Garden Layout

[SweetMissDaisy]

Just wondering if the 4x4 beds would work better placed against the fence, and a little narrower, so you can reach all the way across. That would give you room for another bed, or a wider bed right there in the middle. I grow cukes on the fence, which works pretty well for me.

Hi!
If you have deer in your area, do they bother the cuc’s on your fencing? I tried a couple different cucs here down by the coop in areas that were not fenced, and they were just a deer buffet. I have some growing up on the patio this year they haven’t found...yet...

I considered having more length of beds along the fence... kind of like a border of beds all along the inside of the garden.
3’ would still be a little too wide, not really for planting, but i think that would be too wide for harvesting anything on the fence side.
2’ would be OK width wise for the border bed, but I thought that would allow so much of what I grow to be potentially poking through the fence. I do like the look of a garden fence lined w/ an inside and outside planting bed, though. I will have a bed on the outside of the fence for various deer resistant flowers. Lavender, etc...

I’m sure this won’t be the final layout design. It’s fun considering all the ideas!

SMD

 

[thistlebloom]

Anna, there is a great blueberry called Jelly Bean that I have growing in a pot on the patio. Bred specifically for containers, and it's always loaded with fruit.

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

After talking about it more w/ the mister today, we have decided to increase the garden size a smidge, so i’ll be reworking my drawing tonight. Yay! Fun for me! Not a whole lot, but a bit. Thanks for all the comments so far! You’ve all been helpful, and I look forward to sharing the next version w/ you.

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

Anna, there is a great blueberry called Jelly Bean that I have growing in a pot on the patio. Bred specifically for containers, and it's always loaded with fruit.

Sounds perfect!

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

RR, thanks for all the comments!

The beds will be made of cut lumber. I used 2x10 and 2x6s (two stacked) in my last garden (in Texas). I would like the slightly deeper beds this time. You said if you could do it again you use 2x8’s — do you mean as a single 8” deep bed, or double-stacked, for a 16”ish deep bed?

I will be putting weed barrier and wood mulch down, so there will be no need for me to mow or weed eat in the garden. I had to do that in TX, and will appreciate not having to do either of those things in this garden. I have to mow and weed eat enough around this place — not having to do it in the garden too will be a gift to myself!

The veggie icons were just a visual indicator for a starting point. What I grow in each location will change each year, except for the strawberry bed. And of course if I put in something like a berry bush.

As for the beds against the fence and water/grass, etc, I anticipate having flower beds along the outside of the fence as well — something to brighten up the place and for pollinators. Maybe I need to add that to my sketch!

I had both 2’ and 3’ walkways between rows in my Texas garden. I honestly had no issue w/ the 2’ wide walkways, except when there were huge snakes in the rows! I won’t have that problem here. Or better not!!! I think the short 2’ rows will be very manageable w/ mulch between the beds, instead of grass/weeds to contend with. I do like having a wider main row for getting the wagon around — but with 5’ or 6’ beds, a 2’ wide walkway is acceptable in my experience. However... I did have 4x8’ beds in the Texas garden, as well... that probably made a bit of difference. It’s possible they could get changed to 2.5’ wide though, as we look at increasing the footprint of the garden a bit, but I don’t think they all need to be 3’.

That’s amazing the deer didn’t bother your cucumbers planted outside the garden fence! Our stinkers ate mine to the ground... three different varieties even! They also ate every one of my tomato plants when i had them planted down on the trellises by the coop — I didn’t think they’d eat the vines, but they did! That was what prompted me to started planting in pots on the patio until I get something enclosed in place.

I do have a lovely blackberry patch down by the coop that I have been able to keep the deer out of this year — so all is not lost.

SMD

 

[Ridgerunner]

The beds will be made of cut lumber. I used 2x10 and 2x6s (two stacked) in my last garden (in Texas). I would like the slightly deeper beds this time. You said if you could do it again you use 2x8’s — do you mean as a single 8” deep bed, or double-stacked, for a 16”ish deep bed?

I'd go with an 8" deep bed, but I should not have mentioned it, that's due to local conditions and the way I managed things. In many areas taller is better.

Where I put the beds I had a lot of nut sedge. Not just here and there but like a ground cover of nut sedge in some areas. So when I put the beds in I dug out the top 5" or so of dirt and disposed of it, hoping to get rid of most of the nut sedge nuts. It worked. I still get some coming up, you never get them all. Some grow in from the edges of the beds, the boundary I did not dig out. Some grow up from the below the bottom of my fill. Some got mixed in with my fill. But it is manageable as long as I keep up with it. I don't have to dig out what I planted to keep the nut sedge from taking over.

The result is that I had an extra 5" or so to fill, in addition to the lumber on top. I didn't fill it to the top, left enough room for mulch and to contain the fill when I work it. The fill I used has some clay in it but not enough to retain a lot of moisture. I'd really like more clay but it's hard to find sterile clay that I'd want to use. Local gardening centers and landscapers don't have it. The fill has enough sand that I get good drainage. It is mostly organic matter, I started with a lot of compost and I keep adding more. Even with a lot of mulch it dries out quickly. I'm out there watering a lot. If my fill were not so thick more of the crop roots would reach down into the native soil which retains moisture better.

For me in hindsight 2x8's would have been less expensive, a lot lighter to work with when building the beds, and would have suited me fine. But when I built the beds I did not realize how thick that nut sedge was. I took off the turf when I first built the beds, trying to get rid of some of he grass roots and thinking that would make a good start to my compost pile. Within a week several beds were a solid mass of nut sedge. That changed my plans.

Enough of my moaning an groaning. When you first posted I had no idea of what experience you had with raised beds, I assumed none. But you've had experience, feel free to ignore anything I said. It will not hurt my feelings at all.

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

Thanks for explaining - that makes perfect sense to me. Amazing how different experiences are in various parts of this country... I don’t even know what nut sedge is! Sounds rather awful!

 

[thistlebloom]

Deer have different tastes according to what neighborhood they terrorize. They accustom themselves to what's available.
I told everybody for years that deer won't touch potato tops,
because they never ate any in my unfenced garden. Then there was the year they mowed them all down and I had to change my thinking.

I read somewhere that deer can even adapt to mildly toxic browse, and eventually it doesn't affect them. I can't remember where I read it so can't vouch for it's validity, but it seems to go along with what I've observed.
Last year in the deer infested neighborhood I work in they ate peony foliage and rhodies, along with a few other things that were traditional "untouchables".

 

[digitS']

That was my experience with potato plants and deer, way back when. They chewed tops.

Deer did more damage in my tomatoes, once. Sheared those plants at the height of the trellis in which they were growing. They reached in, pulled off fruit, crushed and dropped it.

Apparently, they liked foliage more than green tomatoes.

Steve

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

Deer have different tastes according to what neighborhood they terrorize. They accustom themselves to what's available.
I told everybody for years that deer won't touch potato tops,
because they never ate any in my unfenced garden. Then there was the year they mowed them all down and I had to change my thinking.

I read somewhere that deer can even adapt to mildly toxic browse, and eventually it doesn't affect them. I can't remember where I read it so can't vouch for it's validity, but it seems to go along with what I've observed.
Last year in the deer infested neighborhood I work in they ate peony foliage and rhodies, along with a few other things that were traditional "untouchables".

Last year I watched our older doe eat on the rhubarb leaves... I thought that was really strange. Not like there isn’t anything else to eat in my yard!