Tag: Raised Beds

A Simple Raised Bed Concept For A Family Of Four
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

A Simple Raised Bed Concept For A Family Of Four

Sarah

Social media does have a positive side—and that is giving one ideas to work with. I saw this one over the winter and liked it. It’s simple and one that most people could follow. Tiny Garden Habit posted it, and if you are looking for articles on small scale growing, this is a great place to waste some time reading.

I would base it in the beds being 8 feet long by 4 feet wide, as the illustration doesn’t precisely tell one that information (the downside of social media is it isn’t always deeply informative). It is the standard for size in raised beds.

5 raised beds would fit easily in most suburban backyards, leaving room for kids and a dog to play.

The key in it is using square foot planting. High density planting.

With proper watering, high density works in using less water, but also in controlling weeds. It takes planning, especially if you pick things to plant that need to be trellised. You will need to watch the sun, and how it moves across your land – so that anything tall is in the back.

But this can inspire one to get growing, even though they might feel that they don’t “have the room” to have a garden. All you need is just enough room to move around the beds to weed, water and harvest. It doesn’t have to sprawl a lot.

Do you need to grow what is shown? Of course not. You should grow what you like to eat. If you hate cilantro, grow parsley or celery instead.I myself prefer to grow my herbs in large pots, by themself. But that is me, and I also like letting my plants grow big, as I cut off them often. Most people only need one parsley plant per family, not a row.

Change the flowers (though they have a beneficial side, to deflect certain insects). Instead of Marigolds, grow Calendula or whatever grabs your fancy.

The top bed would need a cattle panel or a trellis to grow up on, placed in the middle of the bed. Or grow bush varieties to save space – and the need to build a trellis.

The key is to plant seeds (and actual plants) far more densely than you are used to doing. Ignore the recommendations on the seed packages. You can thin out as needed (like beets or carrots). Peas grow well when crowded, I have found – and if you grow bush peas versus climbing types, they grow faster and take less room.

Start with plants (which you can grow in a simple greenhouse or buy) for produce such as tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, and onions. You will be able to space them accurately and time them better to the last frost date in your grow zone.

I would not plant strawberries in a raised bed like this—they should have their own bed or be in containers, sprinkled around the garden – if your yard has a fence you can put plant hangers on the posts, and hang pots up easily. They are space hogs in raised beds and invite slugs and snails in. I would double up a favorite veggie or plant some summer squash there (did you know you can grow it upright on a cattle panel?).

One last tip? Do not plant sunflowers with other items, no matter how tempting it can be to plant a back row (I get it, it is pretty). However, sunflowers can and will leach out and cause any other plant nearby to not grow well, or at all. It wants to reach the sun, and it does it efficiently. Consider planting it along a fence line, far at the back, by itself. Where it can grow happily.

~Sarah

The New Kitchen Garden
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

The New Kitchen Garden

Sarah

Big news! We are moving soon—across the country. In my work on the new place, I found I couldn’t pass up on at least starting an easy garden. My hands must be in the soil! So while doing work on the new place, I went shopping and got some soil, a few plants, and a couple pots (though I found some on the land that I cleaned up).

In saying goodbye to the homestead on the island and looking forward to the new place we are moving to, I learned one extensive lesson in this last homestead:

It’s OK to take the first year mostly off, learn the land, and go from there.

I nearly burned myself out on the island in the summer of 2018. After leaving behind a well-crafted urban farm, I desperately wanted an established garden. I spent the entire spring and fall frantically trying to get beds in the ground and spending too much money on temporary deer fences.

It’s easy to forget that making that urban farm, like our homestead on the island, took years of hard work.

I cannot forget that I also worked on our homestead for 7 years. It takes time!

If there is one thing that isn’t hard, it is to start a kitchen garden.

It’s a low investment. Our new place has a deck off the living room, baking in the sun. Under it is a brick patio where pots can be put out.

Turning land, building beds, or putting up wildlife fences are unnecessary until we are settled in. Just fill pots, grow bags, plant items, enjoy herbs, and produce them in the first summer and fall. The investment is in a few bags of soil and the containers.

It’s still awhile till spring, so I planted things had been in the cold already.

Two grapes, 2 blueberries and bare root strawberries. I also planted a bulb of garlic I brought with us, to restart my hardneck garlic.

I will move the grapes later, into the ground, but I wanted them to get going, to waken up.

