Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.
~ Lou Erickson
R
|
aised garden beds are a pain in the dupa! Week Six of La Belle’s Hobby Farm Project. All is not going well. In fact, it is not going at all!
I hate raised garden beds.
And smug lumber jockeys who try to sell you treated wood for said raised garden beds.
And 3 inch screws that claim they don’t need pre-drilled holes. Liars.
And lumber that won’t lay flat on the ground while you try to screw them together.
I hate them all!!
But I have 48 baby tomatoes that need a permanent place to lay their green heads. So now I’m scouting around looking for the best home (lots o’ sun!) for these little guys, and then it’s off to find an inexpensive, used rototiller.
I know!
All the research says raised beds. You hand till, and leave the worms intact to do the heavy lifting of aerating the soil.
But honey, do you know how much dirt I would have to buy in order to fill up a raised bed? Whoever came up with dirt cheap has never shopped at the local nursery or Lowe’s for organic dirt for a raised bed.
Plus, the soil already there is rich and ready to support and sustain my precious plants. So I can get away with just adding compost, etc and not worry about pricey organic dirt.
So the raised beds are out, gardening the old-fashioned way is in.
Well, not completely old-fashioned: it’s not feasible or possible for me to hook an ox up to a plow and turn up dirt. If you know of a greener way to plow a field, email me or share in the comments!
In another news, the three basil plants are surviving; I pinched their little purple flowers off. This ensures they reach their full potential, both in flavor and production. For more about growing herbs, visit Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden – Herb Q&A. She highlights some wonderful herb-growing advice from her friend Marie Rose Nichols McGee. As I’ve mentioned before, Margaret’s blog is my second go-to site for gardening advice ~ second only to Mother Earth News!
I have Friday off, so wish me luck on my rototiller buying adventure!
Oremus pro invicem,
~ Mikaela
Ever start a project and then quit out of frustration? Maybe you decided on a work-around instead. Share your experience with me and my readers!
2 comments:
My friend Torey read this on Facebook and posted the following great advice:
"I built my bed a few years ago and honestly can't remember if I drilled a hole, but I know I used these fairly long deck screws. And it was expensive to build/fill the bed. I definitely did not get a return on my investment. I know you can rent rototillers so that might be an option for you. And buying a truckload of dirt from someplace might be cheaper than buying the bags (and hauling the darn things). You could also just have them dump dirt in your yard (not build the raised bed) and then put a row of pavers/bricks around the edge. Might not be the prettiest thing but it would probably work. If you put an edge of mulch outside the paver it should keep grass from invading garden."
This is hilarious although I have a feeling you may not think so at the moment. My take on this, having taken on projects that were daunting a few times in my life, is this: start smaller. Maybe build a small raised bed and plant everything else the old fashioned way. Then you can compare results and not tear your hair out building a structure when your plants should be growing. There is always next year!
The up side of all this labor is you'll probably sleep well!
Thanks for sharing.
Post a Comment