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| One of the first raised beds built |
I love raised beds. They are so easy to work in. Every year, before I had them I had to have my husband plow up the garden area. We don't use a rototiller because we don't like the gasoline fumes on our dirt or garden area. Plus, he doesn't like breathing it either. First he built the ones that were out of wood. And I loved them too. Of course, they were the first ones I had.
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| This raised bed, I built carrying rock from the paddock myself. |
I can use our wheel hoe to plow it up. Then they are ready. Sometimes we add more compost to them. We have a huge pile of compost, but that is another post. I started building this rock raised bed in 2002. What I did wrong was to make it too wide. If it is too wide you can't plant, harvest or weed the center very easily. You really don't want to walk in them and pack the dirt down. This bed has produced very well whatever is grown in it. Just can't get to the center easily, so I don't fill it up there.
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| Some more beds made of rock. |
These other ones my husband built while he was working on other things. He dug out the area for our battery room and hauled the rocks out of there to build these. The raised beds made of rock or cinder blocks hold the moisture or the heat all day, even during the night. These beds do very well too. In our area, our land is full of rock. There is definitely no shortage of rock here. We even have the stone walls all through our farmlands in the surrounding area. Many farmers though, in recent years, have been selling them off.
The Jurassic Bed named by my friend, Jamie
This bed, the Jurassic bed is so named because the plants that grow in it become HUGE! I am not kidding. I have been growing summer squash, zucchini and pumpkin in it. The plants have room to roam because it is in the back yard but further back than our house and lawn area. This bed is half rock and half cinder block. It is an awesome bed and I love it.
The snake bed
This bed stretches out pretty far. It is slender enough that it is easy to reach across the whole bed to pick something or to weed. I have found this bed to be fun to work in. It is near the forest and we have some huge trees in the yard too. So it is shaded but gets plenty of sun too.
Food growing everywhere!
This coming year, I hope to really increase my gardens. I plan on producing a lot of food. I feel that this is the best thing I can do for us. Especially with the prices of food in the stores. I will be doubly busy this year. What about you? You could easily build a raised bed out of something to raise some food in. Gardening is fun and if you have children,
you need to teach them how to do it. They usually love it! And you are preparing them for the future. When they are grown and on their own, you never know what will happen and they might have to grow a garden to survive. Shouldn't that come from you?
Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
are a wonderful snack! We will eat a lot of them if we have them.They are one of my favorite vegetables.
plant I planted years ago coming up. It comes up every year, usually at a completely different location. This year though, it is the same place as last year. I was happy to see the first one come up and now I have a few more. You never know with that one how many you will get. 
I planted have really taken off. The cooler temps agree with them and I have them in area of the garden where when the sun is really hot, they are sort of shaded. I am hoping to get a good crop of them for our harvest. Usually I can my winter squash and these are supposed to be really big. I don't know as it is my first time growing them.
