When Savvy Gardening’s Tara Nolan launched her first book, Raised Bed Revolution, the timing was perfect for me. With photography for my book, Veggie Garden Remix scheduled for spring/summer/fall, I had already decided to completely renovate my own vegetable garden. I knew I wanted raised beds and was able to adopt many of Tara’s ideas and suggestions into my brand new kitchen garden.
We did however, hit a snag. The lumber arrived, and just as we were ready to start building the raised beds, my husbands back gave out. For weeks. The poor guy was stuck on the couch and we therefore needed to go to plan B. We brought back the contractor who had prepped the site, and it took just two days for his team to build, arrange, and fill the raised beds. They also installed the new posts for our electric deer fence. We were over-budget, but back in business!
Gardening in my raised beds:
It’s been just over three weeks since construction was finished and I’ve been slowing planting up the twenty raised beds. Sweet peas were the first seeds to be planted – they’re my favourite flower and will offer us months of fragrant blooms. We then started sowing seeds for edible peas, as well as salad greens, and root crops. Plus, the hundreds of seedlings that I had started indoors under my grow lights were hardened off and plugged into the beds.
I’ve also been busy building vertical elements; four trellises, two A-frame trellises, cucumber trellises, three tunnels and 24 tomato stakes. To keep weeds down and boots clean, the pathways have been lined in cardboard and mulched with shredded bark.
Related post: 4 reasons to plant new-to-you edibles
Below, the same bed just three weeks later. Using my grow lights to start these seeds indoors gave me a huge six week head start on the growing season.
As for the structures, the two smaller tunnels will support six varieties of pole beans, while the widest tunnel will provide vertical space for various Asian and Indian cucumbers.
Have you made any updates or changes to your vegetable garden for the season?
Good God……I’m tired just looking at the work involved! I bet you are not skimping as this is The Garden of Your Dreams. And I bet you have had plenty of ideas for some years that you can now put in place. Great job! I hope your husbands back is soon back to top form.
Looks awesome! I’m on my fourth year of no-till, intensive raised bed vegetable gardening, and I don’t think I want to go back to the way I did it before. It just makes too much sense this way.
Thanks Mark!! I have to say that this has been an outstanding garden year for me with these new raised beds.. some of the new soil I had to bring in was definitely not as fertile as my ‘old’ soil that we saved.. I’ll be going in to high gear with cover crops to get the new soil up to par! 🙂 – Niki
Absolutely, Nikki! It has been a very productive year for gardening in New England as well despite the drought. I find it hard to believe that I was able to pick enough peppers to can 22 pints of peppers off of 12 plants in 12 square feet! I know it’s not sustainable; we need rain. Hopefully we get a lot of “poor man’s fertilizer” this winter (aka: snow).
You’re so right Mark!! The ground IS. SO. DRY!! It’s been a challenge to get my fall crops established with such dry soil. I’ve got to go pick more peppers today – night temps are getting very cold! 🙂
Hi Niki, just bought a 1/2 acre to garden outside winnipeg. Just bought your book but i am wondering , are your raised beds built with 2- 2×6s or 2x8s.?i plan on planting pretty much same as you have. Thank you and consider me part of your team.
Bev
Hi Bev.. thanks for your comments!! 🙂 Much appreciated.. A new space is so exciting for you! My raised beds are 4 by 8 and 4 by 10 feet.. The wood is 8 inches wide, so each bed is 16 inches tall. Perfect for sitting. My design is in this post – http://savvygardening.com/vegetable-garden-design/ – Feel free to copy! 🙂 It’s a big space, but I spend less than an hour per week working – during the main season.. in spring and for fall planting, it requires more work of course. Mulching the beds with straw REALLY helps with weeds and watering. Big time! Keep us posted – can’t wait to see your progress! – Niki
Hi. I have had rabbit problems in the past with my ground-level gardens. How high do I need to build my raised beds to deter the rabbits (AKA vegetable eaters)? Thank you.
Hi Wendy, A chicken wire fence (with 1″ chicken wire) is probably your best (and cheapest) bed. The chicken wire should be at least 24 inches tall, although you can also buy 30 and 36 inch tall chicken wire too. Have it secured to the ground, or even buried 6 inches underground to deter rabbits. Raised beds would need to be at least 24 inches tall to keep rabbits out and even that may not be 100% effective. Good luck! Niki