Frogmom, we decided to try raised bed gardening this year. Did you use the traditional SFG method - with the grids - or just use it as a guide line? We were going to just use the basic idea without the grids. Did you use any special soil or fertilizers? We live in Western Pa, but the tiny piece of property we own is hilly and really clay soil.
We used the grids, they really came in handy.
We assembled 2 X 12s into the 4’X 8’ beds, stapled landscaping cloth to a side, turned it over (cloth down) and then measured off foot lengths of the sides and ends. Then we ran nylon string back and forth, stapling it down at the measured off marks, to create the grid.
We used potting soil, compost, and sphagnum peat moss in about equal parts to fill the beds to about 9” deep. I read that coconut coir is much cheaper and holds the water as well if not better than the peat moss. Next beds we build, I’m going to try that.
The SFG book says you can plant in as little as 6” of soil, but I wanted some carrots, so we went a little wider (deeper) on our framework.
The SFG book says to put 9 green bean plants per square foot. We did that, filling one of our 4’ X 8’ beds with nothing but Blue Lake green beans. I wanted to gauge how much we’d get. I noticed when we were cleaning up at the end of the season that none of the squares had more than 7 plants left, guess the weak plants were crowded out. Seriously thinking about only planting 6 or 7 per SF this year.
We got a MARVELOUS crop, btw. I canned 85 pints of GBs, froze about 5 pounds and dehydrated probably 10 lbs. All out of 4’ X 8’.
We used Miracle Grow once - after everything had sprouted and was starting to grow.