Who's got raised beds? What are you growing in them?

[Cappy]

I have 14 8' x 4' x 12" beds taking up a large part of my back yard and think it's the highest efficiency way to grow. 6 of my beds have 8 tomato plants each, two have 8 potato plants each, two are filled with 50 onions each, two have 40 carrots each and two have like 25 bean plants each. Then we have at least 50 containers filled with herbs and flowers scattered about. We also have 25% of 1/4 acre plot at a friends farm that has beets, onions, carrots and green beans.

Last night we processed 100 lbs of tomatos into like 12 gallons of juice and that has been simmering away all night in two 32 quart stock pots. I love the smell of my kitchen at garden processing time. Today we'll be making refried beans, onion powder, and preserving carrots, beets and green beans. Busy, busy busy.....life is good.

 

[OrganicOzarks]

Where I am you can only grow in raised beds. Right now I have 10 tomato plants, 3 bell pepper plants, 5 new Mexico pepper plants, 12 jalapeno pepper plants, 6 Thai chili pepper plants, 2 zucchini plants, 2 squash plants, 10 okra, then comes a shit load of green onion, parsley, cilantro, basil, purple basil, oregano, and dill. Soon I will be planting leeks, broccoli, bok choy, brussel sprouts, a shit load of greens, and I really can't remember everything else right now. This year i am going to try, and grow year round. I just read some year round gardening books. So I hope I can implement what I have learned.

 

[tr1ck_]

Feel free to take some pictures or post more details as you progress, this would help a lot of people like myself out, who hope to be where you are soon

 

[Cappy]

Feel free to take some pictures or post more details as you progress, this would help a lot of people like myself out, who hope to be where you are soon

What would you like to know? The beds are made of 1x8x12" treated lumber and 4x4 corner posts with a 8mil plastic liner to protect the soil. I have them on sheets of 20 year weed barrier so grass can't grow up from underneath, and the wife and I hand mixed every bit of the 450 cubic feet of soil in the beds. My mix is now 6 years old, made of black dirt, peat, perlite, and sand. I recycle the soil from my MJ grows in the beds, but have to add about 20 cubic feet of soil a year to make up for compaction and erosion. Next year, I'll be adding a 1/2" pvc drip system to the entire setup when I can figure out how to cross the rows without being a tripping hazard.

I think I've got a pic of it somewhere already, let me see if I can find it....

 

[tr1ck_]

What would you like to know? The beds are made of 1x8x12" treated lumber and 4x4 corner posts with a 8mil plastic liner to protect the soil. I have them on sheets of 20 year weed barrier so grass can't grow up from underneath, and the wife and I hand mixed every bit of the 450 cubic feet of soil in the beds. My mix is now 6 years old, made of black dirt, peat, perlite, and sand. I recycle the soil from my MJ grows in the beds, but have to add about 20 cubic feet of soil a year to make up for compaction and erosion. Next year, I'll be adding a 1/2" pvc drip system to the entire setup when I can figure out how to cross the rows without being a tripping hazard.

I think I've got a pic of it somewhere already, let me see if I can find it....

I am jealous, thanks for the details, I would also be interested in details of how you store/preserve your bountiful harvest. Such as the tomato juicing/simmering

 

[OrganicOzarks]

My beds are made from 2x6 cedar. I don't like the idea of using pressure treated lumber to grow food in. Call me paranoid. My setup is on the side of a hill that is made of rock with a little soil mixed in it. My raised beds start out at 12" tall, but then as the hill slopes they get deeper. I have one built in an L shape. It is 10' long on each end, and 4' deep. The end at the bottom of the hill is 3' deep. I have another smaller bed to the left of this one that is 5' x 3'. In front of the L on the deep end I have another bed that is 4' x 5'. Between this bed and the other smaller bed i have a bed that is 10' x 2'. It took me 7 yards of soil and compost to fill these. I also have a fence around the entire thing to keep the deer out. I really don't want to post pictures because of security reasons. I wish I could because i am proud of my little garden. This fall I am expanding it with another bed that is 15' x 3', and also I am going to build a 12' x 8' passive solar green house right in front of the garden. My goal being to have fresh food year around.

 

[someotherguy]

Why no pics?

SOG

 

[HueJass]

Some intense sounding set ups in here. I'd like to see some pics too. 100lbs is a lot of tomatoes, some serious production there. I was thinking of trying to grow potatoes in large barrels. Have you heard of this method? Any tips? I need to find some place to source some of the baby potato clones locally.

 

[Cappy]

I am jealous, thanks for the details, I would also be interested in details of how you store/preserve your bountiful harvest. Such as the tomato juicing/simmering

Tomatoes are the easiest. I put them through a Back to Basics (brand name) manual processor that requires no peeling. So unlike last year, when I had to boil/peel first before processing, my time and energy costs are cut in half, easily. The processer turns the maters into a pinkish juice that then gets slow simmered down to whatever consistency you want for your recipe. We primarily make pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and chili sauce and are happy to thicken our base with a commercial tomato paste when necessary.

Because my kids hate the cellulose consistency of whole onions, I grind them down in a food processer on my blender, dry them in a dehydrator, and then powder them in the same blender processor. Onion powder and garlic powder go in many of the recipies I make throughout the winter.

Beets are harvard style, green beans, carrots and whatever get processed in a pressure canner or standard boiler, depending on the vegetable. Or they get made into the many stews and/or soups we make for the winter.

Potatoes have proven to be the most difficult to make last the winter, so we make dozens of quarts of stews and soups and put them in the recipe. We can make them last fresh usually to the new year, but that's it. Still, we have garden potatoes for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years dinners, so that's cool.

