if you had the choice

[majorcatfish]

we all love to grow, but if you had your choice in what manner would you grow in and why?
sorry forgot the i in explain

 

[journey11]

I have 2 big garden plots and 3 raised beds (so far). While there are some things like corn and pumpkins that I'd only plant in the main garden in order to accommodate as much of them as I need to grow, everything else is so much easier to attend to in the raised beds. Weeding...easier to do and stays done! Soil quality and texture is infinitely better too and I can grow larger, healthier plants in there in less space per plant than regular gardening requires. DH has a harder time blowing grass with the mower into the raised beds too.

There's a giant tree stump in my front yard that is almost gone now. I've been waiting for it to decay so that I can put in 3 more raised beds there. Stump burner did nothing to help. Termites were quicker about it...eesh.

 

[ducks4you]

Raised beds have a wide latitude of descriptions from wooden boxes for wheelchair gardeners to mounds of dirt with a walkway in between them. Mine are boxes barely 6 inches high, but I love that nobody walks on them and the soil stays worked, instead of compacted.
I double dig my beds. This takes time and energy, so...3 beds remain undug in 2013.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

I usually just plant on plain dirt along with some herbs or the like in containers.

With how big my garden space is it doesn't seem worth the time or effort. I would be required to pay for the wood. Pa Works-a-lot wouldn't be able to help. And I do nooot have good carpentry skills.

I like to plant things like bush beans pretty closely which shades the ground and makes life harder for weeds. I have done raised beds before, the benefits didn't seem that great.

I am considering making a raised bed for mint to try to contain it, though.

 

[Smart Red]

I have plenty of space for a garden, but I LOVE the raised beds DH made. I like to garden intensively and that's easy in raised beds. I like that weeding can be done before, during, or after a rain without getting muddy or degrading the quality of the soil. I appreciate that the soil is never walked on and therefore remains light and fluffy. . .

However,

I would really like to have a larger (heated) greenhouse for growing through the winter and sheltering my tender plants. And it is a dream of mine to get a (or more) large, high-poly tunnel grower for a longer growing season sometime.

 

[digitS']

You made a Poll, Major'!

I'd probably be more of a pest than I already am if I knew how to do that . . .

I think I can agree with what has been said by all the previous responders. I already have a lot of room and have worked steadily to get the gardens into beds with permanent paths. As Ducks' said, raised beds can just be raised mounds of soil - that's all I've been doing lately. My boxed beds fell apart years ago and I don't want to invest in replacing them. I don't think I'd especially enjoy the carpentry, either. So, I'm gardening, more or less, in dirt.

There are a very few things that I am willing to put in containers, I'm not a good enuf gardener to do very well with 'em!

Greenhouses? Well, I've got various versions of them but they are all small and soon crowded. However, I once worked in a range of greenhouses that covered an acre. That isn't very big for a commercial outfit but I'd have to have a couple more Steves just to maintain the buildings and grow the crops in something of that size! The 3 Steves could sure do a good job feeding ourselves in a vegetable operation, like that.

Steve

_____

 

[so lucky]

I love the look and esthetics of my fenced garden. When I am in it, I feel like I am in my own world, which is true; rarely does another adult venture inside, and then only by my invitation. The grandkids think it is a place of wonder and discovery: "Oh, look Grandma, strawberries! Beans! I love beans!" makes my heart glad.
Morning Glory vines grow up on the fence, and dill sprouts where it wants to. I keep the paths weed free by using newspaper and straw. I have a stump out there to sit when I get tired.

Actually, it sounds better than it really is, when I speak of it on this cold wet December morning. but that's OK.

 

[897tgigvib]

Raised beds is really the way to go. I've also had rows and trench gardens, old style. They do not really work as well.

 

[Nyboy]

If it is about what I would like vs what i could afford a conservatory!! Something like what the grand victorian houses had. Fountains, goldfishponds, white wicker furniture, and most important large gardening staff.

 

[Smart Red]

Oh, Nyboy! A man after my own heart! A conservatory is such a big dream that I daren't utter that wish. Instead I wish for lessor substitutes in planning that might come true someday. And you're right about the large, gardening staff. That's a boulder in the way of a lot of my plans as well.