Mike's 2014 Garden

[Mike]

The weather has finally been nice for the last week and I've managed to get started on this years garden. In the past I've always done small or medium sized containers for various items. This year I'm going with a raised garden.

It's a 4x8' garden made up of 1"x4" and 2"x4" mill cut cedar. It's a beast... and heavy!



Used 1" PVC pipe inside the box which will allow me to use 1/2" PVC piping to arch over the garden bed and lay bird netting (hopefully keep the birds AND dogs out of it) or even use plastic over the garden if I wanted.

It's supposed to be cold, rainy, and snow within the next day or two. I'm hoping by next weekend I can get a truck load of dirt to fill it up and get the seeds in the ground.

More to come soon!

 

[majorcatfish]

very nice mike, the pvc pipe is a great idea been thinking about doing that as well

 

[whistech]

Excellent job Mike. I like it!

 

[w_r_ranch]

Yep, very nice!!! Good planning on the PVC for the netting/plastic cover.

 

[Rahab222]

Very nice raised garden bed. This year, I've been using 8' cedar fence pickets to build my boxes. I place 2" x 2" pine corner posts, cut three feet high to accommodate frost cloth, shade cloth, netting, etc. I then use wood screws to drill the cedar fence posts onto the 2" x 2" corner posts and add corner brackets. I do these two boards deep = 12" depth. I can have Home Depot cut these 8' fence pickets in half to make 4' x 4' raised beds or keep them their full, 8' length x 4' wide. These are light enough and stable enough for me to pick up in one piece and carry to any part of the yard. I dug out as much grass as possible, and then dumped leaves inside the boxes to kill the rest of the grass or any that may come up. I bagged up and saved all the leaves that fell from my trees last fall, so I have these for composting, etc. I did 4' x 4' potato boxes this year - 12" deep, and as I've needed to hill them, I simply attach other fence pickets (for added depth) using H clips I bought at Home Depot, without having to drill again. I also shredded pine needles to add to my boxes to create the acidic soil that potatoes like. I can also attach extra boards to my raised beds where I have my tomato plants on days when we are having strong wind gusts - to protect my plants. When the wind subsides, I simply remove the extra pickets I added so the plants can get good air circulation. Each 4' x 4' box, made, as described above, costs me less than $20 each.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Looks great.

I think you'll like the pipe-sockets you put in. I did the same thing with 3/4 inch PVC and use it frequently. I've heard hoops drop in great but I use mine for trellises and other supports. I use a lot of 1/2 EMT conduit to string up netting and lines for anything from pole beans to tomatoes.

 

[Mike]

Thanks guys.

@Mr_Yan - I thought about using the same pvc pipes to support trellises but was actually planning on getting a couple T-Posts to place toward the end of the bed to use instead.

 

[majorcatfish]

imho trellises are a must in any garden, especially when you have limited growing space.
the nice thing about them is that you are able to build and configure them to fit your needs out of anything.




mike how many beds you planning to build this year?

 

[45 ACP]

Very nice Mike. You will love the raised bed vs containers. And great idea on the PVC..... wish I woulda thought of that before hand.

 

[Mike]

Yesterday I wrapped the sides and bottom of the box with weed block fabric and then filled the garden box with peat moss, perlite, and mostly a blend of soil and compost (blend is 50/50). Sadly the blend has a ton of clay clumps. I got all of the really large stuff out of there but there are still a lot of smaller stuff. Hoping it will still do for the year - we'll see.

 

[w_r_ranch]

It looks really good Mike!!! I 'd like to get some perlite too, but the garden budget is broke for this year.

Don't sweat the small amount of clay, it won't effect your garden & will break down as it blends with the compost.

 

[Slowngreen]

Looking great Mike!

 

[Mike]

Broke the garden up into foot squares using some string, planted a few squares of carrots, basil, cilantro, onions, spinach and squash then covered the garden with bird netting.

The tomato seeds have actually started to pop up as well. Set them outside for about an hour to say hello to sunlight.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Pretty well finished my planting today. One row of black bush beans, Thanks, Sam for the seed, 8 Okra plants, which should be plenty to see if we like it, a couple of Zukes, a couple of Sweet Peppers, and the last two Tomato plants i have room for 14 total, about 7 or 8 varities.

Carrots and Beets that i planted in Picker boxes 2 weeks ago, are up now. with beets a week old. Planted with two inch spacing and will thin everyone other one as we like baby beets and baby carrots. First time with Picker or Earth box planting but like it so far.
Had to dig one more row of onions, big enough but not ripe enough yet for the stems to fall over. Needed the room for the beans. Will let the rest of the onions completely mature. Had onion soup last night with the fresh ones picked last week, and it was delicions so do not know if the full grown ones will be any better.
Ernie

 

[majorcatfish]

so nice that spring is here, missed having dirt under the nails...

 

[Mike]

Tomatoes are popping up like crazy now. Every seed seems to have germinated now and is at least an inch tall or more.

I have the bird net over the garden but need to do something else about keeping it on the garden. Right now I'm using ground staples that don't seem to be working as ideally as I'd like.

 

[Mike]

Had to cover the raised bed due to us expecting frost this evening. Funny because it was in the 80's just yesterday. Even let the peppers and tomatoes come outside for a bit.

 

[Mike]

I'm thinking the tomato plants are starting to get a little leggy. If I transplant them now into the raised garden what's the chances of these recovering?

 

[majorcatfish]

oh yes they will.
last years tomatoes top and middle left 4/15/13

6/16/13 a tomato jungle .......... found waldo

 

[Mr_Yan]

If they're leggy just bury them deeper. Tomatoes will set roots along the stem as you bury it. I usually snip a few leafs off mine and bury past where the leaf was.

You're fine.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Trim the lower leaves of the tomato transplants (leaving only the top 3 sets of leaves) & as you plant them, lay the individual plants in a trench so that the stems are in direct contact with the soil. If you take a close look at the stems of tomato transplants, you will notice the fine "hairs" lining the stem... these develop into roots when they come into contact with the soil. By burying a large portion of the stem, you effectively double the size of the plant's root system & that encourages very productive plants.

​

 

[Mike]

Tomatoes are in the ground and the peppers are in the bucket. Neighbor ended up giving me a couple mortgage lifter tomato plants as well yesterday and put one of them in a bucket as well since my garden is full. The other three lifter plants will be given away as well.

 

[Mike]

Yesterday planted more spinach, cilantro, and basil. In another week or two I'll plant the rest of the carrots too.

 

[majorcatfish]

you can never go wrong with spinach it's a great spring and fall crop.

 

[Mike]

Not 100% done with containers, the raised garden is full and I wanted to grow some potatoes too. Bought a growing bag and places a few potato starters in it. I can't wait to start harvesting all these goodies!