Raised bed, or regular garden??

[Collector]

Thank you for the speedy answers. this is giving me a lot to think about but is helping me make up my mind.
Steve,the soil is OK ithink, for the past few years I have been spraying it to keep the weeds down. I am sort of concerned about the condition of the soil. I put all the fall leaves on it plus all of our rabbit droppings , I am hoping it will help Also I have some chicken compost and a pretty good pile of grass clippings.

lesa, the books I have been reading talk about all the different methods of gardening, they just seem to push the raised bed idea the most. Maybe cause it is the fad at this time.I dont think there would be less weeds, I am thinking they would be contained to the boxes and out side the boxes We could deal with those easier. I do like the raised row idea and will use it in the garden.

Vfem, The start up cost of raised beds can be costly even with salvaging as much as possible. That has been what has been stopping me from going full steam ahead. With the economy right now it does not make sense to spend money that can be saved.I still want to make the raised beds I think that I will spend a season collecting materials and soil First.

Thistlebloom, I have one 4x8'raised bed that I built 14 years ago. It is still in great shape, problem is the trees have grown another 15' taller and much wider since then. It seems to get alot more shade these days than when I built it. I thought about moving it, but it would probably turn into toothpicks if I tried that LOL. There is one spot in the garden area that I will make a raised bed for this year. It is a spot that I
leveled with a bobcat to set up a pool and trampoline for the kids. it had a high spot and I dug it right down to clay It is about an 8x10' area that is cracked earth during the summer.
As for the tiller I have gotten the carb parts plus the new bushings. BUT there a 2 pre formed rubber seals that go on the out side of the bushings that are needed to keep the gear oil in the housing instead of allover the garden. I have been scouring the internet to try and locate the parts or even find out what brand the tiller is. I took the parts to a small engine friend in spokane and he is also looking for me. He has this plan to rework the lower drive to run on abelt and a couple hanger bearings. I am holding off to try and find the parts to keep it origanal (not a contraption) LOL. I only have a couple more months to hold out though before I have to make the modifacations.
Boggy,thanks for the links, they are saying the same type of things that the books I have read profess. I do want to do raised beds but I think I will do it more incrimentaly, As I gain the materials.
i_am2bz, I want to build them fo alot of the reasons you did also. but I will hold off for now for the money reasons. I know that I can gain the materials over time for alot cheaper than jumping in like I usually do.

Thank you all for the advice and alternative ideas and would like to hear anymore thoughts you all may have.

 

[digitS']

Collector, if you are planning to use the "raised row" in your garden - whether it is 2' wide or 5' wide, you might want to do most of your work with a shovel. Now, I don't want you out there with a pick ax trying to get thru clay if the garden is any size! Moving soft soil with a shovel is more than enuf work and it may make sense for you to run the tiller across the ground first.

You can see what I was doing last year after the potato harvest on this thread (click). Keep in mind that I have done this many years in some of my gardens and it isn't just done after the potato harvest. I first began when I lived out in the country and wanted to improve my garden soil (while shrinking the total growing area). I could have planted acres during those days but irrigation would have been a problem and there was other use for those acres than my kitchen garden.

Anyway, I started out with rain-spoiled alfalfa hay and cow manure from a neighboring farm. You can get too much material in a trench under 8" or 10" of soil. In our short-season part of the world, it will mat down and not decompose - and can turn into kind of a sauerkraut (show that sick, green face here).

The process may mostly be anaerobic decomposition anyway and not every gardener is in favor of that. For my porous soil, there is so much gravel that there must be a lot of oxygen in the ground. But, at least with anaerobic decay, there isn't so much nitrogen loss into the atmosphere.

Steve

 

[Collector]

Collector, if you are planning to use the "raised row" in your garden - whether it is 2' wide or 5' wide, you might want to do most of your work with a shovel. Now, I don't want you out there with a pick ax trying to get thru clay if the garden is any size! Moving soft soil with a shovel is more than enuf work and it may make sense for you to run the tiller across the ground first.

You can see what I was doing last year after the potato harvest on this thread (click). Keep in mind that I have done this many years in some of my gardens and it isn't just done after the potato harvest. I first began when I lived out in the country and wanted to improve my garden soil (while shrinking the total growing area). I could have planted acres during those days but irrigation would have been a problem and there was other use for those acres than my kitchen garden.


Anyway, I started out with rain-spoiled alfalfa hay and cow manure from a neighboring farm. You can get too much material in a trench under 8" or 10" of soil. In our short-season part of the world, it will mat down and not decompose - and can turn into kind of a sauerkraut (show that sick, green face here).

The process may mostly be anaerobic decomposition anyway and not every gardener is in favor of that. For my porous soil, there is so much gravel that there must be a lot of oxygen in the ground. But, at least with anaerobic decay, there isn't so much nitrogen loss into the atmosphere.

Steve

Thanks steve, I dont want to see me out there with a pick ax either. The soil is very workable during the spring, let it dry out though and you couldnt even loosen it with a jack hammer. I have been putting everything i can get my hands on it. so I can till it in this spring and hopefully add enough organic to keep it from turning to stone in the summer heat. We will see I it will be fine, but what do I know LOL. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Kim_NC]

We have both raised beds and traditional garden areas. We like our rasied beds mostly for starting seeds for transplanting - like lettuces, Swiss chard, tomatoes, peppers, etc. We have framed covers to put over them so they can be used like cold frames.

After seed starting time we tend to leave or plant things in the raised beds that we grow in smaller quantities. For example...we might grow 3 varieties of eggplant, but only 4-5 plants of each one.

We also do wide, deep rows in our main garden areas. We use these for greens (mustard, turnip, kale) and spinach. Or double rows of onions, beets, etc.

Hope you have a great first growing season. You could try both....
Make only one or two raised beds. Then plant the remaining space in traditional rows. That may help you decide what you like best.