[monica]

I am completely in love with your garden! I was wondering if you or your DH would be willing to give a little instruction as to how to create these boxes? i.e....

What kind of wood can/can't you use?
Do you have to put anything in the bottom? Do anything to the grass? Or just fill it in with dirt?

What kind of dirt do you put in? There are so many "types" of dirt at the garden centers!

How long does this last (how many years can you use the same raised beds?)

can't think of any other questions.

Thanks!!

[Faith]

I would love to know too. Hopefully, it's something I can do myself.

[marbear]

I think it is awesome, too...so attractive when, let's face it, gardens are not the highlight of your landscape. I'd love to have one, but my DH is not a builder type...more of an electricial/computer type. Do you have any idea on the cost for materials (the lumber) and how much dirt is required to fill it?

[MaxxMe]

I was wondering the same thing! I have physical limitations that prevent me from getting down on my hands and knees to do proper gardening. Raised beds would be awesome!!!

[WishfulThinking]

Wow! You guys are so sweet!!! Squarefoot gardening is actually something I stumbled across through my church. There's a website with PREMADE garden beds you can buy here: The Official Site of Square Foot Gardening and Mel Bartholomew, Originator and Author There's also a book out for it. TONS of information!!

But to answer your specific questions here ya go:

Originally Posted by monica

I am completely in love with your garden! I was wondering if you or your DH would be willing to give a little instruction as to how to create these boxes? i.e....

What kind of wood can/can't you use?
Do you have to put anything in the bottom? Do anything to the grass? Or just fill it in with dirt?

What kind of dirt do you put in? There are so many "types" of dirt at the garden centers!

How long does this last (how many years can you use the same raised beds?)

can't think of any other questions.

Thanks!!

1. Instruction for these boxes.
HAHAH Depends on the style you wanna have. This is our third set of squarefoot gardening raised bed boxes. These are my favorites. I'll allude to the others a little bit, but mostly focus on these.

According to square foot gardening plans, you need to have a 4 foot by 4 foot area to plant that is about 6 inches deep. All of the boxes my hubbie made are a little shy of 4 by 4... just because of the way the wood is cut, fits together, etc.

He bought 2 foot by 6 foot treated wood lumber that was 8 feet long. He cut those down to 4 foot long. He used L brackets and Straight brackets to hold 'em all together. (I will get out there and get pictures of those for ya later today.)

In the past we have used Landscape Timbers and just stacked them on top of each. You can drill a hole down the side and stick some re-bar (steel posts) to hold them together.

2. What kind of wood can/can't you use?
Use your imagination! Hehe... There's plastic, vinyl, treated and untreated. Depends on what you like, want it to look, how long to last, etc. Moveable, shape, height, etc etc...

As stated above, we used treated lumber this time and have used treated landscape timbers in the past. The website that sells 'em premade uses plastic or vinyl. Very cool stuff!

3. Do you have to put anything in the bottom?
I am not sure what you mean by this... but here's what we did for our beds this time. They hadd to be leveled so hubbie did have to rig that up a bit with scrap wood. We will be mulching around all the beds soon too so that will help with mowing.

After the beds were all setup and ready for filling, the kiddos and I went out there and stacked newspapers EVERYWHERE in there. Then we put LOTS and LOTS of compost (we have a local place where you can pick up city leaves compost for free) on top of the newspaper. Then came our dirt.

In the past (when we were not so organically idealized... hehe...) Hubbie sprayed round-up inside our beds and then put the compost and dirt in from there. You could use weed guard or whatever... even nothing at all in beds over 1 foot tall.

4. Do anything to the grass? Or just fill it in with dirt?
oops! Got ahead of myself there... see above.

5. What kind of dirt do you put in?
The squarefoot gardening site and book has better specifications on this then I do. The dirt ph balance and things like that for the specific plants you intend to plant may be important too. We are cheepies here though... HAHAHA Hubbie got the free compost and then turned to the city once again and picked up river bottom "sludge" dirt for about $8 a trailer load. We used 2 trailers loads for all of our garden beds to be filled (after the compost).

Hubbie says to contact gravel pits for top soil in bulk. Landscape companies selling in bulk will be marking up their soil. Garden centers selling it by the bag is hugely expensive.

6. How long does this last (how many years can you use the same raised beds?)
Until you take them down? HAHAHA No really, treated wood can work like this for over 10 years, or so hubbie has stated. You just add more compost or dirt and keep planting. You need to rotate your crops so that disease isn't built up and pay attention to plant families when you rotate (peppers and tomatoes are similiar so you need to rotate them in different beds, or keep them all together wherever they are put). There's not much more then that though. I love squarefoot gardening. It's been such a blessing to find this form of gardening!