 

[Cappy]

Some intense sounding set ups in here. I'd like to see some pics too. 100lbs is a lot of tomatoes, some serious production there. I was thinking of trying to grow potatoes in large barrels. Have you heard of this method? Any tips? I need to find some place to source some of the baby potato clones locally.

LOL, that was just the first four days of harvesting reddies. We've got another 6-8 weeks of tomato production ahead. Yikes.

We'll end up with over 500 quart and pint jars. Probably more this year since I insisted on growing all staples and skipping the less popular (with me and the kids) stuff my wife likes to grow like melons, cucumbers, peppers, etc.

Never heard of growing potatoes in a barrell, sounds interesting.

For all seeds, we use Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa. They rescue and breed out obscure and not so obscure strains of vegetables from all over the world and their prices are good. You can plant even grocery store potatoes and get great results, so give it a shot!

 

[greenmatter]

raised beds rock IMHO. a good way to deal with colorado clay/concrete!

 

[Cappy]

My beds are made from 2x6 cedar. I don't like the idea of using pressure treated lumber to grow food in. Call me paranoid. My setup is on the side of a hill that is made of rock with a little soil mixed in it. My raised beds start out at 12" tall, but then as the hill slopes they get deeper. I have one built in an L shape. It is 10' long on each end, and 4' deep. The end at the bottom of the hill is 3' deep. I have another smaller bed to the left of this one that is 5' x 3'. In front of the L on the deep end I have another bed that is 4' x 5'. Between this bed and the other smaller bed i have a bed that is 10' x 2'. It took me 7 yards of soil and compost to fill these. I also have a fence around the entire thing to keep the deer out. I really don't want to post pictures because of security reasons. I wish I could because i am proud of my little garden. This fall I am expanding it with another bed that is 15' x 3', and also I am going to build a 12' x 8' passive solar green house right in front of the garden. My goal being to have fresh food year around.

We uesd lumber not treated with arsenic, but still I understand your point. I'll be making my own greenhouse next year by using two beds and arcing 20' pieces of PVC over them. I'm in zone 4 so that may get me an extra month of growing season with a oil heater inside in MArch. Your setup sounds great

 

[Cappy]

Some of the pics I can show. These are from the last house we lived at, so that's why the bed count is smaller than what we havce now. Yes, I moved all the soil with the beds when we moved. Don't ask me how much work that was.

The pot of tomatoes is what I'm cooking right now. It's about ready for spicing into whatever sauce. The smell is simply awesome...

 

[geopolitical]

I have to grow in raised beds due to my soil & summer time temps. I'm near-arctic so beds keep my growing plants above the permafrost & perpetually cold ground temps.

We do beds a little different here to help the plants out and warm the soil. I start by laying out the bed itself using untreated spruce (I have a lot of the trees and they rot very slowly in our weather, 10+ years lifespan isn't unusual). I then dig out the middle of the bed to a depth of 3-4' using the frame as a guide. Our soil is mostly silt, loess, clay and rock. Past fingers depth there's pretty much zero organic content.

This soil gets put to one side for mix & reuse. Then I start filling in the bed. Into the bed gets dumped a large quantity of wood chips & woody refuse, then half done compost mixed with the original soil fills it up to the original soil line. The top is mostly compost & soil but I've used all sorts of things for top fill. This layer of wood/compost will slowly decay over 4-6 years. I'll tend to top dress with compost/leaf mold/etc to make up the subsidence caused by this.

This raises my soil temps just a few degrees in summer and means the soil wakes up a little faster in spring and goes to sleep a little slower in fall. I have approximately 135 frost free days a year here, maybe 80 of usable temperatures. With the raised beds I can use pretty much the whole season.

As for what we plant in them, a better question is what we don't plant in them. I've used them for apricots, cherries, grapes, lettuce, kale, mache, herbs of all kinds. They're especially useful for overwintering trees that are only marginally hardy here for their first few years. One word of warning, if you live in a place with earthworms go heavy on the wood and light on the partially finished compost. Too much movement through the bed can be detrimental for roots.

 

[GP73LPC]

We uesd lumber not treated with arsenic, but still I understand your point. I'll be making my own greenhouse next year by using two beds and arcing 20' pieces of PVC over them. I'm in zone 4 so that may get me an extra month of growing season with a oil heater inside in MArch. Your setup sounds great

i will be building raised beds in my new DIY greenhouse made of arcing PVC. Building it now, check the thread in my sig...

thanks for this thread

 

[Cappy]

i will be building raised beds in my new DIY greenhouse made of arcing PVC. Building it now, check the thread in my sig...

thanks for this thread

Holy crap that is exactly what I see in my head for my greenhouse. Great minds and all that.

Lets see if I can post a pic from my phone. This is todays tomato harvest.

Guess not. I'll post it with my laptop later....

 

[dubwise]

we ran tall raised beds last year with garlic, onion and broccoli last year and it was great. this year we shortened the beds and I'm ready to go tall again.

 

[Cappy]

What do you mean by tall beds dubwise?

Going to try and put up todays tomato harvest again. It wouldn't do it using the advanced post edit function.

 

[GP73LPC]

Holy crap that is exactly what I see in my head for my greenhouse. Great minds and all that.

Lets see if I can post a pic from my phone. This is todays tomato harvest.

Guess not. I'll post it with my laptop later....

cool...

when you get over 50 posts i will send you a link for the greenhouse plans... but you need 50 posts before i can send it.

 

[dubwise]

my tall beds were 36" tall. Though they held more medium and it was harder to load and mix, the ease of actually gardening was excellent. Weeding and tending to plants was way easier on my back. I broke them down to make more beds, but shorter beds.