I found an old wheelbarrow, all rusty and unusable. By it, I found broken pottery, so I put them together and made a deep planter to add. Use what you have first before spending money. I planted garlic in it. Again, nothing says I will leave it in there, but it can sit for a few weeks until I have time to build the first beds. The garlic will sprout, and start growing for us.

As spring happens, I will add a lot more on the patio. Lettice, bush peas, and so on. Herb plants. A seat or two, to invite one to hang out and enjoy the views. It will be easy to maintain, and quick to walk out to, to take care of.

~Sarah

Developing A Kitchen Garden
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Developing A Kitchen Garden

Sarah

This summer, as I worked on the patios around our house, I decided I wanted a kitchen garden—one close to the house, where I’d be more likely to come out and enjoy it and grab produce for dinner.

When we moved here in 2018, I had a small kitchen garden, all in large pots, on the lower patio that first year.

After I developed the lower gardens, which are 2 acres below the house, I quit growing food by the house because I had large in-ground beds to grow in.

My arm injury taught me a lesson. Even if the distance doesn’t seem long, you won’t go down there enough, especially if you need a lot of help.

While the gardens did grow this year, I couldn’t water or weed enough. The central bed I had the tomatoes in was overrun by Voles, which destroyed ¾ of the crop by chewing the plants at the base. It stayed alive for the first ten weeks, only for the kids to water it here and there for me. Even now, as I clean up for winter, I can only do so much by myself. There are only so many hours I have help from them, with school going on.

But up by the house, that I can work on. By myself. Thoough help is appreciated of course.

Off of the lower patio, there is “grass,” which is flat and then goes downhill. There is a major retaining wall, and I don’t want to use that part. I will put in a low fence to keep the deer away from wandering in. I see them once a week, on average, on the cameras, but all they do is eat grass. They leave the bed and greenhouse alone, though they are nearby on the grassy area.

But I want to lock off their access to the lower patio area (they use the steps near the red building to get up to the grass). Putting in a fence with 3-foot-high metal fencing and lightweight U posts will be quick and easy.

The pop-up greenhouse sits on the patio. It will stay. With two carts getting full of soil, I am going to reuse as much of it as I can and finish breaking down the bed. Waste not, want not.

I think I am going to lay down farm fabric across the flat areas to smother the weeds and “grass.” I picked up six small 4-foot raised beds and am considering putting them with a couple more beds made of the stones I am pulling apart.

With walking paths between the beds and wood chips put down. I need to of course measure it all, and plot it out on paper, before I start building beds.

I can fit two beds along the house, with a strip behind, for access on all four sides. It is an area we have never used, in nearly seven years here.

The biggest issue was waiting for the growing season to wind down, so I could start tearing down this 8-foot raised bed, The boys stacked many of the paver bricks, to the side, and started digging out the soil.

My first goal will be to get the first fabric down, build the beds, and fill them under the window along the house. Then, I will finish breaking down this bed. Any leftover soil will be spread out onto the land to even it out a bit more. Then, I will cover it with fabric and make new beds over it.

I aim to have ten raised beds, each one for a different vegetable. Depending on placement, I might be able to have more. We shall see!

Today, the rain returns for the next week, but I hope to get outside between storms (and windy days often blow the rain away, and I have time to work) and start building the new beds this week.

I will update once it is all built. But for now? I feel like I can see it, and I will soon have it done.

~Sarah

The Quick Pallet Raised Bed
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

The Quick Pallet Raised Bed

Sarah

I first made raised beds out of wooden pallets in 2015, when we were in our first years of urban homesteading. We were living on a lot 1/3 of an acre in size, so I fit in beds where I could amongst the permanent beds I had built. At the time, I had heard about building from pallets (oh so long ago!) and got to work. I needed a quick solution because we had extra tomatoes and peppers to plant.

When you pick up pallets (and it’s very easy to source them for free; ask at locally owned hardware stores and such; they often have them outside to pick up), you will want to look at the side of the pallets to ensure you are using basic ones, without treatments. See here for an easy breakdown.

The good news is that the “bad” pallets (chemically treated) are usually expensive to make/very durable, so the companies often return them for reuse. They are not often left out for free.

The project we started:

Using a sawzall, I cut off the top boards (now we have a pallet wrecker that pops the boards off). I left the center rib in while stacking two pallets to make a deeper bed.

WIth a staple gun I attached yard/garden fabric to the bottom, then the sides. I trimmed the excess fabric.

I flipped it over and attached the fabric on top; it was done. I found a spot between bushes and beds.

It was filled with a light blend of potting mix and compost, and then I planted tomatoes and pepper plants in it.

