The logistics of a raised bed?

[digitS']

Ruth Stout wrote that book on no-dig gardening. Supposed to be no-work but you gotta wonder about that old lady packing around all those bales of rain-spoiled hay!

That's true with the lasagna gardening too . . . And, then I'm suspicious of anything laying on the surface of the ground. I mean, what's under that? Anything that might run up my pants leg when my back is turned???!

Fukuoka wrote that One-Straw Revolution book about no-till farming. Plenty of no-till grain farming around here but it takes lots of diesel power at times and lots of herbicides at others. I've often wondered if Fukuoka only grew one grain straw on his farm each season . . . but, to be honest, I never read his book.

I like to dig, or I used to. Moving 20 pounds of wet dirt on the end of a stick (shovel) isn't a very back-friendly thing to do. One style of double-digging has the digger standing flat-footed and lifting soil from 16 inches below the soles of his feet! Good Goobly Goop!! Talk about a killer approach to cultivation.

There's "unkind" subsoil if you go too deep, also. You don't want to mix too much of that in with whatever fertile topsoil you've got. Around here, wherever I've put in a garden, I've only got about 8" of topsoil. I just try to work down from there but it takes a few years. No use being a darn fool about it and going halfway to China right off.

Nope, I only thought I had a cast-iron back when I was in my early 20's. Still, I like to dig. If only to hide stuff at the end of the gardening season . . .

The worms find it down there, too. Worms are my friends !

Steve's digits (his back contributed nothing)

 

[davaroo]

Ruth Stout wrote that book on no-dig gardening. Supposed to be no-work but you gotta wonder about that old lady packing around all those bales of rain-spoiled hay!

That's true with the lasagna gardening too . . . And, then I'm suspicious of anything laying on the surface of the ground. I mean, what's under that? Anything that might run up my pants leg when my back is turned???!

Fukuoka wrote that One-Straw Revolution book about no-till farming. Plenty of no-till grain farming around here but it takes lots of diesel power at times and lots of herbicides at others. I've often wondered if Fukuoka only grew one grain straw on his farm each season . . . but, to be honest, I never read his book.

I like to dig, or I used to. Moving 20 pounds of wet dirt on the end of a stick (shovel) isn't a very back-friendly thing to do. One style of double-digging has the digger standing flat-footed and lifting soil from 16 inches below the soles of his feet! Good Goobly Goop!! Talk about a killer approach to cultivation.

There's "unkind" subsoil if you go too deep, also. You don't want to mix too much of that in with whatever fertile topsoil you've got. Around here, wherever I've put in a garden, I've only got about 8" of topsoil. I just try to work down from there but it takes a few years. No use being a darn fool about it and going halfway to China right off.

Nope, I only thought I had a cast-iron back when I was in my early 20's. Still, I like to dig. If only to hide stuff at the end of the gardening season . . .

The worms find it down there, too. Worms are my friends !

Steve's digits (his back contributed nothing)

And honestly - I like digging to a degree. Much like Steve here, I aint as young as I once was. But digging is a time honored method of getting it right. You KNOW whats down - there because you put it there. It isn't something that needs to be done constantly, but at some point in time, the whole plot benefits.

And that is the point, isnt it?

 

[obsessed]

Pat - I have some questions about the bed mentioned in your reply. So I have a bed that just grows grass it has about one inch layer of topsoil and maybe one inch of old mulch. I have been waiting to do anything with it cause I though I would have to get a delivery of soil from the nursury and that aint cheap. What would you do? Would you buy the load of dirt? Would you just put some plants down? Is clay soil better than just sand and that is why you were able to grow stuff in your bed?

I can grow weeds (including mint) pretty successully there but haven't tried anything else aside from the grass.