Maggie, thanks but that lawn isn't anything special. It is full of dandelions, very small white daisies,clover, weeds and whatever. I just mow it. One out of every 3 times I bag it for compost. The rest of the time I leave the clippings in place. No watering or fertilizer either.

O2, your lawn looks great to me. Could have something to do with this:

average precipitation per year

Colorado - 15.93 inches
Oregon - 27.38 inches

everything looks so much greener our your way.

M

Okay brag time!

Hey Dave, I got my wish and it is almost my birthday! WooHoo! This is what I came home to find happening in my yard today! Hubby had off and Spoiled me! Well, I have been moping around. Moping worked! Hahahah 5X12! Isn't life grand!

Woo hoo indeed! Now you'll have room for a couple more luffas!

WOOHOO! Lucky day! Scroo the loofas, more garlic tomatoes if you have to.

cant believe how orangish sandy looking the soil is, but i recon by the time you get all your amendments added and a years worth of nature, what all are ya planning to add to it besides compost, i bet melons would grow well in that soil alone, i allways pictured realy rich soil out east

Yep Jim, good hard red clay is what we have in my neck of the woods. Takes alot to ammend it! I'm planting buckwheat as a cover crop to get it going, and have ammended with compost.

I'm so excited to have another bed though!

In Oct 20005, i moved into a house that is outside the local "ASARCO impact zone." After moving in, i learned that it is inside the "plume zone." Accordingly, i requested a soil check. Since the officials were busy with the impact zone and schools in the plume zone, i was at the bottom of the list. My soil wasn't tested until Sept 2007: some soil is half of acceptable lead and arsenic standards, some is double the standards. I tired of waiting for the officials, so, in the summer of '07, my son built one bed (4x4x1 wood, raised on cinder blocks) for me. Since we can't get ASARCO to dig up and replace the soil, my son and i are discussing another bed to be built this year. I used home compost to augment the Vegetable Garden Mix bought from a local provider (cedar-grove.com). Just managed to plant basil and peppers because my granddaughter kept sticking broken tomato branches in the bed. From 3 starts, we ended with 7 plants.

Hi JohnnieAppleseed,

Thanks for the delicious spinach...it was very mild, so a whole salad of it was fabulous!
Remind me(if you see this post) what special variety it was...'winter density' (something like that?). I told Walleye about you wintering it over because we have been unsuccessful in the past.

Since you saw my devoid of plant life, 8 brown- soil-raised beds lined up like grave sites for giant people, here is how it looked last July 1.
Note the 5 foot height already of the Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' ...it's along the north fence in the photo.

I'm STILL moving perennials around, ha-ha.

Beautiful garden Franeli!

Does anyone have extra trouble with fungus or other diseases planting so close together in raised beds?

I am in North Carolina red clay land working on my first garden after moving from the Virgina Coast. I am definitely going to do raised beds built from path dirt with no frames, and a dumptruck is bringing partially composted leaf and grass clippings from the city. (24 cubic yards, yippee!) I tried no frames in Virginia and erosion was a problem, but I can't afford frames.

That's one reason I am considering double digging before I build the beds, so the raised part won't have to be so raised. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, and I don't know if I'm strong enough to get a pitchfork through the clay. But isn't that why you need to double dig? Then once my beds are going I won't have to do hardly anything, right? (as far as tilling goes

I am sick thinking of the tenants in my old house reaping the benefits of my hard work improving that soil while I stare down red clay!

My house in Denver was near a creek bed and very sticky clay and we used the double dug beds. Don't try to dig when the soil is wet, though, as it is like digging pancake batter.

It did take a few years of digging in compost and manure before the soil started to lighten up. I noticed Eco, who makes organic compost, has a clay product. I haven't looked at the ingredients to see what's in it, but it might be a good thing to try. Up here in the mts, all the soil is either rocky sandy loam or rocky sandy dirt or rocky dirt, so clay isn't an issue.

Wow, that is one lovely garden franeli!! What a sight.

How do you keep your A-frame trellises from tipping? Are they connected with string and is that enough to keep them from leaning? I'm always looking for new trellising ideas.

Is that creeping thyme creeping out from the left side of your path? What are the grassy looking clumps? lilys?

I'm continually moving perennials! Isn't that just part of growing them?

JA,

Where have ya been? We are missing you!

Here are my raised beds today.

The new one I mentioned earlier in this thread is the closest one and buckwheat is growing in it, and that bed is going to be my GARLIC bed this fall, till all is tilled and done!

Woo Hoo!

Hit me up dude!

pic:

First, JohnnieAppleseed - where in NH? (Could email).

Types of gardens: have tried just about everything - depended on where we were living at the time. Have had a rototilled acre garden twice. Lots of raised beds (no enclosure) with grassclipping walkways when we had less space. Often had to tuck veggies in with flowers when we had little space. Container gardened but never with much satisfaction.

Have now lived in one spot in NH over 20 yrs & ground is not condusive to double-digging - unless you use dynamite. HA! HA! We live on granite ledge and had to go to enclosed raised beds when the septic system took up the only gardenable soil.

Gardened at a friends's over towards the coast but it's 45 min. away. Not very cost effective!

Started out here three years ago with one 4'x5' bed and added a 2nd one (same size) later that year. Had to buy everything except the compost to fill them, but it's been well worth the cost.

Have always found raised beds - using intensive, companion, & trellising gardening techniques - produces far better than a larger garden area. No tilling, practically no weeding, less watering - and less bending (which these old bodies appreciate!).

The first 2 boxes were untreated 8" boards which we bought. Last year we added a 3'x9' box made of 10" boards of the same type material with a 4'x8' trellis attached.

We kept asking around for used untreated lumber in hopes of saving some money. This year the son of a friend gave us 2 12"x12'+ boards and 2 10"x12'+ boards. Old untreated barn boards that are a true 12" and 10"! Don't find that anymore.....

We have now assembled a 4'x8' box out of the 12" boards. Added a 2'x9' box of the 10" boards onto the back side of our 3'x9' trellised box. Cut the rest of the 10" board to make a 2'x3' trellised box for melons or whatever we want to keep from crosspollinating.

Plain brown cardboard is placed on top of the grass inside the boxes. Then we add a combination of top soil (if we can get it), peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, green sand, and lots of organic compost - whatever we happen to have on hand. Have been known to even add some organic seed starter mix if I have some left over.

Everything is spaced the width of the lawnmower, but the more we walk between the boxes, the less we're having to mow there. Wish we had a camera to send some pics. They really look nice.

Oh, we strategically placed all of the boxes 3 feet away from our wild blueberry highbush and wild blackberries we transplanted a few years ago. This is in case we have to put up an electric fence due to deer, bears, and coons. I may be willing to share some of my sour cherries with the birds, but the garden is off-limits to wildlife! HA! HA!

Stopped at a neighbor's 2 days ago to see if we could get some llama manure. More boxes means the need for more organic compost.....

wow.
10, 12 inch-high beds.
That should be really great.
I don't use frames, well not wood. I use big tree branches combined with rocks, and I get about 6-8 inches high.
so that will have to do.
I'm thinking of trying an unframed bed, just to see how it goes.