I used it for about two years before it fell apart. When that happened, I discarded the fabric, tossed the soil in the compost bin, and burned the wood in our fire pit. Not long after, we moved, leaving urban life behind in 2018, and my raised bed idea was long forgotten.

I saw a photo on Facebook posted on a gardening page the other week, and I remembered that bed long ago.

I looked around the property and found a well-used pallet holding a tarp on a compost pile.

With the work I am doing in the fenced berry bed (it’s a vast garden plot), I have lots of room to add raised beds here and there. I don’t want permanent structures, so this worked.

I had a bit of yard fabric left over, so I stapled it onto the wood.

This time, I decided to leave the boards on the pallet for rows.

I filled it up with deeply broken-down compost (it’s four years old) and let it settle.

Then, I seeded it with various vegetable seeds.

We shall see how it works this year in this sunny bed tucked in between 2 blueberry bushes.

Minimal cost, as the fabric was a leftover piece and the soil was paid for long ago. I like it when a quick homesteading project happens easily.

~Sarah

April: It’s Go Time In The Garden
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

April: It’s Go Time In The Garden

Sarah

It’s almost time for the posts on Facebook about how “I wanted a garden, but I missed the time to plant”. And it is only the first week of April.

In growing zones 7 to 8, we won’t cross the last frost date till in April (for us it is April 15th). We have so much time left, if you use it wisely. You cannot sit around, but if you quickly put in a couple of days of hard work,

But more so, planting a garden isn’t a one time thing – you can plant all season long, over and over. Or…you buy starts and pop them in the ground when it is time. If you missed planting tomatoes? There is no shame in buying up a number of starts (and honestly, if you want to grow 20 different types, but only one plant each? Just buy them. It is cheaper than buying seeds).

For example, in our grow zone you shouldn’t be putting out tomatoes and pepper plants until Mother’s Day at earliest – and that is many weeks away. The baby starts are just showing up at stores/nurseries.

Look, I should not be left unattended at the feed store, when a new rack of starts is wheeled out.

Pot them up into gallon pots, in 6 weeks they will be huge plants (they must be kept warm of course, in a greenhouse for now).

1 day old in their new containers, in the sun. In 6 weeks time they will be at least 2 ft high and staked up.

It is time to put out lettuce starts and to sow bush green peas. They enjoy the cooler temperatures and can take a chill at night. I typically use our raised beds for the first crops, then go to the in ground as we reach April 15th. Raised beds get warmer earlier overall.

 

Baby starts now, but soon they will be huge.

For the other starts I pick up – cauliflower, broccoli, kale, cabbage and such, I split them up and pot into 4″ pots to mature more. These I keep outside in our potting area. They are hardened off already, and I want the soil to be warmer before they go into the ground. And here’s a tip: I buy these as starts rather than seeds in spring. Why? To get an early crop of cauliflower and broccoli, you must beat the late spring heat surges. Or they can bolt to seed. I save the starting from seed for the mid summer starts, for fall crops. When there is more time. For kale though, I grow it for the chickens, so I just buy a few dozen plants, to get a jump start on growing, then have plants from seeds coming in behind them.

So don’t stress. The days are far longer, the daytime is warmer, and it’s time to get working. For us, we will cross 13 hours of daylight soon, far removed from the dark days of December when we had 8.5 hours of daylight. (March 31st at our house we will have 14 hours and 46 minutes of light.)

Garden Tasks For April:

  • Walk your beds/garden and look for dead plants or damaged ones to pull out or fix.
  • Check fencing and fix as needed
  • Plant onion bare root sets if you have purchased them soon.
  • Plant rhubarb roots and bare root asparagus and strawberries as soon as possible.
  • Start potatoes. They can go in now.
  • Weed beds.
  • Lay down more wood chips in pathways, if you do this.
  • Clean out birdhouses, bird baths and bird feeders. Scrub them good.
  • Feed existing fruit trees, blueberries and berry canes if you haven’t yet.
  • Turn compost piles. Or start one!
  • If you have small starts, pot them up as needed to the next size.
  • Start putting starts for lettuce, kale, bok choy, and so on in the ground.
  • Clean up raspberry canes, cutting dead ones out

Seeds To Plant:

To see more on when to seed, and transplant, see here.

Below are seeds you can start in April and or are ready to transplant. The dates are not set in stone, it is a guide of what week may be most preferable to get them started. If you have a cold/wet spring, waiting a week or two more before seeding is smart.

