# Raised garden bed



## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

After a successful fall and winter planting of collards and cabbage, it's time for a small spring and summer garden. We're keeping it simple with tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers. So far it's been 2 weeks growth with the tomato and pepper plants. I had to buy cucumber plants yesterday, the last batch was diseased. I also planted marigolds among the tomato and pepper plants to deter insects, hopefully they'll deter white flies. They were a real problem last year.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Very nice! Did you do the layered compost for your soil mixture? I just bought our tomatoes, but I'll have to wait for the ground around our raised bed to firm up a bit so I can get to it to plant them. I bought Lemon Boy and Brandywine Pink and I want to get a couple of Roma to put out.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

Nice set up,Dawg.I'm jealous,I start my plants next week but won't be able to plant outside until May/June.I'm doing tomatoes,green peppers and Brussels sprouts.And they are going back into containers,it's easier to keep the animals out.Hope you have a good harvest.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

nannypattyrn said:


> Very nice! Did you do the layered compost for your soil mixture? I just bought our tomatoes, but I'll have to wait for the ground around our raised bed to firm up a bit so I can get to it to plant them. I bought Lemon Boy and Brandywine Pink and I want to get a couple of Roma to put out.


No compost at all except in the cucumber bin and it's mixed in with the topsoil. I had loaded the topsoil in my truck from a local landscape company last year and I didnt add compost then.
I could have fun in your big garden, no telling what I'd grow LOL!


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

chickenqueen said:


> Nice set up,Dawg.I'm jealous,I start my plants next week but won't be able to plant outside until May/June.I'm doing tomatoes,green peppers and Brussels sprouts.And they are going back into containers,it's easier to keep the animals out.Hope you have a good harvest.


Thanks. We actually have two summer growing seasons here. By the time the second season arrives, I'm ready for cooler temps lol. We didnt get cooler temps til late last December, all kinds of record high temps were broken grrr.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Yea, I wish we'd stop breaking records for high temperature!


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

I started and finished another special project this morning, a rain barrel to water the garden. Lucky for me the guy at Ace Hardware knew exactly what I needed and I was out of there in 5 minutes. I hate plumbing, now I know why plumbers charge so much. Raising chickens is easier.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Now that's a good idea!

Tru green has been emailing and calling and finally someone came to the door and offered us a real good price and no contract. So I got it. Hubby can't and I don't want to. It's really sorry looking and weedy. I just want it done.


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

Your garden looks so nice and neat. Ours gets totally out of control but we still harvest quite a bit of vegetables from it. We are planting already and the freezer is still full from last season's harvest! I think it may be time to donate to the local 'soup kitchen'.

Unfortunately, my DH thought we needed a 60 x 60 garden. Yes, that is 60 FEET. Now you know how it gets out of control so quickly.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

Z,how do you weed a 60x60 garden?Last year ours was half that size and it was a disaster.It rained and rained and rained some more.We couldn't walk out in it without losing our boots.The weeds thrived,the root veggies drowned,the green beans were soooo stringy,and I think the deer got the tomatoes before we even knew they were out there(I didn't even get a couple of green ones to fry).Mine go in containers this year.Good harvest to everybody,hope Mother Nature cooperates this year!


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## jewelslette (Mar 1, 2016)

I'm doing 16 raised 4x4 beds this year with hay walkways in between. The soil out here was pastureland for at least the last 5 years and probably the lat 15. I'm hoping it is rich and gives me lots of goodies. Where do I find good learning material for canning and then cooking with canned goods?


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Get the Ball's Blue Book. It's what I learned with. WM has them.
YouTube has really good videos.


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## Kristi (Feb 28, 2016)

Your garden looks great and I love your watering system, Dawg!


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Yea, it's certainly nice!

Jewelslette, are you doing square foot gardening? I did that years ago.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

zamora said:


> Your garden looks so nice and neat. Ours gets totally out of control but we still harvest quite a bit of vegetables from it. We are planting already and the freezer is still full from last season's harvest! I think it may be time to donate to the local 'soup kitchen'.
> 
> Unfortunately, my DH thought we needed a 60 x 60 garden. Yes, that is 60 FEET. Now you know how it gets out of control so quickly.


I know what you mean. I started out with a small 20x20 garden when I lived in Georgia and I expanded it even bigger. It was alot of work for just me and my wife. I spent more time weeding it. However it was fun letting the chickens run through it "debugging" it lol.
Most of our local churches have "soup kitchens" and it's a good thing for those who need a good meal. My wife occasionally volunteers with her church to work at a soup kitchen downtown.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

With my "square foot gardening", the idea is to water the plants not the area around them. So each plant is place in a bowl-shaped indent and you water just that area. This also allows you to plant things closer together. Tie up things like tomatos so they grow vertical. It worked well for me.


