Added a dirt extension to grow Carrots, Squash, Onions, Watermelons, Cantaloupes.
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At the same time you plant your carrots through in some radish seeds in the same row with them. The radishes will grow first, and when pulled out will leave very loose soil for the carrots to grow larger.
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Texas Pure Products. It was the cheapest I could find. I recommend buying more than you think you’ll need and storing it in buckets or some other dry storage method because the bed will settle over time and you’ll want to add more soil. You’ll also then have soil for seedlings, pots, etc.
For the initial fill I had them do 50/50 topsoil and compost, and for the refills I’ve been getting just filtered compost. I found that their unfiltered compost had a lot of larger wood chunks, which isn’t bad but isn’t what I wanted when refilling.
Depending on how deep your bed is (mine is 3 feet) you can put logs, leaves, lawn clippings, and other bulky organic filler material to fill the bed up a bit so you don’t need as much soil, but it makes calculating how much soil you need harder and you have to do your research to see what different things will do. For example, too many wood shavings will drop your nitrogen in your bed. If you have a compost pile already going, I’d put the whole pile in the bottom of the bed.
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I have a shade issue in most of my yard, but I have had some luck with figs, black berries, tomatoes, onions, kale, broccolli and many herbs, including basil, cilatro, parsley, mint, sage, rosemary, oregano, time and garlic greens.
Basically, if the plot has enough sun to allow bermuda grass to become a pest, one can grow nearly any herb and some fruits and vegetables to a low yield. If the plot is too shady for bermuda weed, one might still do many herbs but fruits and vegetables won’t perform. Bermuda is trickier than folks might know: As a lawn it will cover poorly with less than 8 of full sun/day, but if it has a chance of annoying you as a weed in a garden plot, it is willing to thrive with as little as four to five hours of full sun/day. This bermuda attitude has turned up in many places unrelated to gardening: for example, copy machines in the 80s and 90s had a panic detection circuit in them. If there was no particular urgency the machine would function nicely, but if the panic detection sensor caught on to user desperation, then the machine would start throwing paper jams without mercy.
Other stuff includes a pecan that squirrels mostly pick over and a pair tree (orient) that the Texas Ag Bureau once described is “good” but I doubt a pig would eat them. I get some pomegrantes some years but they are difficult to eat, though the birds like to try their beaks at it.
I compost much of the fallen tree leaves and garden pruning in a pile organized using a Geotech plastic cylinder about 5’ dia x 4’ high. Takes about a year to get soil like conversion of the core.
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I now mine grows better on the sidewalk than in the lawn…
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I love gardening currently I have about a half acre at my farm of tomatoes squash okra cucumbers and a few others. In the city i pretty much stick to peppers and cucumbers and herbs due to the squirrels. If anyone needs mint mine came back with a vengeance now i have a full bed of mint both large leaf and chocolate.
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I love the smell of chocolate mint, but I don’t dare put it in my garden bed.
I have seven large pecan trees, over 30 years old. I don’t water my yards at all so they are definitely hardy and adapted. They are thin shell and quite good. I live on a corner that is a school bus, the trees are inside my fenceline but cover the sidewalk.
Between the kids and neighbors that glean the side parkway and front yard … they are definitely edible. For several years there was uno abuela y dos nietas (I know grammar wrong no articles) who went for walks everyday, when they got to my house it was like a mini Easter egg hunt - it fun watching them getting excited. They’d usually gather a pint-quart of nuts.
I have a bunch that sprouted in the back yard (I don’t mow it - almost no grass due to shade) I’m letting my yard go feral tress - have differnt kinds and maybe 30-40 at various heights. I want a forest.
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David,
A patch of forest is wonderful and calming to the spirit. You must have a much larger lot than I; a 9000 sq ft lot is dominated by one large pecan (almost 2-1/2’ dia. in trunk) and two large oaks. Much of the yard is in ground covers such as asian jasmine and english ivy. The small patches of lawn only take ten minutes to mow. It is the edging back of ground covers that takes a lot of effort, about three times a year. For a long time I was finding errant baseballs, tennis balls that had flown in from the neighbor’s yard where aspiring pitchers were honing their skills, perhaps in hopes of a college scholarship. Though they would look, rarely could they find what they had lost. English ivy and honeysuckle don’t give it up easily.
Also, one time there were some wisenheimers that drove a vehicle across our front lawns leaving very visible tracks in the soft soil. So, there are now a few large boulders hidden in the ground cover; but to date I haven’t discovered any automotive suspension parts in the front yard.
Stay well,
Bob
April 4
BobKarnaugh:
Other stuff includes a pecan that squirrels mostly pick over
I have seven large pecan trees, over 30 years old. I don’t water my yards at all so they are definitely hardy and adapted. They are thin shell and quite good. I live on a corner that is a school bus, the trees are inside my fenceline but cover the sidewalk.
Between the kids and neighbors that glean the side parkway and front yard … they are definitely edible. For several years there was uno abuela y dos nietas (I know grammar wrong no articles) who went for walks everyday, when they got to my house it was like a mini Easter egg hunt - it fun watching them getting excited. They’d usually gather a pint-quart of nuts.
I have a bunch that sprouted in the back yard (I don’t mow it - almost no grass due to shade) I’m letting my yard go feral tress - have differnt kinds and maybe 30-40 at various heights. I want a forest.
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I’m loving your raised bed garden, but my beloved thinks that the corrugated tin would be cooking roots by July. Have you insulated it in some way? Do you do something to keep soil from getting too hot?
We have so many rabbits and such critters that I’ve moved all salad and herbs inside the house to hydroponic, but am tempted to start up the salad tables once more
This one is at least 15 years old, with screen and hardware cloth bottom. In winter I can hang a light bulb and cover it with a blue tarp and still get romaine and other lettuces til spring.
Not a great picture of the trestle table Mike built me to hold it; but planting and weeding at waist high is a treat. Use FSG soil mix, light and friable.
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I haven’t seen any noticeable increase in soil temperature. All raised beds dry out more quickly than gardening in the ground, but I think that because of how large my beds are there’s just so much to to heat that the increase is negligible. I have noticed that in the metal washtubs I use for planters that the soil gets very hot and dries out very quickly, but they are maybe 3 ft in diameter and about 2 cuft of soil.
I’m going to try that compost ultra in bulk soon
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Nice! We just harvested a bowl full of peas. Eating tons of lettuce, chard, and kale before the sun burns them off.
Got some nectarines coming in too, but I think the fruit is infested with worms already.
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FYI, There is a frost advisory tonight-tomorrow morning
I have to add, thanks to Freddy @yashsedai for the heads up. I watched the past few nights closely but not tonight’s. They might be alright but I don’t feel like taking chances.
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Here is the latest on the hydroponics garden with a bonus feature of the 75 shrubs I planted last night.
Bonus Mad Cat that was not amused… (No Idea whose cat this is)
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That’s a whole lotta shrubs!
Yep! Growing a privacy fence.
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