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Hi,
I have usually grown my vegies in pots on the deck, works out really well, but I have now decided to make a vegie garden, so I am able to grow heaps more.
Can someone please tell me the best way to start, set up and get going with growing. The intention is to develop a raised garden on some existing lawn,
what do I need to do to get this going, what soils, fertilisers, etc, also do I need to remove the top lawn or just dig it in.????
So many questions hope it is worth it.
Thanks
By a raised garden, do you intend to build a frame and add soil inside the frame to grow your veggies in? If so, how high are you going to make it?
If it's going to be a foot or so off of the ground, I don't see any need to remove the lawn first. That's deep enough that it's not going to grow through. If it's only going to be a few inches high, then I would remove the lawn first.
Hi,
Thanks for being so quick, we intend to use a wooden frame 1foot high (300mms), also on that subject I can get for free treated timber for the frame, I think that if I paint it, it will stop the leitching that would normally damage the soil then damage the plants, any thoughs on this. I thought of using the treated timber as it will last longer in outdoor conditions.
Do you know what the timber is treated with? I would try to find out, then make the decision whether it was safe to use near where I was growing food. I would be very careful with that, and consider lining the sides of the raised bed with heavy plastic if you do use them. Something that might be considered harmless now may be discovered to be harmful later.
Don't know what it is treated with, will find out. So do you mean wrap each piece of wood in plastic or just line it like a swimming pool????
So until I find out what it is treated with, any more info on the actual garden.
I would line the sides with the heavy plastic and also along the bottom of the timbers where they meet the ground. I would leave the bottom open to the earth though, so the earthworms can find their way up into your raised bed to help break down the organic material. The earthworms put a lot of good nutrients back into your garden.
I would find the best topsoil you can to fill it with and amend it with compost and organic materials. A raised bed, like a pot, needs almost continual amending, since the growing plants take a lot of the nutrients from the soil. I'm not one to use commercial fertilizer, but if you are wanting to do that, hopefully someone will come along that can help you with that question.
Wilflower, you might want to take a look at the Yates Garden Guide for a lot of great local information. When I first started growing vege's back in Wellington I found it to be invaluable, although they do tend to push their own products quite a bit. Of course, since discovering 'Dave's Garden Guide' I don't use it much anymore. :-)
I'm planning to make a raised bed this year. After reading a lot on web & books, I've decided to make mine 4x8' and a foot high, using 2x6" untreated cedar boards. I'd use redwood but I'm not independently wealthy so that's out. I plan to lay it directly on top of the grass; with any luck I'll be able to set it up between the clumps of daffodils in my back yard. One site suggested putting a layer of newspaper in the bottom, which I like, as it would stifle taprooted weeds like dandelions. But I don't have newspaper, either. I have 3 large pots with rather exhausted soil in them, from growing veggies in them last year; I plan to dump the soil from them into the bottom of the bed, then fill up the rest of it with about 25 cu ft of good topsoil and composted manure. Finally, to fend off the vast armies of squirrels and the rabbits that live under my garden shed, I plan to set bamboo stakes around the inside edge of the bed and wrap netting around it up the stakes. I expect that to end up about knee high on me, enough to keep the critters out. While the peas are coming up I plan to stretch some of the netting across the top, too, to keep the birds away until the peas are established.
Thanks for that, sorry to take so long to reply, another great natural plant to keep away certain bugs - especially for tomatoes etc is marigold flowers. They really work I have only had to spray for mildew on the leaves due to the hot humid weather, have seen the white butterfly come around and then just disappear after smelling the marigolds. Have a great crop of tomatoes...
I set up the raised bed, 4x8' by 1' high, yesterday, using untreated cedar boards, and plastic joints and stakes that nearly sank of their own weight into my early spring lawn (Kansas City area). I've pretty well decided to line the bottom with landscaping cloth as I've got some strange weeds in the space that I don't want duking it out with the tomatoes. The bed slopes just a tad to the east so I'm not very worried about drainage. My next step will be to dump my 3 pots' worth of dud soil into the bottom of the bed and then fill up with 25 cu ft of nice fresh vigorous topsoil and composted manure. Then I'll let it settle for a week and finally fill it with tomato towers and cages and the bamboo stakes & netting and poke some peas in. -- Oh, it is soooo cool -- I can see it from my bedroom window.
My rabbit family already has clover and wild strawberries in the lawn; they don't need the sweat of my brow. As for the birds, I plan to grow sunflowers along the back fence just for them.
For the bugs I plan to grow rue, hyssop, dill, and marigolds, but I'm not past tossing in a few annual poppy and nasturtium seeds, just for fun. In my seedling nursery the rue and hyssop are already started, along with artichokes, 3 kinds of tomatoes, and husk cherries. I'll sow bok choi in a couple of weeks, and direct-sow lettuces and chard and the dill and marigolds. The last frost date around here is mid-April and I expect to pull out the harvested snow peas and put in the tomatoes around the 1st of May. Oh, yes, those big pots will have potatoes and leeks -- they both need hilling up so I expect them to be able to play nice together.
Oh, this is half the fun of gardening, imagining a 4x8' Garden of Eden while the forecast calls for snow!
good luck with your garden and I am sure it will produce wonderful fruits for you to enjoy, nothing like going outside to pick your own produce...Yum
Also another tip try planting basil amongst your tomatoes - another natural stopper of white fly.
i recently started growing vegies in pots. Will be starting a raised vegies garden in spring. So far I have tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, carrots, parsley and recently planted potatoes.
I was wondering if anyone knows how long it takes for the above vegies to fruit or be ready for harvest?
It being winter right now, i think it's slowed down the tomatoes, but there still growing reasonably well.
In spring i'll be adding Celery, Zucchini, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Beans, Peas, pumpkin, along with the above vegies. I'll be using treated pine railway sleepers and the garden will be 3m x 3m and 200mm high. The landscape place has suggested using 2 different types of soil, both organic materials.
Another thing, does anyone use a compost bin? If so, what is better to use. A worm compost or a standard compost bin? Not sure what to purchase, which would be the best option.
I'm not sure about the weed cloth under the raised bed. Many roots can grow several feet down into the earth. I didn't use it (expensive) and just get some suface weeds.
If you have gophers I would put 1/2 inch wire down before you build your bed.
Also, expect to add more soil next year as it settles quite a bit the first couple of years.
I kinda of went all out the first year (put my back out putting in a garden to "get healthy"after quitting smoking!). We bought "turkey mulch" from a local soil place, added garden soil from the same place.
I now make my own compost and have access to chicken manure (which I compost because it is so "hot"), aged horse manure (hot if fresh)and goat manure mixed with straw.
I messed up by doing an 8x8' bed, but my new beds are going to be 4x8'.
I also add yuk from my fish pond to my compost and water the plants with the fish water from time to time.
We are now starting to do the pottager thing adding fruit trees and flowers to our small garden area. I have a new greenhouse to play with also.
Gosh! I talk so much! Hope ome of this helped!
I also hope I can find my way back here!
NT
