Laying out new beds

 While my back-door "Kitchen Garden" is a great start at growing my own produce I want to start up another raised bed to grow larger variety of vegetables. I think I've chosen a great spot next to the main garden that my parents tend in a more traditional "row crop" fashion.

The Steps to starting a new bed:

1. Choose location based on what you intend to grow.
2. Plan the site.
3. Prepare the existing soil.
4. Build the sides of the bed (if using supports)
5. Raise the bed by adding soil and compost.
6. Set the plants.

 A pole barn extension to an existing storage building cut off this section of the garden so it'll makes a perfect nook to place a raised bed. I measured the area and decided my best option is to build 2-4'x8' beds. The long sides will run east-west and one bed will be set north of the other. While a fig tree shades the eastern side both beds will still be get a full day's worth of sunlight for most of the year.

  So after deciding on the location and size of beds I like to go ahead and make a plan of what I intend to grow. Now this won't be written in stone and subject to change after I make a trip to seed store but planning now will give me a better idea of the number of plants I can manage in this area. This gives me the opportunity to make changes to my layout before I break ground. I just sketch out the shape of my bed using a simple scale of 1"=1'. Then plot the location of plants according to how far apart they need to be planted.

  It may still not look like much but the two 4'x8' sections have been tilled to a depth of about 8". This is one of the few times where it's OK to till because the soil had been heavily compacted by foot and machine traffic over the area. Also a rich layer of soil will be built up over this patch to form the actual raised portion of the bed. I'll be using reclaimed fenced paneling I have on hand to make the sides of the bed. This is the same stuff I used for my compost bin. You don't have to use side supports for your raised bed as you can just pile on the soil and compost to raise the area you're using. I just prefer to have a neat edge to hold everything in place. After a season or two when the bed is well established well defined I may remove the supports and use them on new beds I start.

Here are the two beds completed, filled with some good composted soils from a local farm and set with the first plantings.

I'm really going to pack the plants in close in these beds to see how intensively I can grow in this rich loose soil. I'll also be staggering my planting times to try and take advantage of our long growing season here in the south to harvest some of my staple produce items all season long.