Raised beds and gardens

   / Raised beds and gardens #21  
We have raised beds in several places. We built a 24x36 hoop house, and did a "U" beds around the outside walls, and a large center bed down the middle. I use 4" cinderblock on the beds, I go 4 block high, right around waist level. We love them. Weeds never get a chance to even start.


On the outside, lower side of the hoop house, I built a cinderblock bed just for strawberries. It is 32" deep, and about 75' long. We get about 10 gallons of berries from that bed. Also, ran an 18" wide bed on ground level with the hoop house, but to work them, we access from the lower side (where knock out rose bed is).

You can see the bed to the left side of this photo:

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Ground level bed:

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This is a shot of the bed from the lower side. The wall in the back is the outside, lower wall of the hoop house. I drilled 1/4" holes in the mortar joints, and stick a bent 9ga wire in them every few feet. That supports bird netting during growing season, and allows us to quickly throw a frost cover over it if it looks like a frost will hit in early spring.

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We also grow strawberries in plastic barrels. They hold about 50 plants per barrel.

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Here is a shot of the "U" beds in the hoop house. Did the beds first, then built the house over the top of them. The bed on the left has since been raised to same height.....32". Beds are 32" deep also.

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Pouring the floor before building the center bed:

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Built the center bed, loading with tractor from front doors. Center bed is 60" wide, inside.

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Shot from last fall. We ate fresh stuff all winter.

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Another greenhouse we have for starting early plants. The bed in front is a berm for the building, and doubles as another strawberry bed.

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   / Raised beds and gardens #24  
I built four 2'x20'x16" beds for my wife last year. She wants me to build more this year. These will have to be a bit wider and not as long.

She likes them because there is less bending over. Another advantage is that they keep the rabbits out if they are more than 12" tall. They do require more watering though. They are also not easy to dig up with a tiller, but it is possible to do it.
12 inches is enough to keep rabbits out? We still garden like there's no tomorrow, but I was thinking raised beds for herbs. Is chicken wire needed at 12"?
 
   / Raised beds and gardens #25  
Nothing fancy here, but they work. Just some old corrugated iron, screwed together at the corners. They can be picked up and moved. I've made 9 of these so far and might make more. Most now have hoops of polypipe and shadecloth attached with loose cable ties, easily pulled over the top in summer. Keeping them watered is the main problem here (hence the shadecloth) but I also wish i had fully covered the base with plastic to help retain water.
 

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   / Raised beds and gardens #26  
We have raised beds in several places. We built a 24x36 hoop house, and did a "U" beds around the outside walls, and a large center bed down the middle.

Wow, very impressive. :thumbsup: Tell me some more about the hoops in the hoop house. Your design or something commercial?
 
   / Raised beds and gardens #27  
Nothing fancy here, but they work. Just some old corrugated iron, screwed together at the corners. They can be picked up and moved. I've made 9 of these so far and might make more. Most now have hoops of polypipe and shadecloth attached with loose cable ties, easily pulled over the top in summer. Keeping them watered is the main problem here (hence the shadecloth) but I also wish i had fully lined the base with plastic to help retain water.

That is a clever design also. I could get the same color metal as the house roof.
 
   / Raised beds and gardens #28  
How do your strawberries in the barrels do? I've been thinking about building a few of those myself.

Last year was our first try doing that. I used Miracle Grow potting soil to fill them, which I think was a mistake.....they grew like crazy....real lush foliage, but almost no berries. Pretty sure that was too rich a mix. Over wintered them in the hoop house, and now they are loaded with berries.
 
   / Raised beds and gardens #29  
Wow, very impressive. :thumbsup: Tell me some more about the hoops in the hoop house. Your design or something commercial?

No, they are 'home grown'....literally. White oak strips cut off my place (got a Woodmizer sawmill, everything on the place built out of timber off the place).

We took 1/2" x3" strips, laminated 2 together (Titebond III glue and screws) on either side of a 2" block.

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Just did it as sort of an experiment. IF I build another, I'll buy that hoop bender from Johnny's Seeds (or someplace)and use chainlink fence top rail. This looks really cool, but was a lot of work, plus I had to go back inside and run some 1/4" steel cable from side to side to keep it from spreading outward.....but there IS that cool factor....ahahahaaaa...
 
   / Raised beds and gardens #30  
We have two different sets--4 x 8 and 3 x 5, all built out of rough sawn cedar.

My wife and FIL (who is 72) find the 3' width easier to work in from each side.

Because of the high clay soil we have and the drought of the last 8 years, we also have started to Hugelkultur in the beds.

hugelkultur: the ultimate raised garden beds

The first year in the beds is okay, but by year 3, the beds are fantastic.
 

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