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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2015 17:05:13 GMT
Gardening is the highlight of my year. I love spring and starting my seeds. This year though, we still have much snow. I haven't even thought of starting seeds as usual because the house is too cold at night when we bank back the stoves. I garden in 11 raised beds. Some are made of untreated wood. Some of rock. One of part cinder block and rock. Fall of 2013 my husband took down some trees in our backyard and that made a big difference. Two of the beds had a tree growing right inside of them and the roots made it hard to work with. Those beds were never very productive. Well, last year those beds did great! There are a couple more trees I want him to take down this year. I'd rather have the space with lots of sun shining down on those beds. We do not have a large property. Only an acre. Yet we are able to garden and produce a good amount of food.
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Post by Wendy on Mar 28, 2015 17:18:14 GMT
That looks great! I am so ready to get out in the garden, but it just isn't getting warm here.
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Post by smokey on Mar 28, 2015 18:01:09 GMT
Nice setup! We're big fans of raised beds too and have had really good luck with them. So far this year we only have cabbage,Lettuce and Broccoli planted in them. Looking forward to some warmer weather and the first fresh tomato of the year.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2015 18:39:55 GMT
I wish our weather would warm up too. We have a very tough winter here this year. I have had so much trouble with tomatoes! The last few years (too many to count now) my tomatoes have got that Late Blight. They look great, then near the end of August, I go out to see them and they are black. Like overnight. I am going to break down this year and get some of that Serenade and put it on them before they get it. It is not supposed to be a chemical, even though the bottle warns you about it. Jackie Clay says it is safe, so I will trust her. I miss all the years of bringing in bushels of tomatoes from the vines because of frost coming and ripening in the pantry.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2015 20:12:20 GMT
These are the ones made of wood. We first put them in 2005 and have replaced these front three so far. They do rot eventually and need replacing because we do not use treated wood. I am not sure what type of wood they are made from. My husband says he thinks it is pine. He would like to make them higher for me as I have mobility issues now. I am able to sit in a chair and weed them or harvest from them with no problems really.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 1:53:14 GMT
We're working on getting more rock beds, but golly! Where in the MOzarks would we find ROCKS?
That's a joke,folks. Around here, the question is, "Where do you NOT find rocks???"
Very nice beds, Katlupe!
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Post by Muller's Lane Farm on Mar 29, 2015 3:25:59 GMT
You had gorgeous raised bed is Rolling Meadows too, Pony.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 4:22:53 GMT
I scavenge wood for raised beds from the dumpsters in the housing developments nearby. (The new developments have to be good for something.) I try to select only the ones that were previously used to form the concrete pads. They seem to last longer than naked wood. Guessing that the bugs have a hard time eating through the residual concrete. If the board has no concrete on it I just make some concrete and then kind of "paint" it onto the wood wherever it touches dirt and let it dry before using. They seem to last much longer.
jnh56 over at the Dark Side uses the material that makes up almost all of the "Elect Joe Blow" political signs. The corrugated plastic signs. He cuts them to size and then attaches them to the wood wherever the wood would normally contact the soil. He says that this makes his wood raised beds last more than seven years. Why is never election time when you want it to be? Only another 1 1/2 years and the politicians will not have to worry about taking down their signs anywhere near where I live.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 14:11:55 GMT
Between the wood and the rock, I like the rock beds best. They hold the sun's warmth during the cool nights. My husband dug, by hand, a room attached to our cellar to put our water tank. When he did that, it was all rock, as most of NY state is. He used the rocks in the raised beds. The original wood beds were built in 2005, so they lasted awhile.
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Post by Woodpecker on Mar 29, 2015 14:16:18 GMT
I love the raised beds, very nice eye candy. We still have snow here on LI actually we got a dusting yesterday. I bet it's cold up there.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 14:31:41 GMT
It is. It was about 4 degrees when we got up. We have two wood stoves going right now. I banked the one in the kitchen back after I finished our breakfast. Sun is strong right now. So I am hopefully it will melt some of the snow. We have huge piles all over the place.
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Post by smokey on Mar 29, 2015 14:57:16 GMT
I really like the field rock raised beds, Looks really nice. I have tons of rocks on my place but flat stacking rocks are few and far between. Last year I got a deal on a bunch of concrete blocks and replaced the rotten boards with those. They'll last forever but don't look nearly as nice as field stone.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 15:12:40 GMT
You had gorgeous raised bed is Rolling Meadows too, Pony. Oh, thank you! I miss those beds... that lovely, friable soil... We googled the place a while back, and discovered they tore up the beds and covered the area with landscape chips to put in a jungle gym. I'm all like, "WHAT??? There's plenty of space for a jungle gym in the rest of the yard. Don't you want to feed your children healthy food? " Yeah. Google maps are not necessarily a good thing.
