Raised Bed Gardening

Memory Garden

Kaye and I are enjoying raised bed gardening! David and I made some partial raised beds when we first landscaped the house, but my tradition was that vegetables were grown in rows.  Part of Kaye's dowery included raised beds that Jason had made for Kaye's backyard on Winthrop.  I reconstructed those and have added more.  We could have named this blog, "Absentee Gardening" because it seems we can manage the raised beds more effectively than we could a conventional garden.

These three beds were Kaye's. They now contain broccoli and cabbage; beets, lettuce, radishes, and kale; and onions.

Sugar Snap peas- probably followed by green beans.

This 6'x2' bed is a good size and shape, especially if you could only work it from one side. Three feet width is good if you can access both sides.

Railroad ties seem to make an optimum size. Ties are 8 feet long and half ties as ends make a bed 8'x3'

which allowed us to use landscape fabric as a ground cover/ weed and moisture barrier.  We are trying bush type zucchini,  yellow squash, and cucumber.  Rhubarb is in the background and we haven't tried it in a raised bed yet.

I am pleased with this new addition. It should last for a long time since it is made from locust logs.  I salvaged these from the burn pile.  Our neighbor is an arborist and had removed this tree from another garden. Little pepper plants, an egg plant, a container tomato plant and several "guard" marigolds are in this 5 day old bed with zinnias planted in the corners.

This is the newest of the raised beds. The big logs were heavy to wrestle into place.  Similar plants as the first log bed without the zinnias.

Our most productive beds are the patio beds that David and I constructed soon after we moved to the Hill.

The bed to the left has cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, and peppers. The bed to the right is our herb bed.

Lemon Balm can get out of control- we can't drink enough tea made from its leaves.  We also have cilantro, dill, common sage, rosemary, basil, oregano,  and thyme.

The bed below the patio has produced a good crop of tomatoes and can be watered by a soaker hose connected to two rain barrels.  Reused tree tubs are used to grow lettuce and spinach.