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splat42069
- Senior Member
- Posts: 139
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 9:00 am
- Location: Eastern PA
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St. Louis gardener
- Cool Member
- Posts: 85
- Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:01 pm
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Adam: It looks like your raised beds were built in grass. Is that true? If so, can you tell me how you did it, what materials you used, and what size the beds are? This year I have a small in-ground veggie garden (about 15-by-11 feet) that used to be a play area for kids, next to a flower garden. Except for a few other flower beds around the perimeter of my yard, the rest is grass. The biggest problem I had this year was having every seed I planted come up (yeah, I know, great problem to have!) and now everything is so crowded together, and I don't have access from all sides, so was considering using some of the lawn area next year to expand and plant raised beds. Any advice you can give would be appreciated.
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slengteng82
- Full Member
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Sun May 24, 2009 6:15 pm
- Location: orange county
wow long time since I have been on here!!!!
as far as the raised beds go IT is quite simple to achieve a decent garden
with just a few materials...
This was my first time gardening vegetables and I am hooked for life.
I will post some pictures soon my garden is still growing strong. artichokes are gone now and they were very good. eggplant and zukes are booming, tomatoes vigorous, peppers galore..
my beds are only 4x8 ft this allows me to get to all plants in the garden without stepping around the roots and damaging the structure of the soil.
they are built using 2x10 boards 3 boards per planter 2- 8ft pieces and 2- 4ft pieces. use screws to put it together so you can take it apart more easily..
note I would recommend using 2x12's to give more depth to the soil allowing the roots to expand further..
I also made a little rope fence around the garden so my dog would not jump in after the lizards and mice. or whatever he is after. I swear he is posessed.
as for the soil preparation I dug the grass up and turned the sod over so the grass was facing down into the soil. I then let it sit for a few days so the grass would die off a litlle and it would be easier to break up. turned the soil so it was a depth of about 6-8 inches of soft workable soil. I then placed my planters around the loose dirt....
to fill the raised beds I used compost, sphagmum moss, a little sand, native soil and a few other things.. the compost I made myself and I swear the stuff is amazing.
LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEEDED TO KNOW ANYTHING ELSE. SO MUCH TO LEARN.
as far as the raised beds go IT is quite simple to achieve a decent garden
with just a few materials...
This was my first time gardening vegetables and I am hooked for life.
I will post some pictures soon my garden is still growing strong. artichokes are gone now and they were very good. eggplant and zukes are booming, tomatoes vigorous, peppers galore..
my beds are only 4x8 ft this allows me to get to all plants in the garden without stepping around the roots and damaging the structure of the soil.
they are built using 2x10 boards 3 boards per planter 2- 8ft pieces and 2- 4ft pieces. use screws to put it together so you can take it apart more easily..
note I would recommend using 2x12's to give more depth to the soil allowing the roots to expand further..
I also made a little rope fence around the garden so my dog would not jump in after the lizards and mice. or whatever he is after. I swear he is posessed.
as for the soil preparation I dug the grass up and turned the sod over so the grass was facing down into the soil. I then let it sit for a few days so the grass would die off a litlle and it would be easier to break up. turned the soil so it was a depth of about 6-8 inches of soft workable soil. I then placed my planters around the loose dirt....
to fill the raised beds I used compost, sphagmum moss, a little sand, native soil and a few other things.. the compost I made myself and I swear the stuff is amazing.
LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEEDED TO KNOW ANYTHING ELSE. SO MUCH TO LEARN.
