| User | Post |
|
2:19 pm
September 20, 2009
|
Pete
| | WV | |
| Moderator
| posts 7875 | |
|
|
Have been using the upended concrete blocks for years and am very pleased with them. The marigold planted in them seem to help keep the rabbits at bay and deer don't like the vinca. We also have thyme and chives planted in many of the holes. The thyme has encroached on the pathways, but looks wonderful. The chives are not so pleasant because they have seeded everywhere.
We started using the blocks simply because we had some extra ones lying around screaming for a useful purpose! After a few years experimenting with them, we expanded their use to develop garden beds all along the back foundation of the house and are starting to have some freestanding block garden beds in other parts of the yard.
|
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
|
|
|
5:57 pm
September 20, 2009
|
CindyP
| | Hart, MI | |
| Admin
| posts 7627 | 
|
|
|
The blocks are a wonderful idea!!! Never thought of those!! I have some square, they must be a square foot, that came from my chimney that we tore down a few years ago.
Marigolds keep bad bugs away and bring in good bugs, too. I planted one in each of my beds. I didn't have a huge problem with any bugs this year, even on my cabbages!
|
“Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself.” ― Alfred Sheinwold
|
|
|
5:58 pm
September 20, 2009
|
CindyP
| | Hart, MI | |
| Admin
| posts 7627 |
|
|
|
And in answer to your question, my garden lived……didn't produce as much as I expected, but this year's weather has a lot to do with that!
|
“Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself.” ― Alfred Sheinwold
|
|
|
6:47 pm
December 2, 2009
|
Knittlin
| | |
| Banty | posts 9 | |
|
|
How did everyone's gardens do this year? I work at an organic nursery and they've been growing in 4x4 square foot boxes for a year now, using different mixes (we make our own soils and bag compost for sale, so they've been trying them all out). So far so good on some of the mixes they've done.
The veggies always look so good up there that I've wanted to build a couple boxes at home. Helen (my roommate) and I did just that the day after Thanksgiving. They're so cute! One is full of strawberries and fennel already, but of course they haven't done much yet. I can't wait to see both boxes all planted and growing.
 
|
|
|
1:27 pm
January 24, 2010
|
chickensohmyagain
| | |
| Guest
| | |
|
|
Time to start planning for 2010!! 
Since we were both raised on farms, dh has always done the long rows (300 ft!!) and wide spacing, and worked himself to death. The one good garden we had about 5 years ago took 6 people to keep worked up, that is, the two of us, my sis and bro, and our two renters we had at the time. Boy, we got tons of everythiing. I have Square Foot Gardening, probably close to the original issue but have never been able to get an agreement that it would work for a garden.
We have all gotten older and lost the good tenants who treated us like parents, so, this year, we will have different plans. (We did not have a veg garden the last two years.)
Please tell me if you think this will work.
We have the kind of grass that can't be killed just by laying things on it. The plan is to till the area (with the small tractor) where the beds will go. We will leave room between beds for the riding mower to fit, and use grass paths. I am the designated mower, and I love to do it, so I know that will get done.
Concrete blocks for borders would be very expensive, since we don't have any and would have to puirchase. So, borders would be planks of some kind. Do 1x6 or 1x8's from a guy who tears down houses sound like it would work? Bed size 4' wide x 12' long. Rebar cut to 12" to 18" lengths would support sides and corners.
On the tilled dirt, in the wood borders, I would sit on the ground and clean out the turned up grass and weeds. Then, since I have 50,000 newspapers, paper would go down on the smoothed out dirt, held down with more dirt.
So, I will stop there. Does that sound reasonable? Water is available. It will be entertaining to the chickens to see us (or maybe just me) weeding and they will enjoy gifts of the weeds, I am sure.
Veggies planned are Juliet tomatoes on trellis, large tomatoes in cages, bell pepper, hot pepper, okra, squash and zukes, and seedless watermelons. Hey, we need to grow what we like and what we will eat. I have to do the math and figure out how much space is needed for just those plants.
Thanks a lot… Starz
|
|
|
1:55 pm
January 24, 2010
|
Pete
| | WV | |
| Moderator
| posts 7875 | |
|
|
Most of it is simply what you prefer! I would rather have 1x8's, but that is just me. Your plan sounds more than doable to me! Since you are custom building, make sure you double check your reach across a 4 foot span at the height your bed will be. If the middle is a strain, you could always make the beds 3-1/2 feet wide instead of the full four feet wide. Or whatever you need.
