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huntress
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Location: Southeast Wisconsin, USA zone 5a

Huntress: New 2017 Raised Veggie Beds

*Kind of a long entry, but I tried to include helpful details and some maps*

Backstory: The hubby and I purchased an older/established home in March of 2016 on a one-acre lot. We are in southeast Wisconsin, so zone 5a. Believe it or not, but we are planning on moving by 2026 to a place with a much larger lot size. The next house will be our “forever” home. Therefore, I don’t want to build my Extreme-Ultimate-Mega Veggie Garden at this time. But, I certainly want to put in a few raised beds and have fun! :D

2016 was spent on getting the yard under control, as it had not been taken care of in nearly 30 years. There was a lot of pruning, trimming, raking, and weeding. I didn’t even have time to get around thinking about my raised beds, hah. This year, I want to put in either one 4x8 foot long raised bed, or two 4x4 foot raised beds. Most likely 6 inches tall. That should be enough to grow the veggies that my DH and I eat, with enough to can/freeze as well.

I have rather fallen in love with the idea of square foot gardening, so that is what I’m basing my raised beds off of. I grew up in the country, and my folks have used raised beds as well for nearly 25 years. There are plenty of other nooks and cranny’s I can tuck away other veggies and herbs if need be. Our yard is quite literally a blank slate. It seems that the previous owners only knew how to plant trees and hostas :P A line of peony’s were their greatest achievement, lol.

I would like to build my raised beds in about the area that the previous owners had done their traditional gardening. It has full sun, and is close to the house. If you have any opinions or advice, feel free to share them with me. We still have snow on the ground here, with the “high” temperature being in the teens or lower the rest of this week, so we won’t be breaking ground anytime soon! (Picture is as close to scale as I could make it, but I'm sure it's not exact.)
Current Layout.jpg
On the map above, it would be about in the area of “exposed dirt”. The bed(s) would run parallel to the shed. The previous owner had their veggie garden in this area. (I know because I had to remove all the dead plants from 2015.) It butts up against a small metal shed, which isn’t much taller than 6 feet. (I can barely stand up in it!) The bed(s) would run from North to South, so longways they get a lot of East sunlight in the morning and afternoon. (So, parallel to the shed.) The shed isn’t very tall, but I would imagine it will block part of the sun as it sets in the West. There is also a patch of perennial chives against the shed in that spot that were there before we bought the house: bonus! (Oh, and I am ok with moving them.)

I had planted three tomatoes in this spot directly in the dirt in 2016 without any issue. So, I’m thinking that if I put the raised beds several feet away from the shed, they won’t have problems with that. Again, the beds don’t have to butt up against the shed, we can make them 5+ feet away and still be ok. We can also have the beds be longer than the current dirt section is- so, it can reach out further. Please see below for the edited picture: I’m thinking anywhere in this red rectangle.
Current Layout. Possible.jpg
If I’m visualizing it correctly, part of the bed will have to be in front of the shed. There is no getting around having it off all the way to the right, as that is in a shaded area. There is a flower bed along the side of the house, so it will have pollinators frequenting, and will help out my veggies. I am also thinking about planting some more perennial herbs in that flower bed, like fennel. I've read good things about keeping a nice fennel plant close to your veggie garden, but not on top of it :>

I’m not sure if the shed in any way is a negative, especially if we put the raised beds far enough away from it. It’s painted white at the moment, so that should reflect some light onto the back of the trellis (if one is put in parallel on the West side).

Questions:
-I will have to put up a trellis for the climbing veggies. Should that go on the West side, meaning closest (parallel) to the shed? Or, the North side? I was reading the Vegetable Gardener’s Bible today, and the author mentioned putting his on the North or Northeast side. For the sake of things looking matched up and pretty with the shed, it would either have to be the East or North side; can’t be in-between at an angle. My bed(s) will be parallel to the shed and house for uniformity's sake.

-Would I be able to grow carrots in the raised beds, since the soil is nice underneath? It was amended before I moved there.

