All Beds Turned

IMG_2006, a photo by Pike-uliar Gardenings on Flickr.

Turned over the last three beds this weekend. Everything is looking good, but my back hurts a bit. The leaf mulch has cooked down quite a bit and we'll have to augment with compost and maybe even a bag or two of topsoil or compost. If you click through on the above image, there are "notes" that provide extra info.

One thing I noticed is that the roots of the cover crop are quite substantial and provide at least half of the biomass. Hope it breaks down pretty quick. I have heard of people covering up beds with burlap bags to help break things down. unfortunately, I don't have those.

Beer Bottle Raised Beds

From:
http://urbanfoodproduction.tumblr.com/post/2395098664/using-rolling-rock-beer-bottles-to-make-a-raised

Woah! Idea of the year. Raised bed built from beer bottles. Nice one, mate! So...I must admit that this is, in no way, a new idea. In the recent past, I have stumbled past the embodiment of this idea in one of my favorite Seattle neighborhoods and thought, "oh my...that's a bit odd." But then I saw this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14903992@N08/3457062590/ and after a bit, I have started thinking it might be worth a try. Here's to beer bottles in the garden! Oh...I should add...I will be using 22's. They have greater length and stability. Also, they are delicious.

This is interesting as well: http://www.digginfood.com/2008/11/innovative-raised-beds/

Bed Building Mistake #1

IMG_4054
Originally uploaded by okfuskee

So I forgot to mention - the first bed I built came out a little whopper-jawed. I built the sides - 4 by 4's and 3 by 2s and then brought all the pieces out to the yard separately. I did this since there were lots of things growing already including the sacred tomatoes. So the plan was to assemble the thing in situ (hooray for Latin!) . Anyway - big mistake. It was incredibly hard to drill screw that baby together and I pulled all kinds of muscles contorting myself to get good drill angles. First and last one I did that way.

Filling the Raised Beds

IMG_4979
Originally uploaded by okfuskee

One of the things holding me back from doing the raised beds thing was not knowing what to fill them with. Composting wasn't producing enough. Couldn't use the dirt we have in the yard - mostly clay. I wasn't going to buy that much composted material. that stuff is way too expensive for something you can just make.

Finally, I settled on using county leaf mulch. That stuff is ground up pretty good and we have been putting it on the side of the house where it turned into good black compost in not too long. For years I have been driving down to the Free Mulch site down on S. Taylor street. Been stinkin up the car bringing load after load up that hill. But this time, we had it delivered. It cost $40 I think, but was very much worth it. We got the full load...which wa s alot bigger in real life than in the pictures. Took two solid days to move it all into the beds. Now it just needs to turn into compost. Not sure about that part. At the very least, the layer down near the dirt should turn.

Raised Beds

IMG_4988
Originally uploaded by okfuskee

Built these raised beds this Summer and Fall. I became convinced that this is the way to go after struggling with the clay and fill dirt in the yard for about three years. Also - my wife had been prodding me to go this direction for a while.

Each bed took about half a day to build - though I usually spread the work out over a weekend. I, more or less, followed the advice outlined at this site. I liked the idea they had of using PVC piping to make a little structure over the beds that could hold clear plastic or row cover...I haven't done that yet, though. Next year maybe. It was very useful having two drills - one for making the holes and a smaller rechargeable for installing the screws. I also needed two pretty big clamps for when the wood was warped. Beer was also pretty helpful....always goes well with power tools. Photos of the all big bed buildin' action are here.

The wood is untreated cedar and a little pricy. But still cheaper than buying ready made beds. The only place I could find it was ABC Distributors in South Arlington right near the Weenie Beanie. Yup...I said, Weenie beanie.

The cedar seems to come in a couple different levels of quality and if I could go back in time, I would go for the better stuff. I would have also asked if they could have ordered me some more 2 x 6's instead of the 2 x 4's I was mostly using. That would have helped with the cost I believe.

I made 8 beds: one at 2x10, 2 beds at 2x5, 4 beds at 4x8 and one at 4x6. And those are feet. Most are about 11 inches high. I was aiming for about 2 feet in between, but went a little smaller in some places to grab more sun.

The first one was assembled in place. Very bad idea. Better to build and later move.

One odd thing I learned is 2x4s and 4x4s aren't actually the size they say. 2 by 4's are more like 1.5 x 3.5. 4x4s...I am guessing they are more like 3.5 by 3.5. I guess the 2x4 designation refers to their size before they get dried or cooked or whatever happens before it gets to you. All my life I thought 2 by 4s were 2 by 4. But nope.

Later we will cover the paths with cardboard and then perhaps wood mulch. That is the plan anyway.