Would encourage you to add a couple of extra small beds, or some space in your long bed, into which to dump compost materials during the year, prepping for planting next year. Of course, if your chicks are free ranging, this may not be an option for you…  Our most productive gardens areas have been where we had dumped grass clippings, had compost piles, etc in years past. So now I try to make a small "compost pile" here and there around the garden, kind of behind things and such, to decay naturally. It's easy! Anything that saves me effort goes to the top of my list of things to do!
|
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
|
|
|
2:01 pm
January 24, 2010
|
MandyP
| | Margaret, Alabama | |
| Big Chicken | posts 95 |
|
|
|
Starz, our garden has always been much like your old gardens. Huge,long rows & it took ALL of us, me, Hubby, & 4 kids to keep it worked. Most of the kiddos have mooved out, & last summer, youngest had his first job, and I was diagnosed with Lupus. I can't be out in the sun for long now, so Hubby got stuck with the majority of the work, along with a full time diesel mechanic job. Lets just say we had a very weedy garden. Lots of our stuff got hidden from us by the weeds. It was a mess. With youngest going into his senior year next year, & probably working again this summer, I planned on trying the smaller raised beds next growing season to make maintenance easier for everyone. I'd be interested to know how it turns out for you.
|
~Many of you have forgotten this truth but you must never forget it. You remain responsible, forever, for that which you tame.~Antoine de Saint-Exupéryn
|
|
|
3:23 pm
January 24, 2010
|
BuckeyeGirl
| | N.E. Ohio | |
| Admin
| posts 3992 | |
|
|
Raised beds with walls aren't absolutely necessary to 'square foot' gardening. It's nice but the need to actually raise them up depends on your rainfall, soil, and your already established gardening habits.
The REAL trick is to be able to work in each section without stepping in it which compacts the soil so much. It's hard to overemphasize how much difference it makes to NOT walk on the planting area at all. Like Pete said, experiment with how far you are comfortable reaching across. You want to get to the middle of the strip or square without straining. If you can get halfway across on one side, then halfway across on the other, you'll be more able to treat your plants well.
If I had a lot of room and could do it, I'd start out by plowing up a wide strip, as Pete said, as wide as you can comfortably reach across. If you want to you can lay boards across at points, as crop dividers and stepping 'stones'. By stepping on a board, you disperse your weight and damage the tilled soil less.
Leaving strips of grass between them sounds like a nice plan too. It sounds like you have the space and the equipment to do that right so why not?
Oh, and with lots of prep and good soil, don't be afraid to 'crowd' the plants much more than they keep telling you to on those seed packets. If the plants you WANT there shade out the weeds you DON'T want there, your life will be much easier…. there are exceptions to that, you don't really want tomatoes (or others that can spread diseases) too close to each other, but you can fill the space between them with other friendly things.
|
If tomatoes are a fruit, then isn’t ketchup technically a
smoothie?
|
|
|
4:27 pm
January 24, 2010
|
Pete
| | WV | |
| Moderator
| posts 7875 | |
|
|
Just so some of you younger folks understand – there is at least one very practical reason to do your gardening in a raised bed. Raised beds offer much less strain on backs, knees and hips. Some of us even do the vast majority of our gardening sitting down, if you can believe it! With the assorted gardening scooters now available (I still prefer my "Grasshopper," which is getting somewhat worn these days, but it was my first wheeled gardening seat), we don't have to depend on others for our garden work.
If you don't have one and your joints are screaming to give up gardening, give them a look see! There are several brands/varieties out there now. They run through grass just fine and are great to work around the edges of raised beds.
|
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
|
|
|
4:45 pm
January 24, 2010
|
MandyP
| | Margaret, Alabama | |
| Big Chicken | posts 95 |
|
|
|
That's one of the main reasons I wanted to try them I have so much joint pain now that it doesn't take much time to wear me out with the stooping & bending. Youngest does all of his weeding sitting down. He's the smart one in the family. I'd notice that I couldn't see him outside & go yell for hm & there he'd be, on his rear end weeding the pole beans.
|
~Many of you have forgotten this truth but you must never forget it. You remain responsible, forever, for that which you tame.~Antoine de Saint-Exupéryn
|
|
|
10:50 pm
January 24, 2010
|
chickensohmyagain
| | |
| Guest
| | |
|
|
Thanks to all!! 
Good ideas. My beds may become 3 ft across from the beginning. Then I am sure I can reach from either side.
Yes, I prefer the raised bed so I don't have to get completely down on the ground to work it. I bought one of those garden kneelers with the metal bars on each end, and it made life so much easier. If I don't use that, I have to have a chair nearby in order to get up. Sometimes dog thinks I am playing and sits on me. And, I have carried a big garden umbrella out to keep the sun off while working, as well as large tea or lemonade.
