Hello all. It is me. I would like to start a raised bed garden containing peppers, onions, tomatoes and other vegetables or fruits. I haven’t researched this topic in so long, so I am looking for some basic pointers. I would ideally like to do a living soil run. I cannot plant rn due to the season, but when I can I will.
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I think for FL you’re starting a bit too late for tomatoes.
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Whatever you buy as media for the bed, there’s always a risk of herbicide contamination. You want to plant a few bean seeds in a sample (like green beans) and look at how the first leaves grow. If there is herbicide, they will be twisted and gnarled. I’ve bought contaminated bagged compost before, and more recently some friends ruined their garden with mushroom compost that had it. The worst herbicide is 2-4-D, and it can persist for 3 to 5 years.
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I’m in Wisconsin now. I need another month to start.
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The most expensive part of a raised bed is the sides. If I had a giant budget, I would use pvc boards and synthetic decking boards, because they last forever. Lumber is a lot cheaper, but doesn’t last nearly as long. One guy I know cut down trees and made his bed borders out of them.
I have almost no budget, so I don’t have any borders on my raised beds. They’re just mounds. The pic below is of a high tunnel I recently inherited. The ground is like concrete, but it doesn’t matter if I pile up enough composted horse manure. These two ridges now have drip lines and black plastic mulch covering them, as well as tomato plants that I hope make it through the next few cold nights.
If you are outdoors, woven poly fabric (uv stabilized) is better than plastic because it doesnt pool water. Wood chips are great as mulch too, just more labor intensive.
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well i tell everyone this for new garden.
throw away the fancy seed catalog with all those glossy
perfect photo’s. then look at your canned goods and in fridge.
then for sure ones potato, carrot, onion, garlic, beans and
such. is nice to eat all you grow. best of luck.
here are some over wintered carrots i pulled to plant more.
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This picture tells me a lot about your soil. Those are beautiful carrots and they must love your deep loamy soil Do you overwinter them?
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Fantastic! The world needs more gardeners. Here are some thoughts:
- Know your gardening zone. Just google “USDA gardening zone” and your zip code. Once you know that, google “Planting guide zone X” and you will find out when to plant all of the things you mentioned above. It will also show you when to anticipate harvest. Some things you will plant many times (radishes 28 days) and some you will plant once a year (watermelon 110 days). It is best to rotate the crops around your beds so plan on replacing the radishes with lettuce or something else that finishes quickly.
- This is a very thorough companion planting guide.
companion-planting-chart.pdf (349.9 KB) If it is too busy, you can google “Companion planting guide” and do some reading and see other charts. the important takeaway is that some plants don’t do well together and others thrive together.
Pro Tip: Everything loves marigolds. They repel pests, improve soil health by attracting beneficial insects and they are so pretty. Save a few inches of space in the corners of your beds for marigolds. They are also the easiest seeds to collect and after a few seasons you will have your own, acclimatized marigold variety. - Look for good starts locally. Peppers and tomatoes that you will plant in your garden are already well underway in someone’s greenhouse. Look for a local farmer or even better, a springtime seed swap in your area. Facebook groups are great for this. I have grown great tomatoes from grocery store and big box store plants. They are expensive, but usually grow well.
- Here are some things you can grow from seeds:
Peas, beans, lettuce, carrots, radishes, corn, pumpkins, spinach, sunflowers and melons. Your planting guide will also give you a good list. I have never been unhappy with any seeds from Baker Creek seeds. Get their catalog-garden porn for real. You can also look for a small, regional seed company near you. They will have seeds that are perfect for your climate, growing season and other local factors. Grocery store seeds are a crap shoot. Corn that gets 8’ tall in iowa might not even finish where I am because of my late frosts here in the mountains. I get local seeds whenever I can. When you really go down the rabbit hole (I hope you don’t have to deal with rabbits fr) you will want to save your own seeds which you can only do from heirloom varieties. - Have you started composting yet? It is such an easy way to build your garden up. Egg shells and coffee grounds are magic.
Keep us posted on your progress! Send lots of pictures. I hope you have a great time and get some good produce from your efforts.
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i do most everything in plastic 55 gal drums now.
have a rabbit over my compost pile. barrels get
refreshed with that trace elements and other things.
those were late planted carrots. in fall when it starts
to frost cover them with straw. use some when grounds
not froze. then pull in the spring or will get hairy.
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Thank you Cat. I do need to start composting. I can go around the local coffee shops and ask for coffee grounds that they might dispose of and save mine. I would ideally keep them in a large barrel?
As for the box part of them i have plenty of scrap wood from my dad i can use. I want something very simple and barebones. Nothing too fancy.
My biggest problem I am facing is understanding living soil as thats what i would ideally love to do. I have some medium ingredients and bio-live i bought a few years ago such as peat moss.
I have a good plan for the beds themselves just not how to make living soil. I also was thinking about fish guts from trout I will be fishing for this year. I have a plentiful supply as i live right on a river now.
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Fish guts draw critters, who dig them up to eat. It takes a lot of patience and commitment to compost them.
