Raised Garden Bed.

[ambenz]

While following Don Long, I liked the idea he did of building a raised garden bed for his wife.
His beds were a little too large for me, but he inspired me on this project.
I got 2 free homemade wooden twin bed bunks off of a local free site.
Cut the bunks down, stacked and secured them on top of each other.
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Added junk Styrofoam along the bottom edges, lined with 4 mil plastic, added a pipe and drain.
Never kept that wood brace inside the box, instead I used two metal straps on the top so I wouldn't compromise the liner.
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Painted the outside with durable porch cement paint.
Then gravel, and dirt....20, 5 gallon buckets of dirt!
Just over 2 feet deep of dirt.....Yes those are pool noodles.
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Side view....
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I also made a greenhouse top....
Front view of the 4 "A" frames holding the greenhouse structure together. I added aluminum wire halfway down the sides of the frames to support the plastic with minimal shadows...
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The green house sits on the top of the pool noodles and is secured with bungees on each end. Seeing condensation already on the inside plastic....Lattice in place when plants outgrow greenhouse and cover comes off.
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This picture shows the location of our raised garden bed in relation to our rain barrels, garden prep table, and property edge.
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The greenhouse already survived 60+ mile per hour winds ...
It will keep our early plants safe from hard rain and cool temps at night. Ready for planting on April 1st. Got my tomato plant, Romaine and spinach, carrots, and radishes.

We are pretty landlocked here on my little piece of turf but it doesn't mean we can't have a garden. It was a fun winter retirement project for futzing in my temperature controlled garage...I love tinkering in there during the winter!

 

[Henricogolfer]

Thanks for sharing, nice work!


Sent from my iPad using Garage Journal

 

[Dagny]

strawberries?

 

[ambenz]

No, the top comes off once the plants get big....1 tomato plant, carrots, Radishes, romaine and spinach, later a zucchini vine up the trellis....already got my tomato plant in, the rest goes in tomorrow.

 

[zippy97]

I like it!

 

[Badhabit]

Very nice. So it is sub irrigated then?

H

 

[ambenz]

No, top with drip or weep tubes...not in pictures.

 

[don long]

Pretty slick Ambenz. The greenhouse effect is a great idea too.
Please keep us posted on how your garden grows

 

[jamesvictor]

I love this. You really did a great job

 

[ambenz]

Pretty slick Ambenz. The greenhouse effect is a great idea too.
Please keep us posted on how your garden grows

Thanks for the inspiration Don! And thanks for all the nice comments everyone.
The greenhouse was a blessing as we had 2 nights of frost warnings.
I put a flannel sheet over it, then another piece of plastic and secured it with push pins.
I put a incandescent light bulb and the outdoor weather sensor inside and even though it was 20F outside, inside the greenhouse was over 40F.
So it saved my early plantings.
We usually don't plant till May 1st here.
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Day 24, the greenhouse cover come off permanently unless I put it up on stilts and use it as a roof, possibly if needed, in the future. Romaine lettuce, spinach, purple onion, medium tomato, radishes, and a variety of carrots in the planter. The buckets get zucchini and cucumbers.
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Guess I am ahead of the game and growing season by about 3+ weeks so instead of tomatoes in August, I should have some mid July.
The wife planted carrots where the zucchini plants were to go...to run up the trellis so I improvised and drilled holes 1/4 up the 5 gallon buckets, filled with rock, then soil mixed with powdered lime and vegetable fertilizer and put the zucchini plants in.
The other bucket is for cucumbers (if I can find any!) as they run up the trellis too.
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I looked into a direct feed system from the rain barrels to drip feeders but the parts were too expensive, but we did find these we use in conjunction with watering stakes...

I am no farmer by any means, just a project we are trying for the second year now. The first year, we tried cloth planters and they were NFG. Hence the raised planter up grade.

 

[brianh]

Careful it can get addicting, in 2016 I built a raised garden with plastic 55 gallon drums cut in half on our rocky hill. The next year made a greenhouse. Last year added another garden. I can enough tomatoes to last until we have more to pick.

I grew a whole bunch of ghost peppers in the greenhouse last year and grow salad greens through the winter.

 

[ambenz]

Brian, nice set up you got there, I like the tub idea you made.
The idea of growing all year round is interesting...how do you keep the greenhouse warm in the winter?
Black rock along the walls?
Heating it with electric or gas could be expensive in the long run.
I try to keep everything on the cheap....
.... but after buying plastic liner, paint, lime, and fertilizer, I am already in it for some money...could buy the veggies at the store cheaper if I invest any more.
You sure got the bug! Canning does make the whole process worth it, but that is a lot of work!

 

[brianh]

mbenz, I grow cold tolerant greens arugula, mustard greens, beets, spinach, to keep them from freezing I have some overhead incandescent lights on a thermostat they kick on at 38 degrees.

I insulated the north east and west walls with 3" insulation a freebie from the school redoing their roof, I got a whole pickup truck load. 30" up the south wall is insulated too. I throw a double folded white tarp over it at night makes a big difference on heat loss

I have a watt meter on it I used just under 200 kwh for the winter so at our rate about 42 dollars worth of electric. But I have solar on the roof of my shop so most of that came from the panels, at our electric rate the panels are close to being paid off in the 7 years we have had them.

Canning is not that big of a process I use a big pressure canner and cold pack the jars I can do 9 one quart mason jars at a time. You are right you can buy a lot of veggies for the time and effort that goes into all of it but I like the time at the end of the day to unwind in the garden and fresh tomatoes are the best. And greens in the winter are great.