Raised Bed Gardening

[fishpharmer]

DonK, with that description, I can almost smell it from here :D

[Norm]

Don could you tell me the dimensions of your raised beds?

[Don K]

Norm, they are 3X16. I think they are 6" tall. With the 3 foot you can easily reach to the middle without a huge stretch. I filled them with screened topsoil from my grandaddy's old pasture where a timber company cut a access road. They skimmed the soil off into little piles. It was already full of worms so in they went too. I added some partially composted leaves and the worms love it.

Next spring I am going to saw some 2-3 inch strips and nail on top and increase my depth. I will fill with the compost I have been making all summer. I have a pile I turn with the FEL on the tractor. It is about six feet tall. I will post a picture of it next week when I turn it.

With the beds the soil is not compacted so the roots grow quite large. I had some tomato roots as big as my pinkie. Weeds just pull right out. ;D Yes I have weeds.  :D I have to watch moisture though as they dry out faster. That was a bonus this yr with all the rain we got.

Don

[Norm]

Thanks Don. 

[Don K]

I turned the compost pile today to cover some leaves I got off the lawn. This pile will turned all winter and will be added to my beds next spring to feed next years worms and plants.





I love how black this stuff gets.





Turned pile about 7 feet tall. I hope I have enough next spring. :D





Does anybody else make their own compost? How do you do it?

Don

[Radar67]

Is that the sawdust from your first sawing on there Don?

[stonebroke]

I go out behind the barn, put a couple hundred loads of manure in a pile and wait about ten years. no labor and lotsa compost.

Stonebroke

[zopi]

i'm using rabbit droppings from under my pens...shred and turn previous crops under otherwise...althoug if i had a front end loader i'd sure have a big pile....

[Don K]

yea, I mix a little in every now and then.

Don

[Patty]

We have had compost piles for years, and they really do have a positive impact on the garden soil when tilled into it. In the spring we use the straw off our well head, plus the chicken bedding, plus the horse and donk paddock area, and mix it with the stuff from the house that I throw into big barrels all year. This mixture is rich and perfect for the garden and flower beds. In past years we have covered the compost pile with black plastic to cook it, but every snake in the county seemed to enjoy the heated bed and we would have dozens of them laying around.   I hated that, so the black plastic had to go away.

[Don K]

I bet that would turn a person's hair white when you peel back the plastic.

Don

[Burlkraft]

I bet that would turn a person's hair white when you peel back the plastic.

Don

Jeff's anyway   :D  :D  :D

[bull]

I do anywhere from 100-300 yards of compost a year all done in heaps  20 to 40 yards each turned with tractor weekly until heavy frost... then they set for the winter and cook....
to date 3 new heaps 40 yards of cow manure and wood chip. 50 yards of horse manure and garden/yard waste
100 yards of  leaf/yard waste, mill waste, mixed cow and horse manure this is my current work of art and will most like end up as three seperate  50 yard piles - still having leaves brought in !! averaging 10 yards daily, suppose to end this coming Thursday !

[SwampDonkey]

Snakes love open manure piles to. I've seen a good many snake sheds on manure piles. ;D

[Mooseherder]

Amazingly the Pepper Plants are still producing.  They aren't very nice though and I have neglected the Beds for quite some time. :


The Jalapenos.


I can't understand how these Tomatoes made it.
You can also see the nice Fire Ant mound. >:(

[Don K]

14 nights of below freezing weather last week really worked on my beds. Time to pull out the lettuce and broccoli to get ready to plant early peas. Hope my collards and cabbage survived. It is time to start my seedlings indoors. Getting close to that time of year again.

Don

[ErikC]

 We make compost. But nothing like dad, he does about like bull. I have a couple of horseshoeing clients with big places and we pull in with a 10 wheeler and the backhoe to clean them up, taking several loads from each.
  For us, we have 5 horses and mules so there's that, then throw in the chicken coop manure, a little from the cow, and whatever else. Pile it and turn the pile a few times is the basic procedure. Anything you want to throw in it that is made of plant material is pretty good. Having 2 piles going is easier to keep turned, and then you can really let it age better, a usable pile and the one you are adding to. I make about 8-10 yards for our garden, after it's done it has shrunk a lot. Probably starts out as 15 yards. Our garden is about 30x50 feet, so it gets a pretty good dose every year.
  That ammonia smell is nitrogen being lost to the air, covering your pile will slow that down. And washing it out with rain will be lessened as well. Makes a lot stronger compost if you cover it. Of course all those snakes.... :-\

[Norm]

Who says you can't grow anything up here this time of year.  :D

[WDH]

That is a nice one!

[Radar67]

It's getting close to that time again.....

[Mooseherder]

I'm trying to get motivated.
Just had to cut down about 300 ft. of Ficus Hedge because of White Fly infestation.
Bugs sure do take a lot of the fun away from it. :

[Don K]

Spent yesterday and today planting onions and sticking my english peas and tomatoes. Was gonna take some pics to post but my wife has hid the camera.

Don

[Raider Bill]

I'm trying to get motivated.
Just had to cut down about 300 ft. of Ficus Hedge because of White Fly infestation.
Bugs sure do take a lot of the fun away from it. :

My Son is putting in some raised bed gardens this year.

Nothing about raised bed gardens but my citrus trees are going south fast. Leaf drop, dead branches. A couple of them don't look like they are going to survive.

[Mooseherder]

Our Beautiful privacy hedge took the brunt of the White Fly infestation.
I also cut down an Orange tree that had been struggling for years after the Hurricanes.
The Garden was also affected during the end of the season with Whitefly and the DanG Fire Ants.
Treating them didn't work and we were advised to do this to them by several people. :
These hedges were pristine a year ago.  Hopefully start over from just a bunch of sticks.

[stonebroke]

One problem with living down south, you have all the bugs in the world.

Stonebroke