What is the best soil to plant a slightly raised vegetable garden in?
Posted on Jun 27, 2009 under Best For Garden |I am attempting a garden for the first time, and am unsure of the best spot to plan it. Our house block much of the sun in our yard, so the best spot is at the bottom of a small slope where the water runoff passes, leaving the ground almost always saturated and soft. I planned on building a bit of a raised bed. Is this a good spot to plan my garden or not? I watched a few videos online and one said it would be a good spot, but I wanted to be sure.
Thanks in advance!
Sounds good to me if you're getting enough sun there. A raised bed there should work out fine. You won't dry out as much. Be sure to add enough well seasoned compost. You can always divert the run off if it is too bad. Go for it!
June 28th, 2009 at 4:16 am
Sounds good to me if you're getting enough sun there. A raised bed there should work out fine. You won't dry out as much. Be sure to add enough well seasoned compost. You can always divert the run off if it is too bad. Go for it!
References :
June 28th, 2009 at 4:30 am
Plants like tomatoes like full sun. Cool-weather crops like spinach and lettuce do alright in partial shade. If it gets too hot in full sun, it will ruin those plants. They do alright for a while. Cool-weather crops can be planted 2-3 weeks before the last frost. Other crops have to wait until all danger of frost has passed. You can also plant a fall harvest for lettuce and spinach. You could get a truck load of topsoil, but they sell bags of top soil fairly cheap at home centers. Potting soil costs more, but a heavy bag of top soil is only a couple of bucks or so. It sounds good that you are diverting the runoff around the garden. The traditional way to garden is to take two wooden stakes and string a line between them across the garden to mark each row. You make rows 10" to 18" apart or more depending on the plant. (18" is advised for lettuce, but if space is tight make it narrower.) The string helps you plant a straight row. When the plants come up, remove the stake and strings. To break the ground, you may want to scrape the top 2" to 3" of grass off with a shovel. You can use it to patch an area of yard that needs grass. Anyways, it's good to try to get rid of the grass instead of trying to till it into the earth. It will just come up all summer long and be a nuisance. I have a garden but not a rototiller. So I just turn the earth one shovel full at a time, and then chop it up with the shovel and a hoe and rake it with a steel rake. It's a good, time-consuming workout. Getting the grass out of the way makes it go much better. Not enough water is much worse than too much water. You can almost water your garden once a day. Don't let it get too dry at all. Don't water it in the middle of the day. It has to be done in the morning or evening. Good luck.
References :
June 28th, 2009 at 5:12 am
I do squarefoot garden ( in beds). I use 1/3 organic soil, 1/3 compost and 1/3 vermiculite. add compost before each crop and you should be fine.
References :
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/