Plan Your Spring Raised Bed Garden now!

Sure, winter is in full spring. As I write this it’s snowing outside and the temperatures are expected to drop into the teens over the next few days. So why even talk about gardening?

Well, I’m not actually talking about planting a garden. I’m referring to planning a garden! Now’s the time to begin thinking about your own objectives for the coming 2010 season. Let’s face it there’s not much else going on so what better time than now? Come March and you’ll be way too busy outside. So what are the things you can do right now?

One of the most important items on the garden checklist should be a Master Garden Plan. I generally keep mine on the computer, but in years past I would just buy a cheap calendar and make my notes on it. Just about now in December, you’ll begin to see the seed catalogs for the 2010 growing season and there’s a reason why the send them out now. That’s because a lot of experienced gardeners know that in order to have success in July, you must do a lot of thinking in February and March!

I like to break my plans into four categories; 1) Soil improvement schemes and raised bed expansion, 2) ordering the plants I want to grow 3) figuring when they should be started and 4) getting my seed starting area in the basement ready for operation.

Soil Improvement

Most soil improvement should actually be done at the end of the prior season while the soil was still workable. Last August, I made sure to take the compost pile I had created during the course of the summer and applied it to my two main raised beds. These measure about four feet by eight feet each and easily integrate any compost I am able to generate. (My third and smaller raised bed was built just last year and was constructed with store bought blended soil that still has time release nutrients in it. So, that one I’m not really worried about). I also made sure to test the pH of the soil and found I was OK there. You want to see a reading of about 6.7 to 6.9 or slightly acidic. Otherwise I would have added lime of sulfur depending on how much to soil was either too much acidic or alkaline. Another thing to make sure of is to keep the soil in each bed damp. We’ve had plenty of rain so far so there are no problems on that score. But, if the rain or snow doesn’t fall for any reason, make sure to water down the beds just enough to keep them on the damp side. Even though there are no plants growing at this time of years, you still have microbes in the soil that need some moisture to survive. A soil with lots of microbes is a soil that will produce a lot of crops.

I currently have about 64 square feet devoted to vegetables and have found this is plenty for two people. I practice the Square Foot method of gardening because I don’t like to have to work very hard. So on a good year, 64 square feet produces about 60 to 70 pounds of produce with not a lot of work. If you have a larger family or if you simply want to produce more veggies just go ahead and expand the number of raised beds you have. I like to keep mine at four by eight feet as that size is easy to erect and maintain. One last note concerning the care of the soil in a raised bed. Never work it when it’s damp and never, ever walk on it. Doing so will destroy its ability to grow anything other than weeds!

Planning and Ordering Seeds

I think that planning for what to grow is one of the best things you can do during the cold winter months. It’s a lot of fun to sit in the easy chair and dream about future harvests as you thumb through the seed catalogs. It’s also a great temptation to order everything in sight! But, please be careful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bit off way more than I could chew in the seed ordering department. Some years, I’ve had packages of seed that never even got opened! Stick with just a couple of varieties of any one plant. If you do have extra seed, check with the neighbors who also have gardens to see if they would like to trade some. This is one of the best ways to obtain seed that can cost an arm and a leg if you order them from commercial growers like Park Seed or Burpee. My personal plan includes anything that is expensive to buy at the store. Like romaine lettuce, bell peppers and tomatoes. I also like to grow green beans because they are prolific and actually improve the nitrogen content of the soil. Another good bet are fast growing seeds that can be grown close to other plants that take a little longer to mature. I will often use the radish as ‘markers’ also by planting them among carrot seeds. When the radish begin to show I know also where the other seeds were sown. Then the radishes are up and harvested long before they interfere with the carrots. Also, techniques like square foot, succession and inter-planting can dramatically improve your yield per square foot. With some practice, good planning and a little luck, you can get one to two pounds of produce per square foot in the course of a season!

Seed Planting Schedule

I think one of the most demanding aspects to a successful garden plan is knowing when and how much to plant. If you are starting everything from seed it can be quite a challenge indeed. You also have to able to ascertain just how much you can start at any given time. In my basement, I have a large table over which are grow lights. The total setup will accommodate about 100 seedlings and that’s all! Since some seedlings need up to a month or more on the grow table before they can go out, I have to really be able to plan well.

Seed Starting

Whenever possible I try and start all my plants from seeds. The reason for this is very simple. I’m a rather cheap bastard. I know that if I go to a nursery and get starter plants I will be really paying a high premium for my vegetables. If, on the other hand I grow seeds from seed, they are vastly cheaper. Also, I make it a point to trade unwanted seed for seed I can use to further reduce costs. The one area I do not scrimp on is the potting mix I use to get the seeds germinated and growing in. I always use fresh bags of sterile potting mix that has a little bit of fertilizer already in it. By doing that and by using larger than ordinary cells to start my seeds in, I can get them going early on (as early as February for lettuce) and then hold them until the weather stabilizes enough to plant them outside. You can also get a jump start by building and using a cold frame. Because I spent an afternoon a couple of years ago building two simple frames, I’m enjoying fresh romaine lettuce even now in the middle of winter. I’ve even made a number of You Tube videosupdates! to show how this is done along with

So, can the excuses and start your dream garden today!

August 2009 Garden Report

Start Your '4 by Whatever' Garden Today!

