Raised garden

[eman]

I'm in the planning stages for a spring garden.
Looking at doing a cinder block bed 3 blocks high 30 blocks long and 12 blocks wide.
Has anyone done this type of garden? i was thinking of putting down plastic before laying the blocks and filling the bed to keep the weeds out? Or should i just roundup the area first?
Am going to plant my veggies in the main bed and herbs in the holes in the blocks. i read somewhere to plant marigolds in the holes as they are a natural insect repellent Anyone heard of this?

[Nietzsche]

Originally Posted by eman

I'm in the planning stages for a spring garden.
Looking at doing a cinder block bed 3 blocks high 30 blocks long and 12 blocks wide.
Has anyone done this type of garden? i was thinking of putting down plastic before laying the blocks and filling the bed to keep the weeds out? Or should i just roundup the area first?
Am going to plant my veggies in the main bed and herbs in the holes in the blocks. i read somewhere to plant marigolds in the holes as they are a natural insect repellent Anyone heard of this?

I have been gardening in beds for a while now so I have a few thoughts to share with you. I would re-think the dimensions of the bed you are planning. Ideally the width of the bed should be no more than you can reach the middle of it from both sides. This means you can plant / harvest the bed without walking in it. One of the big benefits of raised bed gardening is the improved soil structure. Walking on it compacts the soil, especially in the sandy soil we have. I find 4 x 25 beds best for me. I can easily reach anything in the garden and the 100 square feet makes soil amendments and fertilizer easy to calculate. At 4 feet wide, you can even run a tiller through the bed while standing outside of it.

Instead of plastic or round up, you might consider this. Cover the ground with a thick layer of cardboard, paper grocery bags or newspaper. Wet it down good and then put your dirt on top of it. The layer of paper will smother the grass / weeds, is water permeable and is bio degradable. You would not believe how many earthworms this will attract into the garden. With the popularity of Amazon and other sites shipping box cardboard is easy to find. Just don't use any paper with colored ink on it. Black ink is okay.

Marigolds are used to prevent nematodes from tomatoes and cabbage worms from cabbage, brussel sprouts etc. French marigolds are much better than the African varieties. I believe you would be better off planting them amongst the plants instead of in the holes in the blocks. Planting herbs in the holes sounds like a good idea. I have never tried it but I will this year. Thanks for the idea.

[ragincajun]

I second the 4' width. my first raised bed garden I went 6 feet wide and it was a pain in the butt to get to everything in the middle. I ended up redoing my beds to go to 4'. Its a whole lot easier.

[MathGeek]

Marigolds do repel some insects.

We've done raised beds, but not as high.

If deer are in your area, you need a strategy to keep them out.

[lil bubba]

I had a bunch of old blocks laying around...I have tried the marigolds but only once so can't say anything either way...I'm going to plant some in the block holes with other herbs...

[eman]

so one course of blocks is deep enough?

[lil bubba]

Originally Posted by eman

so one course of blocks is deep enough?

I been using 1 landscape timber but they rot out too fast...I used to grow 4 rows without borders but since I cut back to 2 I just prefer to see the borders...With some good soil 8 inches is plenty...When you see a couple bags of leaves on side the road pick them up for mulch...No weeds...Turn over and better soil next year...

[red robin]

I had landscape timbers and they lasted about five or six years and rotted out ,so I started building some more


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[eman]

Originally Posted by red robin

I had landscape timbers and they lasted about five or six years and rotted out ,so I started building some more


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i see you got tired of picking satsumas too

[red robin]

Yeah, i have about twenty trees,I sold a bunch to the store but still have plenty left


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[eman]

with a 4 foot wide bed do you plant 2 rows per bed or just one?

[lil bubba]

With tomato's I only plant 1 row...Cabbage , broccoli ,peppers I go with 2 but offset the plants...

[Nietzsche]

Originally Posted by lil bubba

With tomato's I only plant 1 row...Cabbage , broccoli ,peppers I go with 2 but offset the plants...

Yeah same here.

[red robin]

My old beds were 4x8 and I planted double rows of tomatoes and made plenty, my new beds are 5x8 more room


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[Cappy]

4' wide max. 12" high is plenty. We been doing or version of square foot gardening for many years now and have no regrrets.

[swamp snorkler]

Originally Posted by Nietzsche

I have been gardening in beds for a while now so I have a few thoughts to share with you. I would re-think the dimensions of the bed you are planning. Ideally the width of the bed should be no more than you can reach the middle of it from both sides. This means you can plant / harvest the bed without walking in it. One of the big benefits of raised bed gardening is the improved soil structure. Walking on it compacts the soil, especially in the sandy soil we have. I find 4 x 25 beds best for me. I can easily reach anything in the garden and the 100 square feet makes soil amendments and fertilizer easy to calculate. At 4 feet wide, you can even run a tiller through the bed while standing outside of it.

Instead of plastic or round up, you might consider this. Cover the ground with a thick layer of cardboard, paper grocery bags or newspaper. Wet it down good and then put your dirt on top of it. The layer of paper will smother the grass / weeds, is water permeable and is bio degradable. You would not believe how many earthworms this will attract into the garden. With the popularity of Amazon and other sites shipping box cardboard is easy to find. Just don't use any paper with colored ink on it. Black ink is okay.

Marigolds are used to prevent nematodes from tomatoes and cabbage worms from cabbage, brussel sprouts etc. French marigolds are much better than the African varieties. I believe you would be better off planting them amongst the plants instead of in the holes in the blocks. Planting herbs in the holes sounds like a good idea. I have never tried it but I will this year. Thanks for the idea.

Originally Posted by lil bubba

With tomato's I only plant 1 row...Cabbage , broccoli ,peppers I go with 2 but offset the plants...

Great info.

Eman, I wouldn't go higher than 2 cinder blocks. I have a buddy that came across some half sized cinder blocks. He put 1 full size as the base layer and 1 half size so I guess his garden is about 12" high. He makes a real nice garden.

[Cappy]

To take full advantage we use trotline string and grid our garden in 12"by12" grids. Then we plant in the grid. It helps us maximize the bed and its actually fun weeding and tending to it in a grid ya can go 1 grid at a time. Of course when planting stuff that dencely ya have to fertilize alot. miricle grow or some organic plant food works. Also planting stuff thickly like this doesn't leave much room for weeds.

[PaulMyers]

I used a full sized blocks and the solid 8x16x2 caps on top of the blocks. It gave me a little more depth and a solid surface to kneel on when weeding or picking.

[Garfish]

I always put newspaper down to keep the weeds out. I use 3 stacked 4x4 landscape timbers. My bed is 3' x 20' along the side of my backyard fence. Usually plant one row of tomatoes and offset peppers, eggplant, cucumbers go along the fenceline. Also have 2 separate 3'x3' herb gardens that also have landscape timbers. They seem to work well for me.