Now, younger folks, don't feel sorry for those of us who are a little sitff and a little less flexible than we were 20 years ago… we can still get the job done, with modifications. If you are good, I may find that recipe for watermelon pickles like gramma used to make. Yum yum
|
|
|
7:08 am
January 25, 2010
|
Leahld22
| | Newburgh, IN | |
| Superstar | posts 2673 |
|
|
|
Feeling sorry for us doesnt help anything does it? I like your gardening style Retha,makes me think I could do that! I had cherry tomatoes last year and flowers! (live in apt)
|
Life is too important to be taken too seriously.
|
|
|
6:12 pm
January 25, 2010
|
chickensohmyagain
| | |
| Guest
| | |
|
|
 Hi, Leah!
I have done that gardening in an apartment thing. It is frustrating. 
Had tomatoes in flower pots on the patio, red geraniums, and herbs.
Generally, there is just too much shade to get good produce. You have to keep moving things around. It is not much better in a house on a small lot, with privacy fencing.
Maybe years of being cramped when we wanted to garden made us over-buy in acres when we got out of Texas and could actually afford some nice wooded land. It blinded us to how bad the house on that land actually was!  And that is a long sad story in itself.
Good luck on your pots. Each one could be a "Square Foot," could it not? I have started drawing out my plans…
|
|
|
1:03 am
January 26, 2010
|
chickensohmyagain
| | |
| Guest
| | |
|
|
Subtitle: What I learned online today about SFG
Well, there are thousands of pages of stuff about Square Foot Gardening out there! And lots of pictures as well. One thread started 5 years ago and is still going strong.
So, I know these are changes that I will make:
1. No mowing will be needed. Between beds, we will fill paths with cardboard and top with pine mulch. Mowing might throw weed seeds into the beds, and that would be awful. Luckily, I have not discarded 3 boxes that stools came in — no, I expected the stools to be put together when I ordered them, and it was frankly a nightmare putting them together, since the instructions bore no relation to the pictures.
But the cardboard will be great. I have 5 pine trees worth of mulch piled up in a gully, thank you to the electric co-ops tree trimmer guys. The shredded trees will be too hot to use for mulch for years and will make great paths.
2. Home made seed starter mats will be used. Make a cardboard template with holes cut out for one, 4, 9 and 16 plants. Take a paper towel that is smaller than one foot square, put the chosen template on it, put a drop of Elmer's Glue where you want a seed, in any pattern you want, write on the towel what the seed is, let them dry, stack them up!! They will be perfectly spaced.
When it is warm enough to plant, or, a nice warm day occurs and you have to get out of the house, go drop a mat on top of your chosen square foot, and cover to the depth you need. No handling those tiny seeds and dropping too many, or getting them too close and you don't have to crawl around on the cold ground. WOW Why didn't I think of that???
3. On the ground, under the wooden sides, we will put chicken wire to keep out our moles and voles. (They don't eat much, but the dog digs relentlessly.) Then, thick layers of newspaper will still go on top of that, then the recipe for soil mix that is in the book. Deep rooted plants can still grow down through that.
Anyway, there is a lot more, but I will just try to do it and see what happens. Don't want to bore every one!!  Spring is coming!!
|
|
|
4:47 am
January 26, 2010
|
CindyP
| | Hart, MI | |
| Admin
| posts 7627 |
|
|
|
Oh, you're not boring everyone!!! The more that we can learn and share with each other the better!!! You are exactly the way I was last year when I started reading about SFG! Very interesting about the template with the seed starter mat………..I had planned to do a seed starting mat, but never took it to the SFG step! Thank you for finding that!
Having lawn paths around the beds sounded very nice, actually, but never thought it through to the mowing throwing weed seeds, though. My lawn goes right up to my beds, but we do mow in the other direction. I know winds may carry seeds, but this is the only option I have, and there were grassy type of weeds in there. Nothing like the year before SFG whatsoever, though, so that concept does work!
|
“Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself.” ― Alfred Sheinwold
|
|
|
8:48 am
January 26, 2010
|
Pete
| | WV | |
| Moderator
| posts 7875 | |
|
|
Oh, forgot to mention one item above!! Yes, the lawn in between does sound so lovely, but grass and grass seeds are a SERIOUS issue here. If we could eliminate lawn entirely, I'd be just tickled pink!
