Posted on 08/17/2022 11:12:15 AM PDT by orsonwb
Thinking about starting a Raised Bed Garden? These beautiful and inspiring design ideas can be adapted to almost any space.
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The only thing that has been stopping me from making raised bed gardens is a lack of detailed plans. Problem is now solved.
I have 9 empty cedar raised beds sitting out in my backyard ready for installation. They have been treated with wood preservative to keep their color. They have had 1/4” hardware cloth stapled to the bottoms to keep out voles and other root eaters. I am putting weed cloth and then 2” of 3/4” gravel all around the perimeter of my fenced backyard before arraying the 2 x 8’ beds around the perimeter on top of it. I am installing DigDefense under the fence in the areas between the beds to prevent rabbits and such from burrowing in to help themselves to my plants. And then I will order container soil from a local bulk soil place to plant my hostas, heucheras, ferns, dwarf shrubs, and native perennials in the raised beds. The beds are 16 1/2” deep. I will be excited when they are finally placed and filled so I can plant the plants I’ve been acquiring for them.
We process ours for meat and eggs to make sandwiches for our
store. It was a crossroads stop for Trailways bus line and was a
cross intersection for E/W & N/S US highways. We were out in
the country 13+ miles from the nearest town/city of any size.
A neighbor and I did meat birds one year, Red Rangers. Planned it wrong and hunting season got in the way because there was no way my neighbor was going to take a day out of hunting season. He doesn’t hunt but gets tags and swaps them for deer because some people that come down from the city are more interested in the hunt than the deer.
Birds ended up a little overgrown. In hindsight, it would have been best to take the males one day and take the females a week or so later. I got the less messy job if killing them, scolding and running through the plucker. He got to yank the innards out. He wasn’t interested in killing them and I made the plucker so that’s how it worked out.
I didn’t have a problem eating them. Day old chicks are so expensive now, it’s hardly worth the effort. Even the ones we did ended up being close to $6 per bird though they were close to 6 lbs too.
Out of the 25 Red Rangers, one had different coloring so my daughter claimed it as hers. Almost Buckeye chicken coloring. I had ordered 24 birds so I saved that one back and stuck her in with the laying hens. She had grown as fast as the meat birds but ended up laying a big pinkish brown egg every other day. Could have been a good start of my own custom breed but coons got my laying hens.
The guy at Sandhill Preservation Center at one time said he wanted to work on breeding Delaware chickens for their original purpose. They almost became the standard meat bird but then the Cornish Cross was developed. Latest is that he’s just breeding them as dual purpose but there are plenty of heritage dual purpose breeds already. The all take several months to get to butcher weight as opposed to the 42 day Cornish Cross.
Bkmk
Interesting
Me too, and this year even the ground hogs enjoyed them, ate every last tomato :(
Beau was in construction for-ever so he was always hauling home wood from jobs that was just going to the landfill.
He built me a few at a time, so it was very economical...until the last two. He almost had a heart attack over the price of the wood, but it was for my Birthday, so he got over it, LOL!
When we were still dating, he built me 9 of them at my other farm. It was a dream come true. I mean, who courts you with raised garden beds? *HEART* How could I say no? LOL!
...rabbits...
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Buggers got ALL my carrots & beans!!
Doing rail planters for next year.
I’ve used the commercial Earth Bags in the past and they can mold if there is extended high humidity, too.
... heavy soil....
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I’ve gardened in heavy soil with a lot of clay. It can dry out and crack if aren’t careful.
Wanted to expand on it and add another 6x8 ft addition this spring but was too lazy.
Lots of fun when having to deal with all land being common area in my detached condo association.
I grow everything in a raised bed or container. So much easier and better yield.
I hate that when it happens! I put a 4 1/2’ fence around the beds. Still...you can only slow down some of those critters. A severe lack of rain and a very hot and windy summer have hurt our production this summer.
Me too, the thick green plastic to protect from rabbits, now I'll step it up to thick chicken wire for the ground hogs.
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