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Post by Woodpecker on Mar 29, 2015 15:17:26 GMT
It is. It was about 4 degrees when we got up. We have two wood stoves going right now. I banked the one in the kitchen back after I finished our breakfast. Sun is strong right now. So I am hopefully it will melt some of the snow. We have huge piles all over the place. It's 31o here, where is spring? It's going to be a short growing season I'm thinking. What part of NY are you in?
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Post by blueiris5 on Mar 29, 2015 15:22:26 GMT
Love your raised beds Katlupe. Your place is very pretty. Here in Minnesota, it is cold and windy and a long way from putting in a garden. Love your pictures.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 15:27:35 GMT
You had gorgeous raised bed is Rolling Meadows too, Pony. Oh, thank you! I miss those beds... that lovely, friable soil... We googled the place a while back, and discovered they tore up the beds and covered the area with landscape chips to put in a jungle gym. I'm all like, "WHAT??? There's plenty of space for a jungle gym in the rest of the yard. Don't you want to feed your children healthy food? " Yeah. Google maps are not necessarily a good thing. LOL...
A few months after I moved from Pennsylvania my old neighbor called me and told me the following:
The new people that moved into my old place came down for a visit and told my buddy that they had been busy all last weekend pulling out those nasty looking ferns in the bed along the creek. My buddy simply asked them if they like to eat asparagus. When they told him that they loved asparagus, he told, " Well that is a shame then, isn't it?" When they asked what he was talking about he told them that those were asparagus ferns that they had pulled out.
Yup!!! They pulled out countless crowns ranging from two years old to 12 years old. The bed ran alongside the creek for almost 200 feet and was about 5 feet wide. It supplied enough asparagus to feed me and two neighbor families each year, the entire year, and we all loved asparagus.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 15:59:23 GMT
We are in Chenango County, which is the south-central part of the state. I wanted to ask you too, what part of LI are you? I spent a lot of time out there. My first husband was from Oceanside and we went there every week-end.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 16:03:14 GMT
Love your raised beds Katlupe. Your place is very pretty. Here in Minnesota, it is cold and windy and a long way from putting in a garden. Love your pictures. Thank you! Those are pictures from last year. We have several feet of snow here right now. Sun is shining but the snow is not going away any time soon. Then we have mud season. I doubt I will get my garden in before June.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 16:14:13 GMT
Oh, thank you! I miss those beds... that lovely, friable soil... We googled the place a while back, and discovered they tore up the beds and covered the area with landscape chips to put in a jungle gym. I'm all like, "WHAT??? There's plenty of space for a jungle gym in the rest of the yard. Don't you want to feed your children healthy food? " Yeah. Google maps are not necessarily a good thing. LOL...
A few months after I moved from Pennsylvania my old neighbor called me and told me the following:
The new people that moved into my old place came down for a visit and told my buddy that they had been busy all last weekend pulling out those nasty looking ferns in the bed along the creek. My buddy simply asked them if they like to eat asparagus. When they told him that they loved asparagus, he told, " Well that is a shame then, isn't it?" When they asked what he was talking about he told them that those were asparagus ferns that they had pulled out.
Yup!!! They pulled out countless crowns ranging from two years old to 12 years old. The bed ran alongside the creek for almost 200 feet and was about 5 feet wide. It supplied enough asparagus to feed me and two neighbor families each year, the entire year, and we all loved asparagus.
Oh. NOES!!!!!!1!!1!! Oh, man, that hurts and it's not even my asparagus beds (which are doing very poorly, so we'll be re-doing them this year)!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 17:35:43 GMT
Just a question. We live in copperhead and rattle snake area. Do you think the field stone would encourage those snakes to hide out in them? We started building some beds last fall. So far, we have 2 built from scrap lumber. This spring I built the 3rd one from some concrete blocks we had laying around. I placed them with the holes up so I could plant in those as well.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 18:27:09 GMT
Just a question. We live in copperhead and rattle snake area. Do you think the field stone would encourage those snakes to hide out in them? We started building some beds last fall. So far, we have 2 built from scrap lumber. This spring I built the 3rd one from some concrete blocks we had laying around. I placed them with the holes up so I could plant in those as well. We have copperheads down here, too, more than we did up north. Haven't had them hide in the rocks or cinder blocks (we have both, though we're planning to replace the blocks a bit at a time).
There have been black widow spiders in the blocks. They're really not a big deal; just look before you stick your hand in there. I like the idea of planting in the blocks, so the spiders won't nest in the holes.
