'RECESSED' planting

[Liberty7]

As my fellow Minnesotans will testify, everything is bone dry here from lack of rain. Every time they call for rain, it doesn't happen.

I am going to start 'planting' tomorrow; and, since I had read that the preferred way of gardening in the dry southwest part of the country is 'recessed,' I'm going to do this, too. Plus, when I'm watering, I can then put the water exactly where I want it and NOT waste it in areas which will only help the weeds grow!

 

[patandchickens]

The one thing to beware of, in a non desert climate, is what happens when you get a big gullywasher thunderstorm. How long are your plants going to sit neck-deep in a pond (some don't like that at *all*) and is it going to inundate leaf crops with a coating of dirt/silt that's hard to wash totally off.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[digitS']

I'm not in the Southwest but garden where we can go thru the 3 months of Summer with just a tad over an inch of rain .

I use elevated beds - however, I hasten to add - the beds are flattened and shaped a little like a basin. I can flood the bed with water when I first put transplants in there but, of course, it drains quickly away.

I didn't say "raised beds" because folks have a tendency to think of those as being surrounded by walls and these are not. The paths between my beds become beaten down hard partly because of the nature of the soil. (Partly because of the nature of my big feet and the 200 pounds I put on them .) Honestly, I think that most of the water that pool on these paths move laterally into the beds more so than straight down.

Steve

 

[mtn_penny]

Due to money we did not have enough to purchase the lumber or what ever to make a raised bed so we did recessed beds and they did quite well but then again we are in the desert.