small space/high yield

[digitS']

Good Morning Everyone!

A seed company sent me some "Tips for small space/high yield veggie gardens." I want to share the tips and add a link to useful information on "Small Plot and Intensive Gardening," a 4-page pdf file from Purdue University.

Here's an outline of the tips:

Tip 1 THINK SMALL - less work but not necessarily less produce

Tip 2 RAISED BEDS/WIDE ROWS - warm quicker in the spring, less soil compaction, and improved drainage

Tip 3 HIGH DENSITY - avoid narrow bands of growing plants and wide gaps that grow only weeds, let your plants shade or choke out the weeds

"Keep in mind that high density requires amendments in the spring and be prepared to fertilize once or twice during the season." (from Stokes Seeds)

Steve
who has done all this but now plants from horizon to horizon (darn near

 

[chickhamm]

I have actually thought about raised bed planting, mainly because the soil here is in such poor shape. Also, the beds would be easy to net in, i have lots of chickens and do like to let them free range.


We were lucky, got 8 acrs for 17.5 but whomever owned it before TRASHED the land. You can literally go out and walk around and find lug nuts, bolts, wires, tires ........ We knew what we were getting into when we bought it. It has lots of trees on it and some are large that is partly why we got it, i did not want a empty piece of land with a trailer stuck on it. We are working on cleaning the land up, just taking time and the soil is just so bad.

chickhamm
Theressa
GA

 

[1acrefarm]

Raised beds work well but take more water. With the water restrictions and drought here I need to install a pump on my well before I use them.

 

[digitS']

Poor garden soil is probably the best reason for using raised beds, chickhamm. Even a few inches of good top soil can be gathered together in beds and poor subsoil can be left to be walked on in the pathways. Any available soil amendments and fertilizers are best used under the plants rather than being placed under our feet.

1acre, my gardens have very, very porous soil. I have given up on using boards anywhere except in a protected growing area - the expense just isn't worth it for me. Where I do have beds, the soil is loose and deeply cultivated (11 inches, the length of the tines on a spading fork . The paths are permanent and beaten down to near concrete conditions.

I wouldn't describe my paths as "wide" altho' my wife who has much smaller feet might . I can't get any narrower than 2 feet and toe-to-heel, my 2 feet are 24 inches . I don't want the paths wider. Sometimes there is standing water in the paths but it quickly disappears. I think that despite the porous soil, the hard, hard surface of the path encourages the water to just move into the soft soil of the beds.

The surface level of the beds are 8 to 12 inches higher than the paths but they are raked into a tray shape rather than rounded. That prevents erosion into the paths. This approach has worked for me for a good number of years.

Steve

Spring 2007, the annual flower garden immediately after cultivating and before raking (not my shed or fence

 

[chickhamm]

1acre, i was hopping to be able to put drip lines or a mini sprinkler system on a timer. We have also been in a horrid drought here and i want to conserve water as much as possible even though we have our own well.

What would be better for the beds? Landscapping timbers, or treated 2x4s?

chickhamm
Theressa
GA

 

[1acrefarm]

Digits I envy your soil. I have this great Ga clay to deal with.

Chickhamm I am no expert. I think a drip irrigation under some type of mulch could work well depending on what you are growing. Mulch helps retain moisture. An elevated rain barrel could be a supply for drip irrigation. I also rinse my animal feed and water containers in gardens. As far as whats good for raised beds its kind of a preference thing. I would not recycle any old treated wood because they used to use arsenic in it. Any new treated wood should be fine because they banned arsenic from treated wood. I basically use whatever is cheap or freely available when I do raised beds. I like landscape timbers because they are attractive cheap and easy to work with and have a reasonable amount of bulk. I use 20d galvanized nails to fasten timbers. I have used cinderblock for raised beds as well just because I had alot laying around. I have also made raised beds from logs from downed hardwood trees it was not a permanent solution but it was free and lasted many years.

 

[cknmom]

I have used raised beds for years. I love them, don't think I will go back to rows except for vining plant in the field. But what we will have to do different now as opposed to when we aere in the city is; DH will have to use the backhoe to dig down and clear the rock(we have boulders 2-3' under) and line area with chicken wire as we have waaay too many gophers, moles, voles, chipmunks! Then the beds will have to go over them. Otherwise we will have NO plants left.

Still waiting for my garden though, still two things above it on the list!

Monica

 

[chickhamm]

i think for mine, i will till and then dig that 4 inch out, line it with chicken wire then build over it and put that soil back with more.

chickhamm
Theressa
GA

 

[quadcam79]

like this?

my first attempt at a garden, so I'm trying the raised bed/sq ft garden method..so far so good you can see the onions and a few tomatoes in the pic, the rest are seed thats just sprouting, we had a cold snap and just enough frost to kill off most of my seedlings . i'm growing cucumbers,onions (vidalia and red and scallion), tomatoes,beets,jalapeno,green pepper,chives ,carrots and i forget what else
thats jst in one side....i have to get more dirt to fill the other side
I have 2 beds 4'x8' with an aisle down the center

 

[digitS']

That looks a little like what's under my plastic tunnel, Quadcam. Lotta work there and with the expense of 2by's . . . $.

The tunnel is 20 feet long and most of the soil for the 3' beds came from excavating the 18"-deep center pathway. The soil has been heavily amended over the years. I suppose that once covered each Spring, I then have Florida-like weather for several months in there. I talked a little about it and the Asian greens on this TEG thread.

Steve

This is very early in the season last year. The cover will come off after the greens are finished and the beds are then used for warm-season veggie transplants.