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## jewelslette (Mar 1, 2016)

Nanny, found the book at Wal-Mart and grabbed it, thanks!

Jewelslette, are you doing square foot gardening? I did that years ago.[/QUOTE]
Yes, I did it a couple of years ago and really liked it.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Nice setup, dawg. I really like the rain barrel and if we had gutters on this house I probably would have done one by now.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

jewelslette said:


> Nanny, found the book at Wal-Mart and grabbed it, thanks!
> 
> Jewelslette, are you doing square foot gardening? I did that years ago.


Yes, I did it a couple of years ago and really liked it.[/QUOTE]

You're welcome! If you have questions PM me or just make a canning thread and ask there.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

nannypattyrn said:


> Yes, I did it a couple of years ago and really liked it.


 You're welcome! If you have questions PM me or just make a canning thread and ask there.[/QUOTE]

I like the idea of a canning thread. I've had my canning book for a very long time but there are always tricks to learn. Just like there is with chickens.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I think one of the my favorite things to can or preserve are jams and fruit butters. Then, I enjoy making piccante salsa. I tried ketchup last year and I'll never bhy it again! Ilove making pickles ,sweet and dill. I bought my cukes today. I use the water bath and the pressure cooker methods as well as drying and freezing stuff.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

robin416 said:


> Nice setup, dawg. I really like the rain barrel and if we had gutters on this house I probably would have done one by now.


 That rain barrel filled right up last night from the rain we're having. I checked it early this morning and it's overflowing out the drain pipe. I shouldve got another barrel and connected the drain to it. Nah, I can see this could get out of control lol. Besides, I only have a small garden to water.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I got my first asparagus yesterday! It's mine because the hubby won't touch it!


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## rosco47 (Jul 6, 2015)

dawg, you got some nice beds going there! real cool efficient setup.
i get so giddy this time of year with planting and getting my garden going! i got everything in the ground except my maters and peppers. i will transplant themn this weekend if weather holds off. waiting on sweet tater slips too.
i'm trying some new varieties of veggies and some new techniques this year too so i'm all fired up


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

nannypattyrn said:


> I got my first asparagus yesterday! It's mine because the hubby won't touch it!


He won't? Or you won't let him?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

You guys are driving me crazy with your gardens. With all the crap going on around here right now a garden is just pipe dream for us.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

robin416 said:


> You guys are driving me crazy with your gardens. With all the crap going on around here right now a garden is just pipe dream for us.


Too bad we dont live closer, I'd put one in for you. I can work a rototiller, or build a raised garden bed.


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## jewelslette (Mar 1, 2016)

I put two bush beans in two weeks ago, but we haven't had enough rain so nothing germinated. I'll try again when the weather warms. However my indoor seeds are happy as clans!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Well, shucks, thank you dawg. It might not even be the getting it started part, it's the maintaining part. Which if we couldn't do that would be such a sad thing after the work to get it together. 

We do have the soil and our tiller is easy to operate (hint, hint) it's the after part that could prove to be the challenge.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

nannypattyrn said:


> I got my first asparagus yesterday! It's mine because the hubby won't touch it!


Better for you! I never really liked asparagus or artichokes. But I love baby Brussel sprouts slightly overcooked in butter sauce. I had 2 raspberries sticks that turned into massive bushes in NY. Tons of sweet raspberries. The good thing was that the raspberries sort of grow hidden with leaves so the squirrels never found them.

Maybe next year. I'd love to grow stuff. But right now I have stuff on my to do list like restore rotted fencing, paint 3 coops and one big shed, landscape the sand, build some kind of berm to stop the sand eroding from the base of the house. And a fence and 1/2 acre of redo like 410 ft.


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

DH and I were all fired up about planting this past weekend so we jumped the gun and put in tomatoes, basil, mammoth Jalapenos and some herbs. Guess what happened night before last AND last night? Yup, freezes. If we don't lose them all it will be a miracle. We did cover them but there is only so much protection you can give them. Dangit, we KNEW better than to plant before Easter.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

I started tomatoes,peppers, eggplant and Brussels sprouts.The cherry tomatoes and Brussles sprouts have poked their heads up through the soil.The others were seeds left over from last year,I see a couple in those containers but not like the cherries or sprouts, I just planted them on the 17th.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

You guys make me so jealous! In NY I grew everything. Here in Florida-nothing except Privet and 2 rose bushes. I'm trying bamboo.


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