Tips For First Time Gardener's

[JDGreenGrass]

I am going to give raised bed gardening a try.

I am thinking 2 beds, 4' by 6'......Or, 3 beds, 4' by 4'.

Vegetables and herbs with high bush blueberries nearby the beds.

I want the garden to be pleasing to the eye as a landscaped area as well as productive.

I've got loam to start with. Should I mix the loam with compost or manure of some sort.?? Is mulch good for between the rows and around the outside of the beds.??

I am "green." Never done this before so I need all the in-put I can get.....so, thanks in advance.

( hope this thread is ok here....mention your tractor to keep it on topic.:thumbsup

 

[jimmyj]

Loam is good. You can't go wrong amending with finished compost or triple mix though.

Blueberries need acidic soil, so do a soil test if you can. You can acidify the soil by adding pine needles. We have never had much luck with blueberries at our place but if you get them to grow they taste great.

With raised beds, the soil will warm up sooner than the level ground and dry out faster too. You may have to use mulch to keep it from going through a quick wet dry cycle (that will stress plants, tomatoes in particular).

We have made raised beds out of cedar timbers in the past. I have avoided pressure treated or railway ties because in principle less chemicals is better in my book. That said, I'm not judging anyone who has used them, it's just been out choice.

There are some really good gardening pics on this forum.

Here are some links you may find helpful.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/155578-how-much-compost.html

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/137905-aint-no-garden-eden.html

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/155465-new-garden-when-add-amendments.html

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/134522-question-garden-startup.html

There are all sorts more too. Somewhere there is a member who built really attractive raised beds but I can't find the thread.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

Ah ha.....So, the blueberries desire a different soil than the garden. In other words...acidic soil is not good for vegetables.??....correct.??

So much to learn.

BTW, great links. Thanks.

 

[jimmyj]

I would not say either too acidic or too alkaline for veggies, but I am not really an expert. For example, potatoes will get scab if the soil is too alkaline. I have a book about gardening by an old timer named "Dick Raymond" and it's great.

We find that adding well rotted compost (made from our manure and that from an adjacent horse farm) keeps everything "just about right" naturally. The compost adds fertilizer, keeps the ph slightly alkaline, adds organic material for aeration and water retention. Our soil here is really sandy so we mulch with compost too as it dries out too fast and also the nutrients leach out quickly. It works great. If I were to show you two garden beds, one with the compost in and as mulch, and another just the soil, the plants in the amended bed would be much greener and more robust. I have not been able to get nearly the same results with chemical fertilizers.

As for the blueberries, you may need something different for them but you won't know until you find out what you already have got. Are there wild blueberries around your place? What sort of wildflowers and trees grow naturally? For example, pines and oaks often do well in acidic conditions. Some flowers, like indians paintbrushes thrive in acidic soil. Study what nature has been successful with and capitalize on it if you can.

 

[955er]

Blueberries are just tough. Need the correct ph in the soil or they fail.

I have strawberry beds, fruit trees, rasberries, asparagus, etc, so I have tried them all. Blueberrieis turn my thumb brown.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

The Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences at the University of Maine just might be a goldmine of information. In the mid-west, the ag schools have offices and programs for gardeners in many county seats, but they probably don't have a lot of insight on crops in your neck of the woods.

 

[rcrcomputing]

I've 15 4x8 beds.
Mulch in between.

If I built them over again, I debate making them 3.5'x8'

I also put a 2x4 raised up about 21 inches on each bed. Makes nice to tie the remesh tomato cages to and for a hand hold.

If you plan to plant this year. Add 2 bags of finished compost to each bed, and 1 bag of manure, and maybe a bit of peat moss. (Easy on the peat as it adds acid, but has little nutritional value). It does help hold moisture. Also add a bit of bone meal. Squash and green peppers love it.

Then, make a "catch" out of waferboard or something and as your helper throws leaves on the ground, drive over them and they land in the catch. Now you have some leaf mulch to put between your plants to eliminate weeds. (Lay the mulch on thick as it will pack way down over time.)

At the end of the year, you turn the leaf mulch over in the bed. By next spring, it has turned into compost so you don't need to buy any more. And your worms will love you. Compost bins are a pain anyway and you don't need them..

Note: In the spring, do not be too quick to add them chopped up leaves to the beds. It tends to keep the ground temperature colder and your plants will not grow as good. Wait a bit to add the mulch. (I tested this and found it to be true.)


I've gotten longer winded than I meant to. But the last thing I'd add to this is, as you get your organic matter built up in the soil, it tends to be the "great equalizer" for soil PH.

 

[NSBound]

Get your soil analysis done. In Maine, I'll guess that your soil is already naturally acidic and perfect for blueberries, as it is here in Nova Scotia. So if you add compost and manure in the raised bed areas for your veggies, you'll have good growing conditions for everything else. And I'll second Jimmy's comments about the importance of mulch. For raised beds the size you're thinking and if you want tomatoes, I'd reserve one whole bed for them, that way you can better control slugs and other crawlies that might damage your plants. Prepare really tall stakes for your tomatoes. Taller than you think. I'd go 5'. Or get a sheet of the 4"X4" wire mesh they use as cement reinforcement and cut it into circles 18" across, tie them together with wire or zip ties, (so you have a circle 18" around by 4' high) and train the plants to grow up inside them, shoving the branches higher as the plants grow.

Good luck, post periodic result pics!

 

[JDGreenGrass]

I am going to get the soil tested. I hear for $7 the local Extension office will test it and give good insight as to what will grow well in that soil.

I'm taking this all in. Thanks.

 

[forgeblast]

we have 12 4x8 beds made from landscape timbers. work great and perfect size to reach across. the blueberrys we have are planted slightly elevated hilled to keep their roots from getting waterlogged. I then mulch them with double ground hardwood mulch to keep them weed free and use Holly tone as my fertalizer. Just dont fertalize to late in the season, and you will be fine.