What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

If you are just mounding soil up for a raised bed, do you find that the soil dries out faster than level, in-ground soil? That was my experience with my first raised beds where I did not use the hügelkultur method for the build. For me, it worked much better to add that wood in the bottom of the raised beds.

I hadn't thought about the mounded beds drying faster, but I bet they do. I built them years before I knew about hugelkultur.

Like a lot of things, wish I had known then what I know now!

Since I'm not going to dig them out and redo them, I try to mulch HEAVILY with leaves, compost, chicken run material, grass clippings, whatever I can get. I'm hoping the metal on the sides will give me a firm "border" of sorts to contain water when I need to water them, and to keep the best of the soil on top.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Not much happening here - very cold out there, low 20s. The ground was actually frozen walking on it..

Caught one of of my new reds plucking feathers from anyone who came near so she's separated for now. I probably won't be able to break her, but I'll give it a shot.

I had a Large Cochin Hen that was plucking feathers, and I gave her some very high protein feed 30% (or even some dry catfood) for awhile and she stopped.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Got my first limes off of my little potted Lime tree, that's over 5 foot tall lol. I'm glad to have them because my lemon tree is such a slacker.

 

[Sueby]

I had a Large Cochin Hen that was plucking feathers, and I gave her some very high protein feed 30% (or even some dry catfood) for awhile and she stopped.

Thank you. I just ordered a small bag of 28% protein feed. I'll get that to her for a couple weeks & see if I can add her back with the others.

 

[fuzzi]

That's so beautiful. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to make my raised beds out of.

Mine are cedar, from a kit. I've gotten two years out of the first one, so far, am pleased.

Greenesfence.com

 

[fuzzi]

I brought home 4 redbud seedlings from FIL's house in Charlotte, NC. I also brought home 6 tiny seedlings of loblolly pine. Those are not native to Michigan, but google said they could handle -2 to -9 degrees F. So I'm going to give them a chance.

Mulch and keep moist in the winter.

 

[igorsMistress]

G’morning all. I decided on the metal beds because I don’t like the look of the cement blocks, plastic doesn’t last and wood attracts termites, which we’ve had to treat the house for. I like some order amongst the chaos and the look of the beds too. I think in my environment I’ll need to provide some afternoon shade, but that’s true regardless here. Anyway, gave a few things some half strength fertilizer this morning, moved the logs I have into the garden bed, and put the first coat of green paint on a pipe we couldn’t dig out. I’m going to paint the top six inches or so white tomorrow, then reattach the rain gauge. The rest of this week will involve a lot of dirt and a shovel. Hopefully next weekend we can make a run to the worm farm for compost; they’re having a farm to table breakfast in December so I signed up for that today. Time for the next coat of paint and then a trip to the store, enjoy the day!

PS~I bought a five tier Greenstalk. Going to grow greens in it and use the beds for big things. Except for carrots.

 

[fuzzi]

My raised beds are just mounded dirt. I bolstered the sides with rocks. Those are in endless supply here, free for the taking.

The dirt settles, the beds get lower and wider. The rocks sink into the side. Then we had 5" of rain in about 2 hours last April and had some serious washing.

I took some of the metal pieces of roofing we reclaimed from the old farmhouse and did this on one side of 3 beds:
View attachment 3682631
Yeah, ok, it bends in the middle.

That's the side where the water came rushing down and washed out the ends of 3 of the beds.

That's how I did raised bed gardening for years. I can't dig as I used to, decided to try a raised bed kit a couple years ago.

Set up:

And current:

So far no issues with soil pushing out the boards.

I got the 8'x4'x14" cedar bed kit. Some parts were damaged, and when I contacted the company they had the replacement parts in the mail immediately.

It was worth the cost to me, as I consider it an investment.

Greenesfence.com

 

[CNJ]

I was checking up on my air layered mango branch and saw a young shoot with 4 leaves growing a few inches under the air layered part, so I plucked it off and got an idea.

Typically, whenever I tried to clone a mango scion in water, sand, or potting mix I enclose it in a plastic bag and a white fungus always attack the scion. However, this young shoot that I plucked doesn't have any woody areas for the fungus to grow. It reminds me of the Hawaiian chili pepper branch I just successfully cloned in potting mix.

I mixed 1/4tsp rooting powder with water in a small 4 TBS shot glass and covered the top with plastic wrap and stuck the young mango shoot in the shot glass. and placed it in a white 5-gallon bucket and covered the top with plastic wrap and secured it in place with a string tied onto a rubber band.

My A1 bot said, "The idea that ideas come from God is a concept that has been explored by many philosophers throughout history. One such philosopher is René Descartes. Descartes believed that God was the source of all knowledge and that innate ideas were placed in the human mind by God 1. However, it’s important to note that not all philosophers agree with this view. For example, John Locke, one of the founders of British Empiricism, believed that all our ideas come from experience and empirical evidence 2.

I hope this helps!" This human interface line is what scares me. Anyway, I use to think ideas came from God, but now I am leaning more towards experience and empirical evidence.

 

[gtaus]

Yes, that’s it. Looks so pretty unwarned and all. Very easy to assemble. Although this spring we also got the “critter guards” from the same company. We had topped off the begs with some compost and our dog was sneaking bites at every opportunity.
Turns out the critter guards didn’t exactly fit like the picture showed them to. You had to remove the decorative post tops. . Oh well, they’ll be going up again in the spring.

Yeah, I can see where the 1X6 boards are warping in the picture with your dog. You could fix that, if you wanted, by adding some cross bracing inside the raised bed, and maybe just a simple board tying the two 1X6 boards together in the middle so there is no gap. Of course, you would probably have to empty the raised bed to do that, and it would negate all the positive points of just being able to slip in the wood and have the bed fully assembled.

IMHO, the problem with that kit is not so much the design concept as the fact that they used 1X6 boards which don't have near the strength of a 2X6 board. I think 4-foot long 2X6's would never have warped like that. For my compost bins, I use 2X4's and 2X6's for that very reason.

A couple years ago, I watched a YouTube video where a guy had purchased a kit like yours. He had the same problem, only worse, as his bed blew apart after a few years. But he also showed how the wood was warping out. Anyways, he emptied the bed out and rebuilt it using the cross bracing and tying the boards together like I mentioned. That fixed the raised bed issues, but it was no longer an easy just slip in the boards and have it assembled kit anymore.

After watching that YouTube video, I decided to make my pallet wood raised beds with the 2X4 framing on the outside. My oldest beds with that framing on the outside are about 4 years old and still holding fine with no warping. But I do have to assemble it myself. You have to use both a drill to drive in the long screws and hammer for the side wall pieces. It only takes me about half an hour to build one of those pallet wood raised beds, but it does require some basic carpentry skills and tools.