-Potatoes: should I build a smaller, separate box for them, or just section off a part of the dirt and grow in directly in the dirt? I want to figure out a way for them to “match”.

-What do you think the minimum distance should be from the shed to the raised bed? (I know that the farther away it is, the more sunlight from the West it will receive.) I'm thinking 4 feet at the shortest.

I hope this makes some sense :hehe: It’s always hard to put your visions down on paper. I think my biggest concern is how far away to put the bed(s) from the shed, and what direction to put the trellis. I estimate that we won’t be able to start building this until April. But, it won’t take more than a weekend to get set up. May is the earliest I could start transplanting some things from indoors…Wisconsin weather is crazy.

Thanks for reading, and for any advice!
-huntress (zone 5a)

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huntress
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Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:34 am
Location: Southeast Wisconsin, USA zone 5a

After doing some more research around the forum, I have read that it is best for beds to run North to South. So, if I do a 4x8 foot bed, it would run parallel to the shed. I guess my thinking was correct on that! And, if I do two 4x4 foot beds, I’ll put them in the same orientation, just with a three-foot gap in the middle for a pathway. I’ve also read that the trellis should go on the North side. So, it would be on the far right. Ok, totally makes sense now that I think about it. You wouldn’t want the trellis on the West Side, because it will shade everything.

Further reading has given me confidence in growing carrots in my future raised bed(s). 8) Especially if grown in a bed part that has overlapped the “exposed dirt” section. The previous owners had kept that rectangular section bare, and I suspect they did single rows of plants each year. I believe they amended the soil each year. There are no stones, and the soil is fluffy and drains well. So, the carrots will have plenty of good soil underneath to stretch out.

Thinking ahead, I will map out the area of the bed(s) with some twine and steaks until I get them in the spot I want. Will kill off any weeds left over from last year with a layer of cardboard, or a tarp, and some manual picking. I’m not a fan of rototilling, but I can rake/fork in some extra nutrients in the area before building the bed(s), and adding in more soil. I have a whole bunch of compost that will be ready when it warms up again. (It’s 15 *F outside right now, so my composter is pretty much frozen.)

As far as potatoes, I’m still thinking about what I want to do for that. Not sure if I want to build a separate 2x2 ft box, try them in big buckets, or just skip it for this year. It wouldn’t be that hard to dig up another spot late this year to prepare some room for 2018 potatoes. So, I might end up doing that.

I plan on mulching around the perimeter of the bed(s). It would save me the hassle of zig-zagging around with the push mower. I think that would look pretty neat as well.

I know another important part of a successful garden is having the right ecosystem, which means pollinators, good predator bugs, and some birds. I set up two seed feeders, and a suet station in the front of the house, with plans to have one more seed feeder out back (but not next to the veggies). I’ve been researching our native perennial flowers to see which ones are the bee’s favorites. Those will be going in our flower beds this year. Also looking into bee “drinking fountains” (shallow dish with marbles).

For my veggie bed(s), I’m worried mostly about the squirrels and rabbits. We have deer that come through on occasion, and had a momma turkey with two chicks in the spring. I certainly don’t want to set up a free buffet, but this year will be a learning curve as to what is attracted to the new stuff. Time to research types of netting :P

imafan26
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The best orientation is North South, but sometimes you have to work with your site. You want the taller plants in the back so they don't intentionally block the light from the shorter plants in front of them. Just work with wherever the sun rises and plant your shortest plants on that side of the garden and the taller ones in back. If your site gets shaded by the house or walls then you also have to consider how the shade affects things. Sometimes, it helps to plant some things in the shade of others since they don't like a lot of heat. If you have plants that cannot handle heat then it is best to plant them on the east side and let them be in the shade of other structures in the afternoon. I prefer permanent trellises to temporary ones since I will use them every year and they are sturdier than stakes. My trellis is built like a 10x10 tent frame. It has galvanized fence posts for the tent "legs" and conduit tubing to connect the sides and form the top of the structure. There is CRW and other scrap wire for a roof support. I can also put a string trellis if I want between the fence posts. When I don't need the trellis, I can plant in full sun since the trellis is totally open unless I put shade cloth on top of it. In summer, I usually plant squash or gourds on it.