Originally Posted by marbear

I think it is awesome, too...so attractive when, let's face it, gardens are not the highlight of your landscape. I'd love to have one, but my DH is not a builder type...more of an electricial/computer type. Do you have any idea on the cost for materials (the lumber) and how much dirt is required to fill it?

My garden pales in comparison to my mother-in-laws. Her's is AWESOME!! I will definately have to get pictures of that up. She does not squarefoot garden, but her garden has little nooks and crannies of this and that... it's almost like a treasure hunt. It's huge and yet still landscaped in it's own way somehow. I enjoy poking around in her's as much as I do mine.

As for the cost, it really is going to vary depending on the price of lumber and the size of your garden. Our garden was around the $200 mark for the whole thing (not including plants). I fully intend to grow my own plants next year.

We used 2 trailer loads of dirt and 2 trailer loads of compost. So our total is about 1 ton compost and 2-3 ton of dirt. Once again though, hubbie knows his stuff and where to find landscape supplies like this without breaking the bank.

Originally Posted by MaxxMe

I was wondering the same thing! I have physical limitations that prevent me from getting down on my hands and knees to do proper gardening. Raised beds would be awesome!!!

Hubbie is going to make a REALLY raised bed for my grandma next week! I am using a HUGE rubbermaid sweater box (might be a bit shorter then 6 inches, but I'll make up for that with quality soil). He's going to put it on a stand. I will mix ProMix (a type of potting soil you can get) and peat moss (buying it in compressed form). Then I am going to get her 2 tomato plants, 1 squash, 1 lettuce and maybe 2 other little things.

There's awesome ideas on the squarefoot gardening site for REALLY raised beds like you are looking at.

There... is that all of them for now???
I'll try and get some pictures posted later. You can really just follow directions to a T on the website or in the book... or make up your own... like we do.

[Faith]

Thank you so much for the info. I can start planning for next year. After seeing your beautiful garden, it's something I'd really like to try.

[monica]

Wow!! That is so completely cool. And I am completely jealous!

You should see our garden. It is a MESS. DH doubled the size of it this year, but didn't plan anything. It is overridden with weeds. He goes out there every few days and literally rototills around the plants! I just don't even hardly go out there anymore.

THIS gets me excited about gardening again! Thanks so much for sharing all the info and the site!

[jmwolff]

The square ft garden concept is awesome, just make sure you either really follow his soil instructions, or you fertalize well. I had a disaster 2 years in a row, nothing grew..and I know now it was the soil that was the problem. I bought all the manure, peatmoss, etc (no topsoil) but I didn't get the right nutrients in by composting.

[WishfulThinking]

Originally Posted by Faith

Thank you so much for the info. I can start planning for next year. After seeing your beautiful garden, it's something I'd really like to try.

Your welcome! I'm glad our garden inspired more people to look at garden a bit differently. I love to garden and have missed it sooo much over the last few years.

Originally Posted by monica

Wow!! That is so completely cool. And I am completely jealous!

You should see our garden. It is a MESS. DH doubled the size of it this year, but didn't plan anything. It is overridden with weeds. He goes out there every few days and literally rototills around the plants! I just don't even hardly go out there anymore.

THIS gets me excited about gardening again! Thanks so much for sharing all the info and the site!

Don't be jealous... make your own! Hehehe...

I hate weeding. This form of gardening makes weeding a snap. Hubbie was just out there yesterday and weeded the whole garden in under an hour. I usually have the kiddos out there helping me when I weed. They've gotten very good at it too. No bending at all for them they just reach right in to the bed at their height and have at it. Hehe...

I can't wait to see all the awesome square foot gardens that show up next year here!!! You could probably even get started on it this year with setting up plans and getting supply prices. Watch for great sales on lumber during the summer now too.

Originally Posted by jmwolff

The square ft garden concept is awesome, just make sure you either really follow his soil instructions, or you fertalize well. I had a disaster 2 years in a row, nothing grew..and I know now it was the soil that was the problem. I bought all the manure, peatmoss, etc (no topsoil) but I didn't get the right nutrients in by composting.

YES! The soil is very important, as with any garden. The great thing about raised beds is that you get to bring in the best dirt and not have to worry if you currently have clay or anything else on the ground. The soil hubbie get's is VERY rich. We add fertilizer later in the summer (like right about now) but other then that our plants thrive. I do recommend following the "Mel's Mix" plan to the T if you can't get your hands on any really good dirt though.

PS-I'm going to take pictures today. It rained last night after I made my other post so I could not get out there. I'm going to go out sometime this morning and get them. I need to balance our checkbook first though. UGH... hehe... more fun to be in the garden!