Gardening Tips
Building A Raised Bed Garden
I love to Garden!! And I encourage you to do so if you are not already enjoying the benefits of being outdoors and the stress relief and grounding that occurs when working with plants and the soil. Growing your own organic vegetables ensures good quality food, packed with nutrients and free of pesticides, additives, wax and radiation. Here is an easy way to start a Raised Bed Garden and some tips for quick success.
Tips for building a Raised Bed garden
- Make sure you have a sunny spot picked out for your Raised Bed (at least 8 hours of direct sun). Your bed should not be more than 3 ft. wide inside the frame (for easy reaching) and it can be any length you would like. Mark the area using stakes and string allowing for the width of whatever material you will be using to build the Raised Bed walls (i.e. 3 ft. + 2 x wall width)
- Buy some heavy duty landscape cloth which allows water to penetrate and keeps the weeds out. Cut enough cloth to cover the marked bed area plus about one foot extra on each side. Secure with landscape pins. (the extra foot of cloth will allow you to place a brick edging or some type of mulch down and keep grass and weeds away from the bed.)
- Build your Raised Bed about 8 – 12 inches high using UNTREATED 4 x 4’s or 4 x 6’s stacked on top of each other. You can secure them together by drilling holes and pounding ReBar through the holes into the ground about 6 inches. Note: (treated wood and landscape timbers are usually treated with Copper Arsenate and could leach toxins into the soil which can be taken up by the plants). Another good material for building raised beds is concrete blocks. Stack them 2 high, solid side to the inside and outside of the bed. Pound some rebar every so often through the cavities into the ground to secure them or fill the cavities with sand or soil.
Making a Good Soil Mixture
To speed up the soil forming process, lots of organic matter is essential. I recommend layering material into the Raised Bed.
Step 1. First start with a fairly thick layer of wet newspapers or flattened wet cardboard boxes on top of the landscape material. Overlapping the sheets makes another organic weed and grass barrier.
Step 2. Add 2 - 3 inches of Peat Moss on top of the newspaper or cardboard layer.
Step 3. Add 2 – 3 inches of soil, either bagged or from your yard.
Step 4. Add 2 – 3 inches of Manure, Peat Moss or other chopped organic material (leaves, grass, straw, wood ashes etc.)
Step 5. Add 2 – 3 inches of fine Compost for the top layer to plant in.
This layering technique adds lots of Organic Matter to the bed and ensures good water, air and nutrients the first year. You can use whatever materials you have on hand to make your Raised Bed garden, just make sure you have at least a 1:1:1 ratio of peat moss, soil and organic matter. Top the layers with some fine compost to set the seeds into. (Note: I like to use manure in step 4 the first year which adds extra nutrients.
If you build your Raised Bed in the fall, let it sit over winter. You can add another layer of compost in the spring and go ahead and plant. If you build your Raised Bed in the Spring you can plant immediately. Each year add another layer of compost or organic material such as cut leaves. Make sure any organic matter is chopped so that it can break down quickly.
Fertilizer and Pesticide Recipes
To purchase a product, please visit my Nature's Sunshine Store to order online.
Compost Tea: Use a 5 gallon bucket and fill it about 1/3 of the way with compost, dried leaves or grass etc. Fill the bucket with water and let sit in a sunny spot for about a week or until the water is a brown tea color. Use this compost tea to water around the base of your plants or between rows. The original soaked material can be composted.
Easy Soil Conditioner: 2oz Nature’s Sunshine Concentrate (Stock # 1551-6) mixed in 1 gallon of water. Pour over bare soil before planting.
Epsom Salts and Tea Cocktail: 4 Tablespoon Epsom Salts, 1 cup of brewed tea, 1 Tablespoon Nature’s Sunshine Concentrate (Stock # 1551-6) mixed in 1 gallon of water.
Foliar fertilizer: 1-2 Tablespoons Nature’s Sunshine Concentrate (Stock # 1551-6) mixed in 1 gallon of water.
Garden Bug Spray: 1/2 Tablespoon Nature’s Sunshine Concentrate, 50 drops of peppermint oil (Stock # 3910-9) mixed in 1 quart of water. This also is a great ant spray. It interferes with their scent trails.
Pesticide Spray: 10 drops Eucalyptus (Stock # 3904-9), 7 drops of Geranium (Stock # 3905-3), 7 drops Lavender (Stock # 3907-8), 10 drops Peppermint (Stock # 3910-9), 7 drops Tea Tree (Stock # 1777-1), 1 Tablespoon Nature’s Sunshine Concentrate (Stock # 1551-6). Place in hose feeder bottle, fill with water and spray. Cover’s approximately 24’ x 42’. Makes about 2 gallons of spray.
Natural Weed Killer: 1 cup of salt, 1 Tablespoon Nature’s Sunshine Concentrate (Stock # 1551-6) mixed in 1gallon of white vinegar. Spray on weeds or pore in cracks. Do not use in garden.
Note: Be sure to spray plants during cooler part of the day as some sprays may cause leaf damage when applied during hot sun exposure. Natural ingredients such as ammonia, apple cider vinegar, Epsom salts, hydrogen peroxide, beer, tea etc. can be used in fertilizer formulas.
Refer to Giant Book of Garden Solutions, by Jerry Baker.
Reference Sites for Gardening Supplies: www.gardensalive.com