Also, we have that tough, tough grass as well. It's not pretty, but it is tenacious. It simply cannot be grubbed out to convert an area to a garden plot. The stuff comes back for years, working now on decades. We have found the newspaper with soil on top of it to work very well. All to say that the raised beds are the ONLY way here to solve the conversion from grass to garden plot issue without the use of poison then having to wait years to grow anything.
|
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
|
|
|
9:04 am
January 26, 2010
|
BuckeyeGirl
| | N.E. Ohio | |
| Admin
| posts 3992 | |
|
|
Well, I've had good luck with smothering grass with black plastic for a summer, heat and lack of sun does most of the work. At that point there are diverging paths to take, myself I'd say dig in lots of compost and plant a fall cover crop to turn over in the spring again, and then start to use it for gardening. Honestly this is a good thing if you have the time to do it this way and it won't be great at that point, but it ain't half bad either..
|
If tomatoes are a fruit, then isn’t ketchup technically a
smoothie?
|
|
|
9:49 am
January 26, 2010
|
Pete
| | WV | |
| Moderator
| posts 7875 | |
|
|
It must be nice! Wish we could do that here, but with our horrid, slick, clay "soil" the best we have found is to just build a garden on top of it, and over time some of that heavy clay does break down.
But that is exactly why we so enjoy sharing ideas here. Lots and lots of good ideas, lots of choices.
|
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
|
|
|
12:42 pm
January 26, 2010
|
BuckeyeGirl
| | N.E. Ohio | |
| Admin
| posts 3992 | |
|
|
well, cover cropping for clay soil is still an awesome way to break it up, even with a build up of topsoil or compost. I know of two things which are very different but still effective for clay first is actual grain rye. Not rye grass! real farmer type rye. it will send roots WAY down and then die when you chop it down and till it in, leaving all those roots to break up the clay, but it's not rhizomes like grass would be. It is a time intensive thing, rather than cost or labor though… and you need to chop up the plant cause it will tangle in the tines of a tiller really bad.
Another which is very dependant on weather, location and planning ahead. If you already have raised beds set up, it's do-able though. You need to put up some hoops to protect the bed ahead of winter in the fall, JUST the hoops! Then in late January or early February, cover them with the plastic… yes, this can be difficult depending on where you are, and it may be impossible. This is a location decision for each to make. Then you plant Fava beans. I don't know why fava beans work best, and you may have to scatter some loose soil and/or compost to bury them if the ground is frozen, but then cover up the hoops and let the weak winter/early spring sun do it's job. I saw this work very well in an area that got cold temps, but had very little snow. The lady that did this just plowed the fava beans in before they produced, she said she hated the things and this was all they were good for!  I don't know if you can let them produce, but it's a time factor too. I don't know how well it would work in a snowy climate, but it's an interesting thing to consider.
I really suggest people to investigate cover crops for their locations, this has made me think about a certain bed that I could do this with pretty easily… even at this late date.
|
If tomatoes are a fruit, then isn’t ketchup technically a
smoothie?
|
|
|
2:31 pm
January 26, 2010
|
chickensohmyagain
| | |
| Guest
| | |
|
|
Good afternoon, on this sunny day with SNOW in the forecast… Winter just won't leave us alone.
I have the the planting templates cut out… made from old file folders, so they are 11.5 inches square, but that should be fine. I am going to try to take pictures as I go. These are for the seed mats, so they don't have to be sturdy. If I decide to use them outside for direct seeding, I can go get them laminated for about a dollar each.
Also, dh says he does not think he can use the tractor or use the big tiller, since he is exactly 2 months out of intensive back surgery. It apparently is very hard work to put the plow attachment on the little tractor, and I know the tiller itself bucks like a donkey, I have failed before in using it. SIGH
But he is willing to hire someone to do the part that needs tilling! 
I don't have it on graph paper yet, but mental plan is two boxes running east/west 10 ft south of the chicken pens, each one 8' or 10'x3'x whatever I have. The boxes will be end to end with a 5 ft space between them. Rebar will be put in place when they are built, to slide hoops over, so one bed at least can be used as a cold frame. I am going to use 1x6 porch decking that varies in length from 6 to 10 ft.
Those are beds 1 and 2. North of them, between them and the chicken pens, I am going to put Natchez crepe myrtles. Other Natchez in the yard are 30 ft tall, so, they should shade the chicken pen in summer part of the day. And pretty up the chicken run. I have some old ornamental stepping stones made to go around a fountain, and that should look nice around the big crepe. Better than the weed village we had this past summer.
Boxes 3 and 4 will be just like 1 and 2, separated from them by 4 to 6 ft, and south of them… have not decided yet on the distance. I do wonder how far those shredded up pine trees will go. Tree trimmers are still nearby, maybe I could get them to drop another ton somewhere ???
Total planting square feet will be 100 to 120, and that should feed us what we like and allow some things to go in the freezer. Compared to what we have done in the past, this seems tiny, but we will probably get more produce with less work. That's the plan, Stan.
Got to go read some more on the forum… have a great day.
|
|
Contact
Login 
Register 
Search 
Home
Topic RSS 