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applestar
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Are you tall with long reach? If not reduce width of your raised beds to 3 feet or 3.5 feet. I think 4 ft must be for taller people.

Given the area outline in red, I would go with a U shape with bottom of the U along the north side. You want sufficient room to get around with a wheel barrow, etc. and make a straight narrow path down the middle -- minimum 18" up to 20-24". The bottom of the U bed may need to be narrower -- you need to keep in mind whether you can reach into the corner angle.


Build an upright trellis full length about 1 ft to 18 inches in from the edge so you can plant along the edge as well. I recommend two or three T-posts and flat CRW panel(s) secured with fence wires (usually free with post from Tractor Supply if you get them from there. I just use a big nail or screwdriver and a pair of pliers as fence wire tool)

I suspect in Wisconsin with low angle of the sun, the garage is currently shading the entire area -- is that correct?

What is the nature of the shadow on the right hand side? I would make the right edge where the shrinking garage shadow will expose at least top half of the trellis and sow peas first thing in spring. I would leave plenty of gap between the building wall/foundation planting and the garden beds so in the height of the summer the area might be clear of any shadows as well as having a wide staging area and pathway/access to the shed. You also don't want the foundation plants to get any ideas about reaching for the rich loose soil.

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huntress
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Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:34 am
Location: Southeast Wisconsin, USA zone 5a

Hi imafan26 and applestar! Some great ideas and suggestions, thanks.
applestar wrote:I suspect in Wisconsin with low angle of the sun, the garage is currently shading the entire area -- is that correct?
The sun is coming in from an angle, yes. The red outlined area is not shaded by the garage at any point in the year. The more I thought about it, the shed won't cast detrimental shade, either. The beefsteak tomatoes I had planted last year did great, and had no issues with shortage of sunlight. I'm not very good at sketching out things to scale :oops: I helped to clear up things in my own head, so I'm sorry if it confused any of you! It did help me out a lot to write it out and start sketching ideas.
imafan26 wrote:What is the nature of the shadow on the right hand side?
There are pine trees that start to cast shade in that area, so I was hoping to avoid making the beds that far over. Especially because I want to put up a trellis on the North side, which would bear veggies that crave as much sunlight as possible.
applestar wrote:I would go with a U shape with bottom of the U along the north side.
That is a really good idea! It would be easier running one long trellis along the bottom of the U shape. The bro-in-law always has odds and ends from his construction business, so I'll have to see what he all has when it gets a bit warmer. It warmed up into the teens this weekend, so I was able to go out and measure things. I actually have enough room to put in two 4x8 beds that run North to South, with a big gap between the shed and the first bed, and at least a 4 foot gap between the beds. I can certainly tweak that into a U shape, and make the beds 3 feet wide if needed.

I got to work with my sister's 4x8 foot raised bed last year. She would work in a circle around the bed, so reaching in just two feet at a time wasn't a problem. (And, I'm taller than her, tee hee.) But, making them 3 feet wide is for sure an option.

The plants I have currently in the bed against the garage are shade liking to a degree, like hostas and ferns. There is a bleeding heart on the corner that the previous owner planted. Basically, whatever is there was originally there when we bought the place in the spring of 2016. I just really weeded it out. A third of that bed is completely empty! The path between the bed and dirt area had a bunch of stepping stones, which we removed and filled in with grass. Didn't have a problem growing the grass from seed there, either.

Hope I got everything answered. I really do appreciate the advice! :D I am going to sketch out a few more ideas this week. We are supposed to get a couple inches of snow tomorrow, but Tuesday it's supposed to get to 40 degrees. But, after that, more freezing weather. It's just crazy around here :hehe:



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