunlight that you will need for the type of plants you wish to grow.  For most garden vegetables here in Arkansas, you will want an area that gets sun for most of the day, and gets a bit of shade in the later part of the afternoon.  The reason you want shade in the afternoon, is because the heat of the sun during the Arkansas summer, is pretty intense and will dry your plants out when the summer is the hottest.  Shade in the afternoon will allow your plants to have a little reprieve from the heat and by watering in the afternoons, they will even give you some new growth and production when plants in the hot sun will still be trying to survive.

     The area you select needs to be accessible, it needs to be in close proximity to a water source, it needs to be out of the path of animals (dogs, deer, rabbits … etc), and it should be in a location that is near enough to where you live so you don’t have to make it an excursion just to go to your garden. 

     The size of the bed is the next thing that should be on your list.  You want to be able to work a complete bed from all angles without giving your back too much of a workout.  I have found that if my bed width is over about three feet, then I have difficulty reaching comfortably into the center of the bed.  If you do not want to compact your soil in the bed, then you should be able to reach to the center of the bed without having to support yourself from an outstretched hand placed in the soil.

     I have also found that by limiting the length of the bed, it makes it easier to move around to all sides of the bed for working, for watering, for moving compost … etc.  I choose to make my beds the length of the landscaping timbers that I use as my bedding sides.  A different length may suit your needs better, but the 8’ x 3’ bed has become the staple of my garden because of all the benefits it provides. 

     Bedding sides can be made using just about anything (rocks, bricks, boards, plastic materials … etc).  I choose to use landscape timbers.  They hold up fairly well in some pretty toxic environments.  My compost is very active and eats just about anything that is not made of stainless steel.  The landscape timbers will last from about 6-12 years for my uses with direct contact with the soil and are relatively cheap, fairly easy to work with, easy to replace when necessary, and look good in the garden. 

Here is the way I make my beds ...

Pick and clean the new spot

Materials needed for two new 8' x 3' beds:  12 ea 8' landscape timbers; 24 ea pieces of 7/16" rebar

 Cut and drill landscape timbers:  4 @ 8' or 96" (1/2" holes at 2 and 6") , 4 @ 88" (holes at 2"), 4 @ 44" (holes at 2 and 6"), 4 @ 36" (holes at 2")

Lay out the frames and stakes

You will need 3 ea 12" stakes at each corner

Stack and align timbers before staking it down

After beds are staked down, it's time to dig

Dig down the depth of the blade on the shovel and turn over all dirt

Remove all rocks and roots you find while turning the dirt over

 

     I usually give it a few days before busting all the clods up to allow it to dry out a bit.  After that I will fully mix the soil in the bed, level it out and add a wheel-barrow of good compost to the top.  When I am ready to plant, I will mix in the compost to the depth of the roots of the plants I plan to grow in the new beds.  It is now ready to plant  :-)  

 

Went with peppers in the new beds.  Peppers are very hardy and do not require as much in the way of nutrients as some other garden plants.  Here are some Sangria (ornamental peppers), Yummy Snacking (mini bells), Pimiento, Jalapeno, Anaheim (green chile), Mexi Bells, Fahita Bells, Poblano Ancho ... and a Sweet 100 tomato for good measure

 

Like I said, ask a million people ... the important thing is to have fun with it. 

... Duane

4-2-13 Putting the beds to sleep for the winter

A look at the garden at the end of December 2012

Little garden

                                                                       Little garden

                                                            Though now you lay to rest

                                                   Compost leaching with each gentle rain

                                                   So in the spring you will show your best

                                                       I feel you bunching ‘neath the soil

                                                              Stretching … soon to rise

                                                    When skies of gray turn blue and warm

                                                             And winter northward flies

                                                         You always bring to me a smile

                                                                Each time I check anew

                                                     For start of growth and budding green

                                                            For all you give … thank you.

                                                             Duane Clancy  2013-01-09

Hey guys!

     I know it’s been a long time since the last post.  Bad … bad Duane!  Life seems to run it’s own course and tends to leave many things by the wayside.  The garden did very well in the 2012 season despite the hot, dry conditions.  I guess we must be doing something right after all.

     I started writing this in the late fall but got a little distracted by the world and life and family and finances … nothing that stopped our processes, but I was side-tracked enough to cut way-way back on the writing.  Anyway, here’s the post-post-season post.

Putting the beds to sleep for the winter

     There are many people that believe that once the growing season is over, then gardening is done for the year.  I tend to be one of those “all year” gardeners though.  There are many perennial plants in the garden that will need some attention through the winter, and the off season is the best time to establish nutrients in your beds for the explosion of growth in the spring.

     As soon as a bed is harvested, the bed needs to be turned over and broken up again.  This allows you to see what is happening in your dirt at the root level and you can see and eliminate any pupa stages of moths and any grubs and cut-worms that are sneaking around in your soil.

     This is also the best time to ensure that all weed roots are removed from the soil.  It doesn’t take rhizome grasses very long to establish a foothold and with the depth of fertile soil in the beds, those pesky roots can send out runners pretty deep.

     After the bed is broken up and leveled again, this is a wonderful time to add a topping of compost.  A topping of fertile manure compost will help to keep new weed seeds from getting a start.  Most of the time, when a seed tries to start in too fertile soil, it burns itself out very quickly.  This fertile compost will leach into the soil of the bed over the course of the off season every time it rains, or when a snow melts.  By the time spring gardening season begins, there will be a nice layer of “ready to grow soil” on the top of the beds.

     When you are ready to plant the bed, all you will have to do is to chop in (mix) the top several inches of compost and soil, smooth it out, and plant.  The soil should have everything it will need to assist the new seeds and transplants in getting a great start without having to compete with anything that is already established in the beds and without having to add any additional fertilizer in the form of new compost.

     Another good thing that happens, using this system, is you will notice the influx of red worms in the soil.  The worms are attracted to the loose fertile soil in the bed and the fertile compost calls them in and gives them food and a warmer place to stay over the winter.  The drainage in the soil helps the worms to survive and thrive without drowning.

     Worm castings (worm poop) is the most “plant ready” form of fertilizer known.  By giving them a place to thrive over the winter, you are developing an eco-system in your soil that will do more for your spring garden than anything else you can do.

     The worms will burrow tunnels deep into the soil and allow for better drainage as well as allowing more air into the soil.  They also help keep the soil looser for the development of a larger array of plant roots.  A plant can only grow to a size that can be supported by it’s roots … by helping your soil and roots, you will get a wonderful return of larger, healthier, more prolific, and more productive plants.

     If you didn’t get a chance to do these things in the late fall, it’s still ok to do all these things now … or whenever you get the chance.  By building your soil, you are building your future garden.  Anything you can do now to make your soil better will help your garden to be better.

Happy Spring!!!  Get dirty ...

… Duane