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MoonShadows
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Location: Stroudsburg, PA - Zone 6a

Have moved to all raised beds

For years we planted all our vegetables in traditional gardens, but a few years ago, we decided to move to raised gardens, and we haven't looked back. We made our 4 x 8 raised gardens from Tamarac wood. Not only are raised gardens a bit easier to work in as we get older, but the soil stays so much fluffier and we don't have to deal as much with rocks, the number 1 crop here in NE PA. I also think the raised gardens keep the soil warmer, especially earlier and later in the season. We have also put raised garden beds on blocks in out greenhouse.

SQWIB
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I have to absolutely agree with everything you said, especially the rocks.

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MoonShadows
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LOL...spoken like a true Pennsylvanian!

imafan26
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I moved into an older house. It did not have a lot of rocks. It was formerly pineapple fields so most of the rocks were gone years ago. To this day, I rarely dig up a rock.

I do agree with raised beds. I inherited an old rock garden which I use for my veggies. I have expanded it with containers. My yard is small so I have to use every inch. I have just a narrow pathway between the pots. The only place that is underutilized is the garden bed by the wall. Not much wants to grow there. I have some citrus trees and roses there and orchids are hanging in window boxesfrom the low wall.

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ElizabethB
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Moon Shadows

I have practiced Square Foot gardening for more years than I can remember. My boxes were ground level. Spring of this year we tried something different - 2 4' x 4' table height boxes. LOVE my boxes! The ground level boxes were fine. I had no trouble getting down to plant, harvest or work my boxes. I DID have a problem getting up. :eek:

Dear Hubby made frames from rebar and conduit that he had in his shop. I grow indeterminate heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers vertically. I pulled my cucumber plants two weeks ago. Last week we had a very hard frost. I harvested all of the tomatoes before the frost. The maters that had some color are ripening on the window sill. The hard, green tomatoes have been turned into Salsa Verde. Yes - green tomatoes instead of tomatillos. Cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli are doing well. So are the kale and mustard greens. I have lettuce in pots under the patio cover. The cover protected them from the frost.

Two more table height boxes will be built before spring planting. I wish I had gone to table height boxes years ago. A real joy.

I am an avid fan of raised bed gardening - especially table height boxes.

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MoonShadows
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Getting down to ground level is never a problem, but I can relate to getting back up, especially when there is nothing to hold on to! :roll: I have spoken with so many people that are moving to raised boxes; it might be because most of my friends are seniors, but I still think it's a great way to garden.

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Gary350
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I have tried raised beds several times but have always gone back to traditional gardening. Raised bed are a lot of work to build and cost a lot of money too. I had to mow grass & weed eat around the raised beds. If raised bed are too tall water does not wick up from soil below plants have to be watered day. You can not take a 1 or 2 week vacation plants will die if they don't get water. Raised beds have to be weeded by hand tiller will not work. If your using organic material in the beds you have to keep filling them with bags of soil that cost money its not possible to make enough compose to keep them full. My raised beds were 10 times more work for me I was keeping track of my time. If you have nothing better to do but work in the garden then raised bed are for you.

I have learned to do bed gardening but not raised bed. I never have to water mother nature does that. I never have to buy soil, I never mulch, no maintenance on raised bed, I very rarely weed. We go camping every Monday or Tuesday all summer 3 to 4 days every week my garden does not need any work or water. I do dry gardening if you water plants you are also watering grass & weeds that will need to be pulled. I should be finished planting my garden by May 15 we are driving 1000 miles to camp the whole month of June in Michigan garden will be fine while we are gone. I plant lots of things in 3 ft wide beds, potatoes, onion, garlic, beans, peas, herbs, corn, tomatoes, squash, melons, carrots, beets, kale, lettuce, chard, etc.