Oh! Snake story!
Nick was scything the aisles between the beds last year, and came up with a copperhead speared on the end of the scythe blade. AYEEEE! He was calm about it, though, and deposited the snake outside the garden.
We've also found black snakes in the hen house. Last one was over 7' long and had FOUR eggs inside it.
Of course, we all know that it is now illegal to kill snakes here, so we gave that snake a stern talking to and sent it on its way.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 18:29:32 GMT
I think they would. Our beds have snakes hanging out. Tthey are garter snakes and don't bother us. I kind of like them. The sun hitting the rocks is inviting to them. They go in the wood beds also.
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Post by solargeek on Mar 29, 2015 19:01:23 GMT
Just a question. We live in copperhead and rattle snake area. Do you think the field stone would encourage those snakes to hide out in them? We started building some beds last fall. So far, we have 2 built from scrap lumber. This spring I built the 3rd one from some concrete blocks we had laying around. I placed them with the holes up so I could plant in those as well. We lived in WI near MILWAUKEE and built raised beds from left over white cedar logs in our front yard to make 7 large raised beds. So pretty and I thought what a good use for useless unmatched logs. Ha! I was wrong. No problems 1st year but from 2nd year on, at the butt end corners where there probably were a few inches of gaps we got: snakes, spiders mice ground bees!!!!!! They thought they were in heaven. So up here at our new place I had stone and gravel and weeds with more underneath. Had a landscaping company bring in 3 truckloads of just dirt to bring the new dirt to 4"-5" across the whole garden. Put it over everything, NO prep at all. Then 14 of those giant, round 200lb bales of hay were unloaded and we all spread them 26"-30" deep across the dirt. Then 2 small truck loads of compost (only paid trucking as came from township for free) that we spread in 39 beds (weird # but that is what fit) of 4.5' x 10 long beds of compost just dumped in place. Area is fenced and then 4' of chicken wire was attached to 2' high and 2' underground to prevent woodchucks, moles, the like. Walkways between each bed vary from 2'-4' and while some weeds are popping up this year, I plan to cover with packing paper (from moving here) and then landscape fabric. Will cover that with more straw. Working great so far. No 'wild life' yet and the only problem were the gates- woodchuck found his way in until I put huge chunks of wood (yeah, he couldn't eat thru those!) in front of the gates. I roll them away when working and back as I leave. Kneeling on the straw is so easy and good for my knees. I call these my FAUX raised beds. Makes me feel classier.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 20:30:45 GMT
Beautiful gardens. I like the wood raised beds, mine are 3'w x 12'l. I use cedar 3"x12"s. We don't have a rock here unless I haul them in. I build the beds up so bottom is even with the top of 8" of chips in the walk ways, 2' wide. 2 are strawberries. Squash, cucumbers, corn and potatoes go in a conventional garden. Zucchini, peas, radishes, kitchen garden, chard, carrots, onions, green and wax beans, cabbage and cauliflower in raised beds. Tomatoes in big black tree pots dug 6"deep....James
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Post by farmchix on Mar 29, 2015 21:09:55 GMT
Love the pics! Rock beds are something I should have thought of, but didn't! I remember when I was younger, my grandmother used fieldstone (we called it creek rock) to make the paths through her yard. There were so many flowers, bushes, etc. leading to the garden that I used to pretend like it was the jungle. Thanks for jogging that memory! She taught me everything I know!!!
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Post by bja105 on Mar 29, 2015 22:40:44 GMT
How wide do you make your beds?
I made mine 4' wide, it is a pain for me to reach the middle. My wife and kids, no way! Next one will be 3' wide.
Mine is pine, and is falling apart going into its fourth year. Good enough for the price.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 22:50:43 GMT
Katlupe, those rock garden beds are beautiful..what a neat looking garden area you have!
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Post by Woodpecker on Mar 29, 2015 23:22:58 GMT
We are in Chenango County, which is the south-central part of the state. I wanted to ask you too, what part of LI are you? I spent a lot of time out there. My first husband was from Oceanside and we went there every week-end. I'm not too fimilar with Chenango County, I live in Nassau. The Long Island sound is right here.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2015 1:13:12 GMT
How wide do you make your beds? I made mine 4' wide, it is a pain for me to reach the middle. My wife and kids, no way! Next one will be 3' wide. Mine is pine, and is falling apart going into its fourth year. Good enough for the price. Even though Bartholmay said 4', my experience says that 3' is the wiser choice. That's what we have now, and I like it a lot.
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Post by claytonpiano on Mar 30, 2015 1:16:25 GMT
i agree, Pony, this body just won't stretch across those 4' wide beds anymore!
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