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
No comments:
Post a Comment