Raised garden

[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.