Blue Lake bush bean bed is, 9 rows, 4" between rows, 3" between seeds, 20 ft long. This is = to 1 row of beans 180 ft long. Peas do good like this too. I don't need raised bed, I plant in bed shapes.
Last edited by Gary350 on Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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rainbowgardener
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I also love my raised beds. Now that I am not gardening on top of concrete, I didn't make most of them as deep. Some of them are only 12". But that's enough to hold in the compost and stuff I add to them. The soil stays fluffy and beautiful and is very rich. They are easy to individually fence in to keep critters out and once you have the fence poles, you can throw whatever you want over them--plastic for winter, shade cloth for summer. They are easy to mulch and have the mulch stay put. They give you better drainage (important here in wet TN).

They look neat and organized and I find them motivational. If I don't have a lot of time, I can decide to just go work one bed.

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applestar
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Gary350 has a point. If you raise the beds too high or lift them above ground with no ground contact, and they become more like containers— Isolated from the natural buffering provided by being part of the larger biosphere for moisture needs, heat stresses, etc. This means the gardener has to provide the care such as watering and occasionally shading during extremes.

...in times of extraordinary, extreme drought, I’ve noted that the surrounding dehydrated ground can suck/wick the tiny patch of garden that I diligently water dry, so in those instances, the “ground contact” becomes part of the problem rather than the solution... and where days of flooding rain occurs, same thing — it’s better to raise the beds high and/or get the containers off the ground.

We’ve discussed similar hands-off techniques for weekend gardeners and off-site/remote gardens. I guess one major one is to mulch heavily which will moderate moisture loss and provide insulation. Automated irrigation is another obvious one, but we’ve had members share experiences when those have failed, too.

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MoonShadows
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Location: Stroudsburg, PA - Zone 6a

I've been using my raised beds for a few years now, and I never experienced any of these problems or inconveniences. I was actually going to make some more before Spring, but we started terracing a hilly area behind the garden shed and building rock garden sections, so we'll expand to there this year.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

If you are located to the west of Poconos and Delaware R, you probably get more precipitation than my area. Everything falls down from the clouds before they get here, and I also seem to live in a no-fly zone for clouds —they literally split apart and go around and then they re-group once past. :roll: Sometimes no rain for weeks during the high summer, and actually cracks form on the ground....

So, yes, the problems occur under extreme conditions and most people in average areas probably don’t have to worry about them.

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MoonShadows
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Location: Stroudsburg, PA - Zone 6a

I live just a mile south of Rt. 80 on the Stroudsburg-Bartonsville border. We get less rain than the north-west area of the Poconos, but still get a good amount. I can see with your experience how you might want to avoid raised beds.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I think it does depend on where you are. I grow a lot of things in pots and my raised bed is red clay soil. I also live where it can rain every day in the rainy season and be hot and dry with an occasional front coming by in summer. Red clay amended with lots of compost and selecting heat resistant plants, the beds do no not dry out. The pots are watered everyday because they do dry out because I use 50/50 peatlite. It needs more water in the drier months but the same mix can survive a deluge when it rains for days and nights for a week.

If you live where it is hot and dry and where there is a lot of wind, off the ground raised beds would dry out faster and need more watering especially if they are shallow.

As to cost of raised beds. It can be pricey, but there are ways around it to make it less costly. Pallets work well for making raised beds, and I get them free at some places. Pallets are made from untreated wood. They do have to be lined or taken apart and rebuilt which is a lot of work. My dad gardens in plastic food grade barrels cut in half on an "x" stand. And he has a box made of scrap lumber that is about 2 ft high on top of a raised bed to extend the depth of the raised bed. My raised beds look like they were made with stones that were collected off the beach years ago. The raised bed I made was made from cinder block tiles. Then they were a third of the price they are today and they seem a lot heavier to move around.

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rainbowgardener
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Landscape timbers are pretty cheap. I made my 8x4' raised beds of landscape timbers held together with steel rebar for about $30 each. viewtopic.php?f=79&t=72218&p=409010&hil ... ds#p409010

The landscape timbers are much cheaper, but also not nearly as good wood as the 4x4" pine fence posts I had used in the past. Here in their third growing season they already have fungus growing on them. The fence posts lasted forever.

If you watch ReStoc, FreeCycle, Craigslist you can often find brick and other building materials free or very cheap.



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