Grow a frugal garden w/ no soil at all! I've been told..

CAGmomof2 · #1 (**permalink**) 04-30-2002, 05:10 PM

How do I grow a frugal garden with no good soil at all!! I have been told that raised beds work great but I wanted to ask you all what you all think about that!!

dixieb2 · #2 (**permalink**) 05-04-2002, 01:15 PM

Raised beds are great. My husband and I have had them for 8 years. We started out with 6 and have since grown to 10 of them. They are 4' wide by 8'long. Living in the south we have to contend with nut grass in our garden and with the raised beds, we don't have the problem of the plants competing with the grass to grow.

Every year we usually have 2 plantings -- our early spring crop then our summer crop. It takes some initial work to get started, but the outcome is great.

We started this after finding and reading a book called "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. You can find his book at amazon.com.

We love it and would suggest it for anyone.

Valwinal · #3 (**permalink**) 05-04-2002, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CAGmomof2
How do I grow a frugal garden with no good soil at all!! I have been told that raised beds work great but I wanted to ask you all what you all think about that!!

I also love gardening and found myself facing a quandry when we bought out home in 1999. The place that was used as a garden was a swamp and the rest of the area was rock! To make a long story short, we have tried many things, but using raised beds is the only one that worked! It was by desperation that we decided to try it, we added some things to the soil (manure mostly, but a lot of compost too) and we raised the beds, IT WORKS!! Try adding some compost and some denatured manure that you can get cheaply at farm and garden supply places and raise the beds, you should have good luck.

CAGmomof2 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-04-2002, 06:26 PM

Thank you all for your help!! I really appreciate it !!

SuzyQ · #5 (**permalink**) 05-04-2002, 10:35 PM

My dad has over 20 raised beds now they really are great! They work well for things you wouldn't want a garden length row of, and when you don't have a really good large garden spot. (He doesn't) Dad also likes the Square Foot Gardner & Organic Gardening magazine. He uses a lot of grass clippings as mulch.

I only have two, they are my strawberry beds. It makes weeding so much easier.

I will get more as time progresses, however I have a good spot for my garden so full rows will stay in it!

Another thing my Dad introduced me to is using concrete reinforcing wire to make tomato cages. Use the full height, the plant will fill it & yield greatly provided the pests stay away!

I prefer to think of my garden as evolving. Good luck & enjoy it!

CAGmomof2 · #6 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 12:09 PM

Thanks for your helpful tips and advice!!

**ajrsmom** · #7 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 01:51 PM

Can you give me instructions on how to make these or do you know of any good sites that would explain it ?

Im very interested in this method as well. Thanks !

dixieb2 · #8 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 04:05 PM

As I mentioned in my previous post, "Square Foot Gardening" is an excellent book to read. Amazon.com has it for under $10 or you might check your local bookstore.

Also, the following website might help:
http://www.erie.net/~randya/garden.html

Even though we have really good soil in this area, we decided to purchase top soil so that we would not have to contend with the nut grass in the beds. We first placed weed fabric down then layers of newspaper and then another layer of weed fabric. We then sifted our top soil and added composted manure, compost and other items to fill the beds. As I said before, a lot of work to begin with, but it has been so worth it. We have so much from our gardens each year that we give produce away and everyone looks forward to it. Oh, and it's beats tilling the soil too.

If you need more information, let me know. Good luck.

ismemom · #9 (**permalink**) 05-08-2002, 03:19 PM

The web site we found for good instructions for building a raised bed was Etera (http://www.etera.com/school/Tutorial...ldingRaisedBed). We have a lot of clay in our soil, so we have to amend it with compost, manure and humous. I really like the "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew and also anything by Rebecca Kolls (check out her web site too). Make sure you get your soil tested by your local county extension agency so you know what your soil needs in the way of nutrients.

CAGmomof2 · #10 (**permalink**) 05-08-2002, 07:29 PM

Thank you for the helpful tips, advice, and the website!!