Anyone have a raised bed garden?

[ChristusG]

We live in a neighbhorhood, have a pool in our backyard, etc. We really don't have room for a big garden. I thought that a raised bed garden would be perfect. It kind of gets the garden "up and out of the way" so the kids and dogs don't run through it.

 

If you have one, do you like it? Can you really get enough veggies out of a raised bed garden for it to be worth it? Do you know if I can grow green beans? What are you growing? Did you build it yourself?

[klmama]

Sure, you could grow beans in raised beds. You might want to use bush beans, rather than pole beans, as the poles or trellises would be even higher in beds. As for "enough" veggies - that depends on how many raised beds you have, how big they are, how much sun they get, etc. The cost of putting it all together will be high that first year, but then the costs drop dramatically in future years, especially if you are able to save seeds for planting the next year.

[rwjx2khsmj]

I used the Square Foot Garden recommendation this year and did a raised bed. The dirt in our yard was mostly rock and weeds so putting down a weed barrier fabric and building on top of it was the perfect solution for us.

 

I planted two squares of cucumbers, two squares of tomatoes, two squares of bush beans, a two squares of peas, a square of radishes, a square of carrots, a square of peppers, 2 squares of eggplant, a square of chives and a two squares of lettuce.

 

It's been a really easy garden and we've gotten lots of produce for a very little bit of effot. I highly recommend trying this style of gardening.

[Firefly]

The first house we lived in didn't have much of a yard, so I constructed two 3x8 beds. You would have been amazed what I was able to grow! Peas, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, etc.

 

Now I have plenty of land and a 20x20 garden that consists of 8 raised beds with paths, and I plan to add more. Raised beds are neat and provide good drainage. I grow all kinds of things now-- even corn and potatoes, garlic, medicinal herbs... they all thrive in the raised beds. I really love them!

[OrganicAnn]

We have raised beds. We have 16 beds that are 3' x 9' and 10 irregular shaped beds. We have a rabbit fence around the garden, an arched entrance gate, a bench, copper trellis with a rose bush. We grow a fair amount of veggies. We grow green beans both bush and pole.

 

The benefits of raised beds are: you can improve the soil more easily, you improve the soil by not walking on it, less weeding, better for people who are disabled, good drainage.

 

Materials are a big decision - wood or something else (be care of chemicals in any materials). Also in between the beds. We have landscaping material covered with mulch.

[ChristusG]

You can grow corn in them? Cool, I didn't know that.

 

What about bugs? I guess that's my biggest concern. I'm not sure what to do about them. I want the garden to be organic, without pesticides.

 

And how about the planting? Did you just plant from seeds? Or did you plant a plant that's already began growing?

[OrganicAnn]

Corn has to be grown generally in a square for the best pollination (just don't do one row which is worse for pollination). Corn takes a lot of room and comes in all at once. We don't do corn because in our area it attracts raccoons. Raccoons make a big mess. It is just not worth it to us. We buy very good sweet corn at the farmers market.

 

Bugs. There are specific pests for specific vegetables, too many to talk about here. Get a good basic gardening book and consult it as needed. Organic is best. There are organic products for most pests. But we generally don't use even organic products. We lose a few plants, but not many.

 

Seed vs transplant - from this question, I can tell you are a brand new gardener. Some plants you have to plant directly - they don't like being transplanted. Some plants need a long period to get started and transplanting plants is the best way to do it. You can either start the seeds yourself in early spring or buy plants. You really need to research planting times in your area for various vegetables. You have to do the research yourself. Get a good basic vegetable gardening book.

[rwjx2khsmj]

I knew NOTHING about gardening when I decided to have a garden this year. I love the Square Foot Gardening books. Even it you can't/don't do everything it's a great place to start. He even tells you how and when to harvest the veggies and yes, I needed this information!

[mom31257]

We have one this year. My dad bought a kit for us at Home Depot. I've blogged about it in a few posts here.

 

We did put weed cover down at the bottom of ours. We have Bermuda grass and didn't want it to spread into the box. It has made us have to water often, but we don't have weeds.

 

I can't say how much we've truly enjoyed it. We will add another box next year, maybe two.

 

We didn't do a good job keeping bugs away from our squash, so we had to pull it. We still got 9-10 good meals out of it before we had to, though. Cornmeal has kept stuff away from the tomatoes fairly well. A lady at my dh's school said they go to the extension office and buy lady bugs and walking sticks to put in their tomato plants, as well as marigolds.

 

I'm anxious to find out what we can plant next. We're still getting lots of tomatoes, so there isn't much room.

[Erica in OR]

Raised beds here too. We started them as brand-new gardeners several years ago. We followed directions in the Square Foot Gardening book, using the recipe for "Mel's Mix" that the author recommends as soil. It has worked very well for us, with success for bush beans (I highly recommend the purple varieties - they're easy to find among the green leaves to pick, and they turn green when you cook them), peppers, basil, radishes, carrots, sugar snap peas, dill, parsley, and even jack o'lantern pumpkins with a trellis. I've stopped doing tomatoes in the boxes though, since the roots seem to end up snaking around a huge area of the box and are terrible to get out at the end of the season as they start to burrow through the weed fabric.

 

Erica in OR

[joannqn]

Yes. We have a small backyard so we are using the Square Foot Gardening method. I'm quite happy with it.

 

I just posted pictures of our garden and what it looks like today. Here's the link to that post and the two previous posts I wrote earlier in the season. I'm growing potatoes, carrots, zucchini, three varieties of tomatoes, strawberries, cauliflower, broccoli, three varieties of lettuce, spinach, onions, green beans, and cucumber. My attempts at herbs, except cilantro, failed. I have a notoriously brown thumb, but most of it is growing well.