Needless to say, the start of April is go time. And if you miss out and start seeding later? It’s OK for many crops. And for temperamental ones that bolt in heat you always can grow those as a fall crop, where they often fare better than in spring, if you miss the window, or late winter is too warm/cold.

What we are doing is using the last frost date as our guide, and backing up to figure out when to seed, be it inside, outdoors direct, or when to transplant your seedling you started inside.

So for Zone 8b, if the last frost date is April 15th, the dates going back:

  • 1 week: April 8th
  • 2 weeks: April 1st

Seed Chart

Beans

  • Bush: 52-59 days, seed direct after last frost, start inside 2 weeks before last frost. Plant every 2 weeks in ground for continuous crops.
  • Pole: 63-69 days, seed direct after last frost, start inside 2 weeks before last frost.

Beets

  • 48-60 days, seed direct from March and on, every 2 weeks for continuous crops.

Cabbage

  • 80 to 150 days, start in greenhouse 6 weeks before last frost, transplant 3 weeks before last frost date.

Cauliflower

  • 75-85 days. Start in greenhouse 6-8 weeks before last frost. Transplant after last frost.

Carrots

  • 65-70 days, seed direct in ground, starting a few weeks before last frost. Repeat every 2 weeks for continuous crops.

Celery

  • 120 days, start in greenhouse 8 weeks before last frost. Transplant after last frost.

Corn

  • Sweet Corn: 65-85 days, seed direct after last frost date.
  • Popcorn: Same as above.

Cucumbers

  • Pickling: 50-60 days, seed direct after last frost.
  • Eating: 50-70 days, seed direct after last frost.

Greens

  • Bok Choy: 44 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost.
  • Kale: 50-70 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost.
  • Spinach: 44 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost. (If too hot, grow for fall)
  • Swiss Chard: 55 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost.
  • Swiss Chard and Kale can be reseeded, directly, or in greenhouse, through the growing season.

Herbs

  • Start in greenhouse, transplant or set outside after last frost.

Kohlrabi

  • 60 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost.

Lettuce

  • Romaine: 60-80 days, start in greenhouse 4 to 6 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost. Repeat every 2 weeks of seeding.
  • Other leaf lettuce: 30-45 days, start in greenhouse 2 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost. Repeat every 2 weeks of seeding.

Onions

  • Eating: 110 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Transplant after last frost. (We grow Walla Walla). If starting this late, I would suggest buying onion starts instead of seeds.
  • Bunching: 75 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Transplant after last frost. Seed every 2 weeks for continuous crops. Bunching onions are green onions, and grow quickly so can be started from seed even in spring.

Parsnips

  • 130 days, seed direct when seeding carrots.

Peas

  • Dwarf: Seed directly before last frost. Direct seed after last frost for continuous crop till heat hits.
  • Bush: 55-70 days, seed directly before last frost.
  • Pole: 65-70 days, seed directly before last frost.

Peppers

  • Hot: 70 days, Start in greenhouse before last frost. Transplant after. This late in the season you may want to consider using starts you buy, however seeds will grow quickly this time of year and often catch up.
  • Sweet: 75 days, same as above.
  • Ancho: 80 days, same as above.

Pumpkin

  • Jack Be Little: 95 days, start seeds 2 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost. Direct seed after last frost.
  • Regular Pumpkins: 90-120 days, start 2 weeks before last frost. Transplant after last frost. Direct seed after last frost.

Radishes

  • 24-30 days, seed direct after last frost.

Rhubarb

  • Start 8 to 12 weeks before last frost, in greenhouse. Transplant after last frost. Let establish before you harvest plants. A full year is the best.

Squash

  • Summer Squash: 40-70 days, seed direct after last frost. If starting in greenhouse, 2 weeks before last frost.
  • Butternut: 95 days, start in greenhouse 2 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost date.
  • Winter Squash: 105-110 days, start in greenhouse 2 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost date.

Strawberry

  • Alpine: Alpine plants produce ever bearing, for a fall crop from first year plants, start seeds in greenhouse before last frost. Slow germination is normal. Once last frost is passed, transplant to gallon pots, set outside to finish growing.

Tomatoes

  • Dwarf: 60 days, start in greenhouse before last frost, or for bigger plants, up to 8 weeks. Transplant in first week of May. Seeds will grow quickly though in this time, so you can still plant in early April and they will catch up.
  • Shorter Season: 48-68 days, same as above.
  • Heirloom: 60-80 days, same as above.

Watermelon

  • 80+ days, seed direct after last frost.

~Sarah