My New Square Foot Garden Raised Bed

Yesterday I told you about my new PVC raised gardening boxes in the far top left corner.  At $59.97 each on sale, they certainly were not a cheap way to build raised garden beds especially since between the two I ended up with 16 square feet of growing space.  My husband doesn't like the new PVC beds so he picked up some spruce to build me a wooden raised bed.



The new raised bed is 4' x 12' x

My PVC Raised Garden Boxes

I use a variety of garden bed styles, preferring raised beds but like in ground beds for flower beds.  Shortly after arriving home from our spring vacation, Home Hardware had 4' x 4' PVC raised garden boxes on sale for $59.97.  As raised beds go, these were expensive but I reasoned the PVC would out live the untreated spruce I normally use for my raised garden beds.  The looked slick and a bit

March Came in Like a Lamb

The first two days of March have been rather pleasant, bright and sunny but a little colder.  We have experienced a good amount of snow accumulation this year.  Overall the temperatures haven't been too cold.  I don't think we have even had a bitterly cold spell this year which is nice given the rising home heating costs.  It will soon be time to turn my attention to this year's gardens,

Our

Herb Overflowing

Herb BedAugust 22, 2010
The lack of rainfall certainly hasn't hurt the herb bed that is overflowing with beautiful herbs.  Even with using fresh and cutting for drying there is still an abundance!  The more I cut the more the herbs grow.  That is one of the secrets to growing herbs.  They love to be trimmed!

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

A Small Picking

Mainly TomatoesAugust 12, 2010
Yesterday I noticed a few tomatoes were ready for picking.  I like doing a clean pick each day to prevent any problems and spoilage.  The larger two tomatoes to the top right are brandywines growing in the raised beds.  To the left middle the largest tomato is also a brandywine grown in a container.  There is a noticeable difference in size.  Much of this is a

First Ripe Brandywine Tomato of 2010

First Ripe Brandywine TomatoAugust 8, 2010
I am so excited!  I picked the first ripe brandywine tomato of 2010 yesterday.  We have had an extended hot spell so the tomatoes are not ripening as quick as they normally would.  Brandywine is a lovely heirloom tomato.  The tomatoes are a good size with a firm, pinkish red flesh and nice tomato flavour.  The vines are in raised beds and looking quite

Raised Beds at the Organic Farm

Strawberry BedsJuly 28, 2010
Imagine my delight when we pulled onto the organic farm to see 2 raised beds planted using the square foot gardening method and larger raised beds for the everbearing and June bearing strawberries.  Pictured are 3 of the raised beds for strawberries.  I didn't get a picture of the smaller (4' x 4' ) square foot raised beds.  I will be sure to get a picture the next

Three Sisters Garden Bed

Three Sisters Garden BedJuly 28, 2010
A few days ago a flyer arrived in our mailbox letting us know about a new organic farm operation in our area.  I'm always watching for this type of thing for the fruits and vegetables I either don't grow enough of or don't grow at all.  Yesterday we drove out to see the operation and oh my gosh it is fabulous!  The next few posts will give a bit more on some

New Raised Beds (2)

Yesterday I posted about the new raised beds going in.  The beauty of raised beds is they are easier plant and maintain as well as being easier to protect against critters like rabbits.  If rabbits are a problem the bed is already raised by at least 8 - inches so simply adding low fencing meant as garden edging that is about a foot tall around the inside perimeter at the soil level is high enough

New Raised Beds (1)

I've been talking of expanding the raised beds since the end of last growing season.  It's been a rather funny year what with the house on the market and going on vacation the new beds were put on the back burner this spring.  Once the other beds  and most of the containers were planted combined with no offers on the house I made the executive decision to put the new beds in anyway.  Originally I

First of the Zucchini and Tiny Tim Tomatoes

Things are progressing nicely in the garden.  I am still planting but that is normal for the square foot garden method.  I have a lot more vegetables and herbs planted in containers this year.  This does seem to be the year of dealing with various insects and their damage but with the wild rabbits mysteriously absent there is no large scale damage so far. 

I only have one zucchini plant this

Herb Bed Progress

The herb bed is coming along nicely.  Most of the perennial herbs came up without a problem although I did lose the nasturtiums and rosemary.  The bed cleaned up quite nicely though.  I was quite pleased at how robust and healthy the perennial herbs looked!

To the top right there is sage and chives in bloom.  To the top left are two patches of lavender and to the left middle there is summer

Preparing the Beds for Planting

I did not do anything to the raised beds before we left for vacation.  The weather didn't co-operate and despite the local predictions of a dry spring we had a fair amount of rainfall.  I would have liked to have had my beds planted earlier this year but knowing we would be away for 11 days there was little point especially with frost threatening just a couple days before we left.

It's amazing

How to Plant Strawberries in a Raised Bed Garden

I grow strawberries in hanging and vertical containers as well as in raised beds.  We also have a few rogue strawberries growing on our property.  Planting strawberries is as easy as planting any other vegetable plant in your edible garden.  Here is a short video showing the technique.  Following the video are my comments on the video. 




In general I prefer to not use peat pots in my garden

Garden Reflection and Moving On

My gosh when I look back at what we have accomplished here it really is amazing. In some ways we did not accomplish what we wanted but with our decision to sell, it is time to do a bit reflection. This property brought about many gardening challenges with the most extensive one being ripping out extreme over growth. The shear volume of ripping out our first two years was so discouraging.

Frequently Asked Square Foot Gardening Questions

If you have been following this blog you will know that I garden organically using a modified version square foot gardening method combined with companion planting and a bit of the Mittleider method tossed in. The square foot gardening method is a modified version of the French high intensity gardening method and popularized by Mel Bartholomew. Mel Bartholomew answers the most frequently asked

Weeding the Beds

Last weekend was an extremely busy one following a rather cool, rainy week. This gave me little chance to get out into the garden. It's never a good idea to work in the garden when the foliage is wet as this will cause any existing plant disease to spread rapidly. Yet checking the gardens daily is important to catch any potential problems before they become problems. Saturday morning I

Progresss in My Garden

Despite a late start to planting in the new raised garden beds the plants are doing quite well. I've added more herbs as I find them focusing on getting the perennial and biennial herbs established. The weather has been quite wet and below average temperatures so both the mesclun mix and leaf lettuce is growing nicely. The ever bearing strawberries are growing well in their hanging basket

Progress in the Vegetable Garden

If you have been following this blog you will know we've been busy establishing our new square foot garden. Pictures of our square foot garden at our previous house can be found here and throughout the archives up to late June 2007 when we moved here. This garden has been 2 years in the making as we focused on clearing out a lot of overgrowth. The planned design is 4 - 4' x 10' raised beds and

New Raised Beds Layout

Over the past weekend we worked on two new raised garden beds (more here). The beds are being created while we are continuing to rip out existing vegetation so the new beds were not planned using Garden Manager software mainly because the beds were going in late spring. I would have to reboot in Windows as well since this software is not Mac compatible. I've been using the combined with