Raised Bed Pictures as requested

kyrsyan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
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Someone, I think CountryMouse, requested pictures. I don't know how much you can tell from this and the video is much too large, even if it is only 15 seconds long.

The top one, with the branches across it, is a 7' x 6' garden bed that I made. The "dip" is the walk path between it and the next bed. When all is said and done, there will also be 3' walk paths all the way around all of the beds as well as between them. But I still have 3 garden beds to add in that area. One, the same size, is already in process. There will be another one the same size. And then a third that is half size. That mulch started stacked about 9" to 12" deep. That's been the breakdown in the past two weeks or so. It's about 6" deep now. It will get a good layer of leaves, about 12" come fall.

That second picture, which just looks like one big long mulch pile, is actually 3 garden beds that are 3.5' by 7'. The walkways are 3' wide between and about 4' wide on the sides and front. The compost bin is in the center of the center garden bed. Since the back two beds are done for the year, I mulched them well when I mulched the walkways. I couldn't get an angle that showed the dips and differences very well. Not the greatest photog. This grouping of raised beds and the matching set right next to it will be getting an overhaul through winter/next spring. Actually, the whole front of the yard will be. They are now in heavily shaded area because of tree growth. Plans for next spring are to remove the existing fruit trees due to issues, and the then replant the front edge of the yard with new fruit trees. That would be where you can see the one garden bed that is not mulched. It will put the fruit trees just far enough in front of the maple to get the sunlight they need. And low growing raspberries and blackberries will be planted all along the base. The further back beds will become homes for shade loving/tolerating herbs like ginger/turmeric/goldenseal/etc. And I'll actually, if I have enough plants to fill it, add one more set of garden beds just behind that for more shade loving. And because it gets rid of more lawn.

The whole yard is slowly getting a deep overhaul. After 12+ years of living here, I'm finally, hopefully getting a feel for how to put in permanent things that can work with the existing maple trees. The veg beds are going between the driveway and the road. It's honestly the best spot for them both sun wise and rain water wise. And them being there might help slow down or stop the erosion that was occurring because of some storm drainage pathways being closed/shifted. The two beds that are being added at the front are a part of that challenge. I'll have to dig them in and provide support so that they can stand up to the stormwaters while the soil settles in around them and anchors.

When I gets a chance, I'll add pictures of the new planting that run down the side of the house. All the old garden beds were taken out. All that was left of the old plantings was some monkey grass, a nandina that Round Up is slowly killing, and two monster gold eumonysus that will be pruned back a bit more before spring. In the place of the stuff stripped out went a Primrose Lilac, two yaupon hollies, a beauty berry, a tea olive, and coneflowers. Passionfruit will be added come spring. And yarrow as well but I'm debating monster garden pots for those to keep the invasion to a somewhat minimum. And to provide a bit of a physical barrier to that particular location. Anyways, that all was actually mulched in even deeper than the above photos because those are permanent beds. And will probably get another deep mulching before the end of fall.

And all of these have a double layer of cardboard underneath as well, even the veg bed. But spring I can punch through the veg bed cardboard easily. But it still seems to have a really good effect in the walkways. From prior experience, the layers will last at least 2 years if untouched. And then it provides a pretty solid layer of "soil" that doesn't have seed mixed in. And mulch on top makes weeds easy to pull. In years when I was too ill to garden, those layers would keep weeds to a minimum and make it much easier to weed and re-mulch at whatever pace my body would allow.
 

kyrsyan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
These are the new vegetable garden bed that I'm working on. The bed will be 12" deep when I'm done. Due to the curve of the earth where it is going, the center will be a few inches deeper than the sides. You can still see the cardboard. I didn't put a large layer of wood limbs in this one. I put a 3" layer of oak wood chip, mainly because I want to use this bed to do the over-winter crop of garlic. And one of the beds next to it will get onions if I can pull it off. Someone reminded me that 5 gallon buckets do make pretty good garden stools.

If this were a permanent planting bed, I would have doubled the amount of cardboard and put mulch fabric down, then mulched. The permanent planting beds are not raised beds. And because my body is my body, this is the work of 3 mornings so far. I have to dig the soil free from a mound of donated soil, get all the weed roots out, and then move it to its new home. My body only allows two full wheelbarrow loads per morning. And my lawnmower is likely to be unhappy with the height of the weed piles so I'll have to knock them down some.

The wood sides will go on this bed this weekend. Then all the bagged clippings from mowing. And lastly, another layer of cardboard with wood chip mulch on top. I don't have much faith in some of my neighbors so the wood sides will be just before the last layers. Good, ground contact 2"x12"x6' lumber is rather valuable nowadays and may walk off if left loose. I'm just grateful I bought it well before COVID price increases. That lumber would cost me triple now. I priced it.
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Oh, and that stump like thing on the left - that is the actual remaining stump from the peach tree that I had to take down. I drilled lots of holes in it so that nature can move along in breaking it down a bit faster than normal.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
Every year I want to get involved in gardening and every year I don't get very far. The word is out that seeds are going to be in short supply and I have a cart filled with seeds at True Leaf. In 2020 I bought 3 buckets of assorted seeds. I refuse to let DH open the buckets. They are in the fridge and freezer.

I salute all who are successful gardeners, whether large or small. DH bough me an aloe plant back in the spring and when I was tending to it it looked awful, he takes care of it now and it looks great.
 

kyrsyan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Each of these sections spans 8 to 10 feet, maybe a bit more. I didn't actually measure it. I know I had 4 of the 7 foot long garden beds along here, along with walkways between them. And the whole thing has been widened to 6 to 7 feet deep now.

This first one is the tea olive. There will be planters across the front, deep ones, that will be filled with yarrow.

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This is the middle section. Two yaupon hollies and a beauty berry. Next spring it will get passionfruit planted across the front.

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This is the end. The big bushes will get pruned again, in normal season. And those bitty plants surrounded by plastic (to keep the mulch from burying them) are a Primrose Lilac (back center) and 3 coneflowers. And that entire area will be encouraged to grow as many coneflowers as possible.

Those bushes were easily double that size when I started. Actually that one on the right was triple that size. So it was a risk to prune them midsummer, but they needed it badly.20220809_090420.jpg
 

kyrsyan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Every year I want to get involved in gardening and every year I don't get very far. The word is out that seeds are going to be in short supply and I have a cart filled with seeds at True Leaf. In 2020 I bought 3 buckets of assorted seeds. I refuse to let DH open the buckets. They are in the fridge and freezer.

I salute all who are successful gardeners, whether large or small. DH bough me an aloe plant back in the spring and when I was tending to it it looked awful, he takes care of it now and it looks great.
Aloes tend to thrive on neglect. Ask me how I know. Houseplants are not my successful area. So much so that I typically will not get them anymore. Nature helps with the outside stuff.

It is a one step at a time thing. This year is the first year in over 5 years where my body did not just absolutely shut down and keep me from working. So I will keep going, within the limits my body sets, for as long as I can. This work has been ongoing for 3+ months now and included clearing out a massive wild zone that I am still working on. That wild zone filled 3 massive compost bins with all it's debris. And we are about to go back in and take out the last of it. That is a fall project.

But every morning for about 45 minutes to an hour, I go outside and work on something. And my body is pretty happy with it. Happy with it to the point that if I don't do it, I feel off.
 

kyrsyan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I had some local people ask for guidance on how I was doing things. So I'm just posting on the blog as I get some done each day. If you want to follow the progress, please feel free to stop by.

Rougesiren,blogspot.com

As I get something done, I post it and try to explain the why, how, etc.
 
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