An excellent size small garden can be created easily and quickly by taking 2 lengths of 2x4x8 lumber (non-treated) and cutting each in half to create four 4 foot lengths. Simply nail the pieces together to for a box and lay this somewhere close to your house where it will get at least eight hours of full sun each day during the summer months. (Make sure you dig up and turn over any grass that may be growing inside the box). I like to use wood that has not been treated even though I know it will last only a few seasons before rotting away. That’s fine with me because construction of a new replacement box is relatively easy and I do not have to worry about arsenic or mercury leaching from treated lumber into the garden soil. Of course, you can just berm up some soil and forget about the lumber all together. I just feel that the box structure looks really nice and professional.

What’s really nice about such a small area is the amount of veggies you can grow in this space. You can feed a family of three with no problem from just one of these. In order to do this, however, you must consider using three very important techniques; inter-cropping, succession and companion planting. Oh, and yes, you must water if things get too dry.

Intercropping is nothing more than having the knowledge as to what plants grow at what rates so you can take advantage of every bit of space. For instance, if you plant out lettuce starts in neatly staggered rows, you will initially have a lot of space between the plants. Lettuce will take 45-55 days to mature and fill up this space so, why not strategically plant a fast growing crop like radishes in these spaces that will be up and harvested in about 30 days. This is the way that you can keep every bit of garden space up and in high production.

Coupled with this concept is succession planting that as the name implies helps you to fill a space vacated by a harvested planted with another in its place. The seedling may a younger version of the same plant that was there before or it may be another species that will do better later in the season. For instance, I will grow a run of lettuce plants that are immediately followed by pepper transplants that were started a month earlier. Or, I may just go ahead and put in a heat resistant variety of lettuce to harvest during the summer months. In order to pull this type of activity off, you must become aware of germination times, temperature preferences and even whether or not the different plants which end up next to each other will be happy. That last point is what companion planting technique is all about. Fortunately, there are many books that offer this information in table form to allow you to quickly and efficiently draw up your own unique show. For my part I first list the types of veggies I want to grow that season and then organize a plan around them that allows me to max out the crop yields, keep the garden full of plants while doing little or no weeding. If you make this plan correctly, you will find you have relatively little work to do while harvesting up to 100 pounds of produce from a 4x4 foot area. The only thing you must worry about is making sure you keep you little plot well furnished with compost and other amendments to keep the soil healthy and happy.

One note concerning the soil is that you really do not fertilize the plants with amendments; you actually are feeding the microorganisms in the soil that make nutrient ions available to the plants. This topic alone could fill a book and if you are interested certainly read up on the subject. The bottom line is that healthy, fertile soil has literally billions and billions of micro-organisms living it while unhealthy soil does not. Healthy soil will make you healthy plants whereas dead soil will not – no matter how must fertilizer you throw on it. If you experience problems growing stuff, make sure you get a sample sent in for analysis (soil test locations are listed in the tallow pages or you can go to your local extension office) and then make the needed corrections. Oftentimes, it is just a case of the pH being too high (alkaline) or to low (acidic). In order for effective exchange of ions and cations to occur between to soil and the plants roots, you must have the pH somewhere close to 7.0 (neutral) or perhaps a little on the acidic side. Once again any good gardening book will list the proper pH range for stuff you want to grow.

So let me summarize why 4x4’s are so wonderful; 1) they are easy to create, 2) they don’t take up a lot of space, 3) you can get gobs of food out of them and 4) because of the way you plant, you rarely have to weed them. Not too shabby a state of affairs is it? They also make a perfect area for any young gardeners you might have around the house. Just build one for each future master gardener and let that become their special area. You would be amazed at how creative some kids are when challenged in this way. One child I know of planted a different seed (actually a combination of peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and radishes) randomly across the entire 4x4 surface. Surprisingly, everything germinated and grew really well. As a bonus, because there was not much of any one plant located anywhere in the garden, the little tykes garden did not suffer any of the usual pests that summer. My carefully planned gardens which were located just next door however were subjected to wave after wave of chewing insects. Yes, you can learn a lot from a child.

How Much is Enough?

One of the first questions I’ve been asked when discussing raised beds is the space question. Just how much space do you need to support a family of four anyway? That’s a good question and the answer I always give is, ‘It depends.’ The variables to consider are the nature and type of produce you want to grow and how much of it you will realistically consume. Many garden veggies do not lend themselves to storage (lettuce for instance) and you really want to take a hard look at what you will need week to week. I’ve always used the gallon baggie method for measurement purposes here. I know, for instance that three lettuce plants, after they’ve been cut, washed and drained will fill the average gallon sized plastic baggie. I also know from experience that I generally have at least one salad per day (sometimes two as I’m on a constant diet). That bag will last me about one week as I like to mix a lot of other stuff in each salad. So, going by this method, you will need to grow enough lettuce to fill one to two bags per week per person. A family of four would (assuming everyone loves salads) would need to harvest eight plants per week. Using that rule of thumb, I would plant twelve new starts every week or so starting in early March for this region (zone 6). The Cole crop can be a combination of leaf, romaine, spinach or even chard depending on your tastes. One of the really fun things about growing your own is the natural variety that you have as one plant or another becomes available for harvest. More times than not, I find myself planting way more than I can consume, but that’s OK too as I always have neighbors that will take the excess or be happy to trade what they have too much of. Other vegetable can be treated in much the same way. Over time you will get a good feel as to the amount of plants that will work for you.