Quote:
Originally Posted by faith
Don't raised beds dry out more easily and so need a little more water? Do you just use a garden hose every evening, or do you have some kind of drip irrigation system?
I think raised beds might be the way for me to go right now. Around here there are two rocks for every one dirt, not to mention endless roots! (I live in the woods.) I don't have a tiller or anything, so turning this land by hand is pretty darn difficult. Also, I live alone so I don't need a huge garden.
Do you (or anyone else) have definite opinions on fertilizer? My aunt has cows, so I could get a load of manure from her. She also has rabbits, and I've heard that pellet-poop is better for gardens. Do any of you compost?
Maybe I should find a good beginner gardening site.
Does anyone here practice companion planting?
edit: Some counties around here have water restrictions, but I've got a good deep well.
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Faith, you have my sympathies about the rocks! If rocks were worth anything I'd be rich. We got into the raised beds by necessity. My brilliant hubby decided to do a little landscaping and obliterated about a third of my single row garden. Well, he was supposed to save the top 10 to 12 inches of the garden soil, make his parking pad and extend my garden on the back side depositing the saved soil on top. The next thing I knew I was noticing little tomato plants and cukes and corn etc. etc. growing in his new parking pad. He'd put the saved garden soil there instead of my extended garden patch! I had no top soil left so the only way to have a garden in the same place was to build beds on top of the ground.
Definitely go with the cow manure. The more composted the better. (I don't know anything about rabbit pellets, though it sounds good) We made the beds about 12 ft x 4 ft to make it easier to reach from both sides to weed. About half the soil was composted saw dust and manure. The rest was a combo of Hyponex top soil ( everything else we tried was junk) peat and just a bit of sand. I'd definitely go with a book on this as far as trying to amend regular soil. We also added a little bit of clay to heavy it up to help with water retention and flavor. That sound weird, but regular top soil gives veggies, especially tomatoes, a much better flavor.
We water, when we have to, by hand. We're also on a private well, so we catch rainwater in a 30ish gallon rubbermaid trashcan. We took down a downspout and it runs off into the 'barrel'. We try not to water with the hose unless absolutely necessary and the way this summer's going so far, it might be necessary.
