Gardening
Studies have shown that raised beds yield 1.5-2 times as much as regular gardens, plus with the many advantages of raised beds we’re trying several crops we’ve never tried before in this garden, like beans (kidney), peas (snow and snap), or haven’t tried for a long time like sweet potatoes. The advantages of raised beds are: better drainage so roots can breathe better, soil that doesn’t compact as much from being walked on so plants can be spaced closer together which increases yield per square foot, plus keeps weeds to a minimum. Raised beds bring structure to the garden, which is aesthetically pleasing and just makes it more fun to work in the garden. They extend your growing season by several weeks at the beginning and end of the season. With cinder blocks you can walk amongst the plants without getting muddy shoes! The outside dimension of each individual bed as configured here is: 15’8″L x 5’3″W x 12″ H or 4 blocks wide by 12 blocks long. The blocks are 8″ x 8″ x 16″ nominal, slightly smaller actual.
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Tagged with: asparagus • beans • bed • Beds • blackberries • Carrots • chives • cilantro • Cinder Blocks • clematis • Configured • coriander • crops • Drainage • eggplant • fig • gardening • grapes • horseradish • kidney • kiwi • Long Time • Muddy Shoes • oregano • peas • pecan • peppers • plants • potatoes • raised • roots • rosemary • snap • snow • Soil • spearmint • Square Foot • squash • strawberries • sweet • Sweet Potatoes • tarragon • tomatoes • tree • weeds
Filed under: Gardening Videos
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Nice productive film.
hey thanks Dario!
you must down south to have a pecan tree. i loved texas for that reason, the thousands of pecan trees…
awesome raised garden!
thanks for this vid response!
your back yard is freaking huge. i miss that too… here we’re so close together i can’t poop without the neighbors knowing what color it is.
lol, yeah the space is nice, at least until you have to mow it. About the pecan tree, we’re in Tidewater, Virginia which is mid-Atlantic, and I read somewhere that to actually be able to harvest pecans you need an actual orchard, otherwise the squirrels get them all, which has been our experience here. To be able to eat pecans, which I love btw, we wind up having to buy them in the store. Oh well. We do however expect to harvest most of the vegetables.
Very nice! In regards to the cinder blocks for the raised beds, did you just line them up on the ground and check w/a level? Did you use any type of material underneath the blocks? Sand or anything like that?
Thanks
no foundation or sand per se for under the blocks, although i did use sifted fill dirt that had a lot of sand in it, plus soil that was in the garden already (its sandy soil), and I did wind up getting a tamper (8 inch x 8 inch) to solidify the ground — that sped things up quite a bit, then used mason’s string for an even shape and a level as you guessed.
Hey…very very impressive. I really like your raised beds. Not only extremely functional, but you’ve taken the time and effort to make them look nice as well. Way to go. Looks like I may have to head out and start gathering cement blocks!
it might be a little late for this growing season depending on where you are and how long your season is there, but definitely a great time to start for next spring
Looks like a beautiful garden!!
Thank you! I’ve been enjoying your videos as well — fascinating theories, and very illuminating graphics.