MattTek
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Starting my first raised bed vegetable/fruit garden.. help!

Hello!

So as the title says, I'm starting a vegetable garden and am pretty new to it. I took 4 years of agriculture, and have a basic knowledge of gardening, but other then that it's all new to me. I have already built a 2' high raised bed, its U shaped with each arm being a 4X6' rectangle connected by a 2' wide bed in the back. I have a 2'x2' box in the middle of it as well, planned for herbs.

That's where I'm at.. haven't filled it with soil, I have an idea of what I want to plant but would like to get some opinions on what grows the best together and easier things to grow for a newbie. Anyway.. if anyone would care to chat sometime about it, I have a million questions!
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|. ___ . | <- basic shape
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Some things I'd like to know..
Easiest vegetables for a beginner?
Best way to fill this thing up the first time? Lasagna method?
I realize it's mid January.. am I too late?
Should I build some kind of drip irrigation system into this?
Any tips & tricks / advice are welcome and greatly appreciated!

FYI located in Southern California, garden receives a good amount of sun.
Would like to plant roughly half veggies, half fruits, and a herb garden in the middle. Salad veggies e.g. tomato, cucumber, lettuce, carrots, squash would be nice.. want to put garlic in there somewhere as well.

The Helpful Gardener
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Matt, not a huge amount of space, so going vertica; is key...

Vinign tomatoes and cukes seem great, maybe herbs and sald crops around the base. Think what you eat and work back; no point growingf stuff you aren't sure about until you fidn your feet. Figure out what you want and grow that. You're in SoCal, dude; you could do miniature bananas, but I don't know if you like 'em... :wink: You can do almost everything... 8)

HG

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applestar
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Wow, how pretty! :D
I'm thinking strawberries along the front edge. I'm also thinking with this kind of depth, you could actually cut doorknob holes (can't remember what those gizmo's are called) in the sides and vertically plant things like strawberries and herbs like thyme, oregano... I interplanted strawberries and garlic the first year strawberries were planted (garlic had been planted the previous fall) and they did very well together -- strawberries are shallow-rooted....

Definitely some kind of watering system. I use soaker hoses -- easy to setup and change around from year to year -- but I hear drip irrigation *is* more precise. Group and arrange according to height/sun exposure (lettuce in the shade of taller plants -- earlier to mature and ready to harvest by the time bigger plants move into the space, etc.), pH/soil requirements, watering needs.... Also keep in mind planting time and harvesting time -- cool season crops vs. warm season crops. You should rotate peas and beans in there to help enrich the soil in between (but not near garlic or onion, or where they grew last).

MattTek
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Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:09 pm

Awesome info.. thanks. I'm vegetarian and I eat a LOT, so no worries on growing too much. Miniature bananas would be sweeet! I didn't even consider that.. I'll look into it. I've got an idea of things I'd like to grow, but still reading up on what grows well with what, and how much space each uses.. would like to get the max variety and use of space out of it possible.

I realize many may be cut, but here's my list of candidates so far..

Veggies:
Lettuce
Garlic
Carrots
Cucumber
Peppers (bell/hot)
Broad beans
Squash
Egglpant
Onions (small amount)
Broccoli

Fruits:
Tomatos
Strawberries
Mini bananas
Raspberries/Blackberries
Muskmelon/honeydew
watermelon (too big?)

Herbs:
Basil
Chamomile
Oregano
Cilantro
Chives
Rosemary

I've pretty much got a water spicket I can dedicate to whatever water system I use, and can pipe underground right to the garden. Never thought about growing things out the sides, but I'll check it out.. sounds cool.

Thanks again, very helpful!

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rainbowgardener
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It is a very limited amount of space. To start with, I'd take the perennials off your list. If you have somewhere else to put them that would be great or they may have to wait. IMO mixing the perennials and annuals doesn't work real well and the perennials are going to keep getting bigger and spreading and eventually take over your boxes.

So perennials from your list are the raspberries/ blackberries and the rosemary. I'd suggest take those off your list for now.

Then the next question is timing. If you want to do cool weather crops in Southern California, the time is NOW (or a little while before now -- for many of us Jan is very early, for you it is a little bit late) . From your list that would be just the onions, chives, carrots, lettuce, garlic, broccoli. None of those things will do real well once the weather warms up, but they will love the 50-ish weather you are having right now.

Then there's the space thing. You want to focus on things that keep producing and don't take up tons of space. That would especially be the tomatoes (think about maybe a patio tomato or cherry tomato? for smaller plant ), peppers, beans, lettuce (and other greens -- have you thought about swiss chard? my favorite thing to grow, tolerates the heat much better than lettuce and just keeps growing), and the herbs. When the lettuce and broccoli are done you can pull them and put other stuff in their place.

For squash you can get a bush zucchini that doesn't take up as much room. The melons and cucumbers are space hogs but if you can put up a trellis at the back of the box, you could grow them up the trellis.

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Duh_Vinci
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Great work on the beds, well done!

Regards,
D



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