Part of the dream of owning a house is having a large vegetable garden. Since "large" in this context is only going to be say, 16x10, it really is not that large. The house currently has no vegetable garden, and that has to change. We are planning on moving a shed currently located in the south west corner of the back yard, and creating the garden in that space. With ample sun, and some shelter from the wind due to being in a fenced in corner, it should be ideal.
In this garden, I would like to have raised beds, and so I have been researching the best way to construct them. Note that this is "best way for my skills, tools, and capital", not necessarily the best type in the world. Each bed would have a soaker hose on its own riser spigot, and probably a gravel layer for drainage.
I had originally planed to go with redwood 2x6 boards, notched at the end to overlap, and secured with a rod inserted in pre-drilled holes, but at nearly $11 a board, this option would cost something like $132 for a single 8'x4' bed 12" high. Three beds would cost nearly $400, which is quite allot considering I would still need to buy some soil, gravel, manure etc.
After browsing around on the Home Depot website (closest "big box" home store to our house), I came to the realization that masonry blocks, or cinder blocks were probably the way to go. At only $1.38 per unit, a bed can be constructed for around $65, and it ought to be pretty durable as well. That brings the total price to around $200 including mortar. There will be somewhat more labor, and clearly getting 105 cinder blocks will be more complicated than getting some lumber, but this still seems like the best way to go.
So that settled, now I just need to figure out what plants to put in my 96 square feet. Any suggestions?
Uh, yeah!
ReplyDeleteWe are building up our garden, too, and Agnes came up with a great idea - using pots as part of the wall. So, we will buy about a dozen or so planting pots, and fill them with various herbs and things, and incorporate them into the wall, with river rocks between them.
As for plants, we are planting broccoli, spinach, beans, nasturtium, onions, leeks, cabbage, radishes, peppers, tomatoes, corn, squash, peas, and a few others.
If you want a great place that sells native plants, check out Jeff Hart's place on the Delta... in fact, we should all drive out there soon.
As for the bed itself, make sure you can comfortably reach the middle, to weed, plant and harvest without walking on it.
pots as part of the wall is a great idea, particularly as abby normal wants to grow strawberries in abundance.
ReplyDeleteI have started another post about plants, but it is mostly notional at this point. If I can eat it, I am interested in growing it!
Then may I recommend The Vegetable Gardener's Bible? It's a great book that covers wide, raised beds.
ReplyDeleteI also have "5 Acres & Independence", first written in 1935. It's neat.
You can eat quite a variety of things, so watch out! : )
I added the VGB to my Amazon cart, so hopefully it will be aquired soon.
ReplyDeleteAnd "can eat" is possibly not the correct term to use, I should have said "want to eat". No need to grow brussel sprouts for instance.