EZ raised garden beds - how to

[B. de Corbin]

You will need:
1.2.3.4. Basic tools - measuring tape, framing hammer, saw (power or handsaw. You only have to make two simple cuts), pencil, beer.



Step 1:Step 2:Step 3: Prop one of the two foot boards you cut under one end of one of the 8 foot boards and finish pounding the nails so that they go all the way into the boards. Unless you have an assistant this is going to require you to do some fancy balancing - having the nails already partly hammered in makes this much easier! Once you have one end done, get that second two foot board and bang it on to the other side.



Step 4:Step 5:Step 6:Step 7 (optional):Step 8: Cool off with a beer. I recommend Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Sam Adams Noble Pils is nice too, but the Sierra Nevada uses American grown cascade hops and is really outstanding!



Tips:

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

Very nice! Of course, the only parts I think I could actually do are drink the beer and pick out the gnome/fairy.

[thalassa]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

I know its not exactly the same...but for people that need a fall project so they can start their gardens earlier in the spring, check out Colonial Wmsburg's display gardens cold frames:

[B. de Corbin]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

Very nice! Of course, the only parts I think I could actually do are drink the beer and pick out the gnome/fairy.

LOL - yes, well, they're both important jobs - it's bad to drink alone, so when you drink with somebody, you're doing them a favor, and adding an aesthetic touch to practical landscaping is the mark of a truly civilized person.

But, if I can ask without intruding on your privacy - why is that the only part of the work you can do?


Cold frames are going to be my project sooner or later. I really like the ones you've shown from Williamsburg, Thalassa - such an extraordinary example of human engineering. If somebody were to "invent" the cold frame today, it would almost certainly be made out of plastic and foam insulation much like a modern cooler.

But our ancestors were able to built something that worked every bit as good (or even better) out of simple materials they had on hand. The glass would have been phenomenally expensive at the time, but the boards were probably left over from building other things, the straw insulation would have been everywhere for the taking, and the woven willows are a very quick and easy way of building a light retaining wall to hold up the straw.

I'm not really enamored with the idea of doing farming "the old way," because I've done it that way, and it ain't pretty or fun, and it leaves you absolutely no time for anything else. But when the old way works as well or better than the modern way, is as easy if not easier, and is as cheap or cheaper (this is where the old ways really excel) then I call it "the best way."

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Maybe it is, but the father of invention is the very laudable human desire to get out of working any harder than you need to...

---------- Post added at 06:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:39 PM ----------

Oh - P.S.

when I build cold frames, instead of using glass I'll use plexiglass. The reason has to do with safety - the cold frames are low to the ground. If somebody were to trip and fall into one, glass would be a disaster. Plexiglass, however, will just bounce.

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

I'm not at all "handy" and have some physical limitations when it comes to lifting/pushing/pulling. (Plus I support myself doing what could only be called "indoor work" LOL) I very much enjoy hearing about these kinds of projects though! Especially when they are explained as well as you have here. I have learned a great deal about farming, etc. in the last couple of years. I think everyone should know a lot about where their food comes from - but a lot of city/suburban people really don't know anything about it.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

I'm not at all "handy" and have some physical limitations when it comes to lifting/pushing/pulling. (Plus I support myself doing what could only be called "indoor work" LOL) I very much enjoy hearing about these kinds of projects though! Especially when they are explained as well as you have here. I have learned a great deal about farming, etc. in the last couple of years. I think everyone should know a lot about where their food comes from - but a lot of city/suburban people really don't know anything about it.

Thanks for the compliment!

Sorry to hear that you have trouble with the lifting - that does put a damper on things.

You may be right - people maybe ought to know where there food comes from, but one thing is for sure - raising a bit of your own food does provide a bit of soul satisfaction that you can'g get any other way.

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

Thanks for the compliment!

Sorry to hear that you have trouble with the lifting - that does put a damper on things.

You may be right - people maybe ought to know where there food comes from, but one thing is for sure - raising a bit of your own food does provide a bit of soul satisfaction that you can'g get any other way.

I was about 10 or 11 years old when I learned that "beef" was "cow". It freaked me out! LOL

[B. de Corbin]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

LOL - I can beat that. I have a friend who was startled and surprised to discover that eggs are a psrt of a chicken's reproductive cycle, and that roosters don't lay them.

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

Ha! That's pretty good!
I don't remember when I learned where eggs came from, but I was upset about chicken on my plate being an actual bird. Later in life I was a vegetarian for quite a while and I think these traumatic discoveries probably led to that.
My mother used to buy those bags of frozen veggies - the little square bits of carrots, etc. I don't think I knew what a real carrot looked like till about age 10 or so. Country kids have a huge advantage over city kids by knowing these things from birth.

[LadyGarnetRose]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

I used a round, manufactured from recycled plastics and wood fiber beds for my garden, the original 12 have held up through a Northern Montana winter, and summer already, and are still going strong. They are much easier to use than real wood, and they don't decompose like real wood. They're called Easy Gardner, they are 4 feet in diameter so easy to reach across, and not so large that I couldn't fill them on my own.

Raised beds is the best way to go for most vegetable gardens if one has not been planted for YEARS in the spot you want to plant, plus after the initial set up they are a breeze to take care of.

Though even with the raised beds, this year we completely lost the garden due to floods.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

You lost the garden!

Bloody hell, LadyGarnetRose, that's 20 megatons worth of suckyness! Is the house OK? There have been some major, major storms this year. Hopefully, this is a rare occurance.

I'm real sorry to hear about this...

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

I'm sorry to hear that, too. A lot was lost this year due to flooding in some parts of the US. What a shame....

[LadyGarnetRose]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

You lost the garden!

Bloody hell, LadyGarnetRose, that's 20 megatons worth of suckyness! Is the house OK? There have been some major, major storms this year. Hopefully, this is a rare occurance.

Thankfully the way the house was built it's fine. No water damage in the crawl space even. We have an extensive french drain we found out about when we were putting in the garden. And thank all that is holy it did it's job perfectly. The rest of the place is like a swamp though.

I'm real sorry to hear about this...

Thank you. It's helped in someways though, what we did right during the wet times and what we have done majorly wrong. Thankfully right now we can afford the loss, in the future we might not have been able to.

I'm sorry to hear that, too. A lot was lost this year due to flooding in some parts of the US. What a shame....

Thank you. Yes the flooding is odd to say the least. We are very thankful because we could have lost a whole lot more.

[Amber]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

OH I can't wait to do something like this! One of the many reasons why I'm glad my hubby is/was a carpenter! But I'm pretty sure its too late to start anything in my area since its dead heat of the summer time

[B. de Corbin]

Re: EZ raised garden beds - how to

OH I can't wait to do something like this! One of the many reasons why I'm glad my hubby is/was a carpenter! But I'm pretty sure its too late to start anything in my area since its dead heat of the summer time

Well, you can do it the way I do - frantically hammer things together while trying to keep ahead of my planting schedule, or you could do it the way I should be doing it - putting it all together during the off season...

If your hubby is a carpenter, you'll probably have to stop him form doing too good a job... he might try to make them look as nice as a coffee table .