And this is just my opinion, but I think the term “living soil” is largely marketing to indoor weed growers. It’s way more living than typical indoor grows, I’m sure, but all soil is living to different extents, especially outside. The more forms of life you have, the better. Symbiotic relationships between soil bacteria and fungi with plant roots are what we’re really studying. Modern mass agriculture never cared, so there isn’t a lot of research on the topic.
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This. But you’re still into something. Two searching for no till gardening. That practice involves building up the soil and not disturbing it.
Charles Dowding is great.
Also Google lasagna gardening. It’s fantastic. So much recycling!
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Don’t compost them make a liquid fish fertilizer
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Cover crop everything whenever u dont plan on growing much (winter time).
If your starting with store bought soil or anything not from an excisting garden, try and introduce some bugs like worms, lady bugs, etc to rapid start the decomposting aspect.
When first making ur beds, layer a bunch of old sticks (cant be freshly cut/fallen) on the bottom before layering dirt. On the top use left over cardboard as a weed block, u can always layer some soil ontop so it doesnt look so ugly.
Seasonally you will want to add some hay/straw to the top of the soil along with composted manure or composted food waste.
Some manures are better used for different things, however worm poop works for everything.
If u dont add any plant food derived from the sea, i highly recommend mixing in some kelp once a year, however fermented seafish guts is a better option.
Start learning on how to turn all your “waste” into plant food, alot of things “dissolve” in vinegar and high sugar content.
Bokashi and lactobacillus are great helpers when it comes to decomposting.
Once uve got that nailed down, u can start playing on the microscopic level with bacterias and fungis. For now just focus on plants, bugs, soil texture and composting.
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@Thetetraguy I’m always down for some Hügelkultur. Just make sure the wood is seasoned hardwood.
I got a truckload of black soil from a horse farm. We had it tested to make sure it was glyphosate free. If you start with good soil, you don’t need salt fertilizer and it lends itself well to JADAM or KNF.
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This was a great thread. I met so many great people sending out seeds!
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Corn, Brussels sprouts, rhubarb, Swiss chard, whole privacy fence lined with multiple mammoth sunflower variety’s, various wildflowers, various tomatoes, 4 types of peppers, spinach, hibiscus, honey suckle, various watermelons, pumpkin all over, red potatoes, alyssums, sweet potatoes, various marigolds, sweet Williams, snap dragons, various gladiolus bulbs, peach tree, 2 fig trees, a small black berry bush, raspberry bush start, various dream rose’s, I just propagated a rose bush from a rose I bought my daughter, and a wandering Jew plant my wife got cuttings of from her friend, sewed a bunch of clover and dandelions into the surrounding areas, white daisy’s, cucumber patch of sweet heirloom onions, blood orange tree, lime tree, various strawberry plants, sage, rosemary, basil, thyme and lavender.
I’ve either grown all this from seed this season or sewed in healthy starts that were sourced. Then depending on what it is I’ve left them in large pots that were built organic sourced amendments, worm castings, food waste compost, coco that was thoroughly balanced after hydration and soil from previous runs as well as a bag I had to grab to make up the rest of the needed material.. Made the beds and pots and watered it all in. Everything is covered in strictly red cedar mulch to keep majority of pests at bay.
Just broke out one of my sprayers and gonna start brewing a agt-r so I can drench the beds and pots and run a foliar on some of the crops towards sun down and during the early mornings. Wanna see what this stuff does finally.
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Try to avoid treated wood for the sides. Sure, it will last longer, but the stuff it’s treated with isn’t anything I’d want in my food chain. Like mentioned above, a layer of sticks and branches from the yard in the bottom helps to fill it up, and adds long term nutrients to be broken down by the fun guys living in the bed. Leaf litter is a great, and free addition as well. As long as you don’t spray your yard, grass clippings make a great top dressing to add fast release nitrogen. I used to go harvest nice soil from established forests to add to my outdoor planters.
Stay away from compost found in municipal yard waste dumps, and avoid the piles of wood chips there as well. I used to use a ton of this free stuff, but the risks of pesticides and herbicides are too great, plus there could be a ton of pathogens present from the large number of properties that contribute to the piles.
Puprple Cow is based in Wisconsin, and has some great products worth checking out. A little on the high side pricewise, but good, local stuff. I’m down in SW Wisconsin, and always down for a road trip if you ever want to meet up and talk gardening!
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You mentioned Baker Creek Seeds earlier, and I wanted to second that recommendation. I ordered a lot of their heirloom peppers for this year.
My friend Fred Hempel passed away last year. He bred the artisan cherry tomatoes for Johnny’s, and a lot of other great tomato varieties. Now that Fred is gone, Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms is the undisputed champ of modern open pollinated tomato varieties. Here’s his site:
I ordered some packs from Brad, but even more from J and L Gardens. They are a small operation with an antiquated web site and some great tomatoes.
For most of my other seeds, I like Morgan County Seed for their low prices. They are in Western Missouri and deal with a lot of Amish farmers.
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I love this. I will follow up.