Garden Raised Bed Planters

My family has been wanting to get another garden for the last couple years, but either to do knowing that we *could* move or just having moved and not having a place for it have just gotten to it this year. My sister Angie and friend Narasimhan had also been talking up square foot gardening, so I figured I could try a variation of that. By far the most work of this project has been clearing the rocks. The previous (or previous previous) owners that put them in were through and they were several inches deep. I hauled off 3 tons of them in my truck (in one load, bed bottomed out) and still have as much or more left.

Then the raking, getting the scraps up and. Then getting the liner up. Since then it's been pretty smooth sailing. Put up a temporary divider (temporary as in year or two). Got the remaining scraps of river rocks thrown over (though we are constantly pulling more rocks out) and you have the picture below! :-)


I did a lot of overthinking on the raised beds, but eventually settled on 4' x 6' beds 1' deep. This seems to be a nice size and will allow some room for planing some shade for the west wall (currently thinking oleanders). Add some nails two some 2x6's and you see the results below. I also capped the corners with some 4x6's that I cut short and removed most of the material leaving an L shape. This should help hold it together as it is all now held in place by mechanical interference of the nails rather than just the friction force of the nails. We'll see how long it will do the trick.


While I considered Mel's Mix that is popular among square foot gardeners I'm too cheap for that. I picked up 2.5 cubic yards of Sandy Loam from Pioneer Sand. Per the description:

33% screened fill dirt, 33% mulch, 33% manure. Sandy Loam is A great medium for vegetable gardens and other applications that utilize the warmth and micro nutrients of manure.

This is a great feeling soil that drains well. It was steaming when I picked it up (well, the tractor dumped it into my truck), apparently still composting despite being thinned. Blake was very thankful to the tractor operator for giving us all this fun dirt!



After filling the raised beds I threw the rest on the side where I plan on putting the squash and watermelon mounds as well as the rows for the corn. The kids had a great time helping out :-D.



Here they are looking good and ready for plants!


Back to the Mel's Mix. It is

• 1/3 vermiculite
• 1/3 peat moss
• 1/3 compost (from as many sources as possible)

Vermiculite seems to cost $10ish / cubic foot, so for that alone I would have paid around $210. Add compost and peat moss and it's more than I could justify spending at this point. This soil cost around $60 IIRC. I've got the composters running and will add it as mulch through the season or mix in as I rotate out plants. I've considered adding in vermiculite as I go along, but probably won't as I had a pretty nice garden in a mostly clay mix (from the layering* they do with new developments), and this can only get better.


*Most newer developments (well, newer as in last 15 years+ depending on where in the country you are) get their plans drawn out with desired ground elevations. Then ground is then scraped down to make a lot of underground work easier, then depending on settlement in the area piles are made to accelerate the settlement so it doesn't happen after the house it build, thus preventing cracks in the foundation. While this speeds development and is better for the house foundations in areas with high settlement, it typically means the topsoil is either buried or down the street or somewhere besides being the top layer of soil. Goodbye organic materials and drainage, hello clay!