Our garden layout is comprised of several raised beds with a gravel path running around the entire garden and dividing up the garden into smaller beds. The path will also run around the greenhouse. We’ve been doing some research about the beds and have found some pretty good articles so far.
Most of our beds will be about 4 feet wide and ranging from 12 to 9 feet long. We will also have two beds that will be 3 feet wide by 9 feet long. We’ll also have a couple of smaller herb gardens near the greenhouse.
At the moment, we’re planning to pour our own concrete dividers for the beds. We’re probably going to try a vermiculite mix that we’ve read about and will post about soon. This will make the planters considerably lighter. And if we pour our own dividers, at least we’ll have the opportunity to make them exactly the lengths we need instead of having to break stones apart. But we’re seeing more or more raised beds made with 2x12s instead, though, which would likely be a much faster and cheaper alternative. Unfortunately, I don’t think we have enough of those laying around here…
We’ve read that the beds should be at least 8 to 12 inches deep so we have to take that into consideration. We will need to raise the ground quite a bit but since we’ll need to dig at least 4 inches of dirt out where the path will be laid and there will be more dirt from where we’ll pour the foundation from the greenhouse, we will hopefully be enough dirt to fill the beds up.
Here’s some great ideas from an article we found:
Another way to use the space is to plant quick growing plants like radishes under squash plants. Plant lettuce under bean vines growing on a trellis. Plant marigolds or other good companion plants around your garden to keep insects away. Put in a watering system with a timer. This will save you lots of time and you won’t need to worry about your garden if you have to go away for a while. The watering will be taken care of automatically.
We’ve actually said that we’d like to lay the pipes for a watering system when we do this anyway. The PO actually has installed a water system which draws off the ground pump so we’d like to extend this throughout the garden for watering and also have a tap in the greenhouse to simplify things. We’ll also run electricity to the greenhouse.
Here are some more great articles about building a raised bed garden:
- A Raised Vegetable Garden at HGTV – These are really nice looking beds although it would somehow seem a bit too sterile for our yard.
- Earth Easy Raised Beds — Lots of samples for inspiration that you can purchase, plus a nice DIY tutorial on building your own.
