Out of the darkness...
Sep. 11th, 2012 20:36![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillsometimes comes a good idea.
It's time I bit the bullet and made raised garden beds. For one thing, I could control the fertility and organic matter content so much better. Moisture levels would be more even in lighter soil. I can mulch mature tomato plants (seedlings are still susceptible to earwigs), and that's easier to do with definite boundaries. I can't keep digging every single bed every single year. My knees would appreciate raising the plants up even six inches. And I could put something like wood chips on the paths without worrying about drift -- which would also help with water retention and (more importantly) keeping dust down so as not to encourage the mites.
What stopped me in the past was the expense. Lumber adds up quickly, and garden soil isn't cheap either -- unless you buy fill dirt of unknown provenance, and that's setting yourself up for fertility problems or nasty soilborne pathogens you can't get rid of. I get most of my amendments, and all of my labor, for free when digging the beds every year... the cost was just not feasible.
This time around, muttering about it, I realized Urban Ore could supply the lumber at a fraction of the cost. I might have to cut the boards on site to get them into my car, but I could do that, assuming I could get enough miscellaneous boards of similar sizes, which is always a challenge...
Then it hit me. One thing that is always in the building materials yard, going begging without a soul disturbing it, is a group of about six pallets of red clay roof tiles. I've looked them over and wondered what use I could put them to, and always walked on. I think (I'll look at them Thursday) those might be the answer. Interlocking, durable, versatile, I could stand them on end and dig them into the ground an inch or two, and they would make a very nice edge. Classy. If I'm fussy about having them stay in line, I could run wire between small pieces of rebar to keep the tiles from sagging outward. If they lock properly, though, I suspect I can get them to resist that. I might even be able to do two rows if I want taller beds.
(I just looked: I am not the only one to have this idea, even with the twist of using Urban Ore. Nice to know the tiles work!)
What to fill the beds with? Well, my sweet potatoes have been happy for five years in a bed I fill every spring with a mixture of fallen leaves, horse manure, brewer's mash, and alfalfa pellets. It's created a loose-textured soil high in organic material, fast-draining but nutritious. A couple of years of heaping the beds high, and I should have some real soil of decent quality. Granted, I'll need truckloads of fallen leaves, which means calling on every house I know that's supplied me in the past, and maybe putting ads on telephone poles begging people to let me come pick up their bagged leaves... but it can be done, if only in part of the garden each year. I have access to as much brewer's mash as I have buckets for, and I suspect the nice lady on Mount Diablo will still return my call if I ask about coming to cart away manure from her stables. (Alfalfa pellet prices came down this last year, to $24/100 lbs, but it's never been worse than $32.)
I desperately hope this will solve the digging/fertility problem for good. The mites can be handled with mulch (especially if I eliminate the weeds nearby, which are a reservoir host for them) because they want dust and low humidity. The earwigs will be a bit of a headache, though less so with tomatoes than, say, beans. Higher fertility and soilless mix will help hold off Fusarium, I hope. If nothing else, it will speed up my garden prep and make it unbelievably easier. And the place will look much better. I'll still have the old steel fenceposts for support, of course, but mulched paths and terra cotta beds would add a sense of tidy permanence.
I have the winter to work the place over. Woo!
(Yes, I'm feeling a bit better now)
It's time I bit the bullet and made raised garden beds. For one thing, I could control the fertility and organic matter content so much better. Moisture levels would be more even in lighter soil. I can mulch mature tomato plants (seedlings are still susceptible to earwigs), and that's easier to do with definite boundaries. I can't keep digging every single bed every single year. My knees would appreciate raising the plants up even six inches. And I could put something like wood chips on the paths without worrying about drift -- which would also help with water retention and (more importantly) keeping dust down so as not to encourage the mites.
What stopped me in the past was the expense. Lumber adds up quickly, and garden soil isn't cheap either -- unless you buy fill dirt of unknown provenance, and that's setting yourself up for fertility problems or nasty soilborne pathogens you can't get rid of. I get most of my amendments, and all of my labor, for free when digging the beds every year... the cost was just not feasible.
This time around, muttering about it, I realized Urban Ore could supply the lumber at a fraction of the cost. I might have to cut the boards on site to get them into my car, but I could do that, assuming I could get enough miscellaneous boards of similar sizes, which is always a challenge...
Then it hit me. One thing that is always in the building materials yard, going begging without a soul disturbing it, is a group of about six pallets of red clay roof tiles. I've looked them over and wondered what use I could put them to, and always walked on. I think (I'll look at them Thursday) those might be the answer. Interlocking, durable, versatile, I could stand them on end and dig them into the ground an inch or two, and they would make a very nice edge. Classy. If I'm fussy about having them stay in line, I could run wire between small pieces of rebar to keep the tiles from sagging outward. If they lock properly, though, I suspect I can get them to resist that. I might even be able to do two rows if I want taller beds.
(I just looked: I am not the only one to have this idea, even with the twist of using Urban Ore. Nice to know the tiles work!)
What to fill the beds with? Well, my sweet potatoes have been happy for five years in a bed I fill every spring with a mixture of fallen leaves, horse manure, brewer's mash, and alfalfa pellets. It's created a loose-textured soil high in organic material, fast-draining but nutritious. A couple of years of heaping the beds high, and I should have some real soil of decent quality. Granted, I'll need truckloads of fallen leaves, which means calling on every house I know that's supplied me in the past, and maybe putting ads on telephone poles begging people to let me come pick up their bagged leaves... but it can be done, if only in part of the garden each year. I have access to as much brewer's mash as I have buckets for, and I suspect the nice lady on Mount Diablo will still return my call if I ask about coming to cart away manure from her stables. (Alfalfa pellet prices came down this last year, to $24/100 lbs, but it's never been worse than $32.)
I desperately hope this will solve the digging/fertility problem for good. The mites can be handled with mulch (especially if I eliminate the weeds nearby, which are a reservoir host for them) because they want dust and low humidity. The earwigs will be a bit of a headache, though less so with tomatoes than, say, beans. Higher fertility and soilless mix will help hold off Fusarium, I hope. If nothing else, it will speed up my garden prep and make it unbelievably easier. And the place will look much better. I'll still have the old steel fenceposts for support, of course, but mulched paths and terra cotta beds would add a sense of tidy permanence.
I have the winter to work the place over. Woo!
(Yes, I'm feeling a bit better now)
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no subject
Date: 2012-09-14 02:37 (UTC)