Raised Bed Gardening

The sun has been shining all week and the weather is warming up, time to turn our thoughts to the garden. In this article, I would like to share the growing method I use in Northern Idaho. It takes less space, time and money and I grow enough food for our family and to give away to friends. Where I live we only have about 100 days in which to grow a summer vegetable garden. I have developed a method that will extend that growing time by about a month on both ends. None of my ideas are original; I have just combined many good practices and have come up with a plan that works for me.

Basically I am a lazy gardener and I hate to weed, so when we constructed the vegetable garden I had Husband Jim build me three raised beds. They are constructed out of treated 2x12s placed one on top of the other to make the beds 24 inches tall. The beds are 18, 20 and 6 feet long by four feet wide. Around each bed are gravel paths. I cannot prove this, but I believe the gravel rocks help to warm the beds faster as they retain heat from the sun. My theory comes from the fact that the snow melts faster in this part of the garden.

When Jim built the beds he attached 1 ½" PVC pipe vertically to the inside of the beds every 3 or 4 feet. The spacing is determined by dividing the bed into even increments with 4 feet being the maximum. These pipes are cut flush with the top of the beds and are used to hold tunnels and trellises. Because of the short growing time, we cover each bed with a plastic tunnel creating a mini greenhouse.
	The tunnels are cut from plastic sheets a foot wider than the corresponding width of the hoops to allow overlap. I use the thickest clear plastic I can find at the local hardware store. The sheets are then draped over hoops made out of 1" flexible sprinkler pipe that are placed into the PVC pipe and then stabilized by stringing together. The sheets are secured to the side of the bed. On each end, the plastic is stapled to ¾" X 1 ½" wood strips (furring strips) with holes drilled near the ends. The length of each strip is determined by the width of that section.
In our case, some are 4' long, others 3'. These holes slip onto dowels that are attached to the side of the bed. The advantage of having the sheets in sections is that it allows you to uncover only a small area of the bed at a time. Using the raised, covered bed method, the soil warms faster in the spring and with the covers retains heat longer, thus allowing me to plant cold crops a month early and harvest a month later.
	When all risk of frost is gone, I remove the tunnels and replace them with trellises made out of 1" ridged PVC pipe and attach plastic netting. I grow as many crops vertically as I can as it saves space, allowing for more crops in a small area. The following are a series of pictures that show how we construct the trellis.

I use the square foot gardening method when planting. With this method I can grow more with less work and space. I got the idea of square foot gardening from a book called Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. His method of planting a garden is based on squares 12 inches by 12 inches instead of rows. Using his method, the plants are placed in a square the same distance apart in all directions. These small one foot squares are grouped together into blocks 4 feet by 4 feet. Each block contains 16 different squares, each planted with a different crop. Each square contains one, four, nine or sixteen plants depending on how much room each plant needs to grow. For more information on the Square Foot Gardening method I suggest you purchase the book or go to Mel's site for more detailed information

View of raised bed with trellis and netting

Because the crops are planted close together, the soil retains moisture thus cutting down on the amount of water needed. The crowding of plants also eliminates weeds. That is a good thing for a lazy gardener! I rotate the crops each year from bed to bed, which discourages harmful bugs. In between plants I put down a heavy layer of compost. This helps to retain moisture, enriches the soil and discourages weeds.

I have a rabbit and her job is to provide natural fertilizer for the garden and compost bins.

I begin my gardening cycle with cold weather crops such as lettuce, broccoli cabbage, peas, beets and carrots. As we harvest these, they are replaced with warm weather crops such as tomatoes, beans, corn, cucumbers, melons and squash.

When I put in the second planting, I turn over the compost and mix with the soil. This keeps the soil loose. Another advantage of raised beds is that the soil is never walked on so it does not become compacted.

One last tip in successfully growing crops in a short growing season is to grow fast-growing vegetables that mature early. Many of those seeds can be found in mail order catalogs. Just check their descriptions for maturing lengths. Experiment and keep a record of what was successful.

If you would like more details or have any questions, please e-mail us and we will do what we can to help.

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