#raised beds

[soilthesimpletruth]

Growing food is a relationship. Part of that relationship is compost.

#compost #food systems #atlanta urban ag #food access #soil food web #soil health #food sovereignty #community composting systems #raised beds #vermicomposting #visionary growing solutions #maurice small

[obsessiveplantlady]

June garden update

Omg, so many things have changed since May, but I try to do my best to summarize:

- Planted tomatoes, paprikas, eggplants and cucubers. They are looking pretty good now!

- Created a raised bed, I used the hugelkultur method

- Lettuce, tomatoes, zucchinis, and sunflowers are getting HUGE

- Ruccola is not growing very well, I might have to find a less sunny spot for them

- Coreopsis just started blooming

- I got hooked on growing microgreens, I will post a separate little article about it later

#solarpunk #gardening #garden #sustainability #permaculture #garden update #vegetables #container gardening #growing food #balconygarden #raised beds #self sufficiency

[toadstoolgardens]

Gardening in Raised Beds On Pavement

Growing in raised beds on top of pavement is an excellent strategy if you have limited growing space. Let's learn how to make the most of that concrete or asphalt!

Build Tall Beds

Crops need room to send roots down into the soil. Providing plenty of room to grow means your crops have a strong foundation, hold moisture longer, and can access more nutrients in the soil through deeper roots. Raised beds on pavement should be a minimum of 24 inches tall and ideally 32 inches tall! Taller is always better, especially if you live somewhere with hot and/or dry summers.

Filling Your Raised Beds

When you build raised beds on the ground, your crops have access to the soil underneath for draining excess water from above and wicking water up from below. Building on pavement takes this away, so how we fill the beds really matters!

Bottom Layer: Gravel

Fill the bottom of your raised beds with about 6 inches of gravel. This helps fight erosion, helps with drainage, and keeps your crop's roots from coming into contact with the pavement.

Middle Layer: Decomposing Wood

I highly recommend the hugelkultur method. A hugelkultur, or "mound culture" in German, is a raised bed with a base of decomposing wood. Rotting wood encourages fungal networks, holds moisture, and fills the space pretty cheaply. Get some logs, sticks, and other dead wood pieces and make a layer on top of your gravel.

Top Layers: Loose, Rich Growing Medium

There's lots of options for filling this space, but the goal is high-quality organic matter. Avoid bags of potting soil, as these aren't living soil. Living soil self-renews and keeps providing a nutrient rich environment. Potting soil will eventually dry out and lose nutrients. Instead gather things like:

Compost (homemade or purchased)

Coffee grounds (many coffee shops are happy to give out used grounds for free)

Living soil (from your yard or garden, even just a few shovels full will likely contain fungal networks and earthworms)

Grass clippings (not sprayed with anything!!)

Kitchen scraps (egg shells, fruits, veggies)

Leaf mold (leaves that have aged for two years)

Livestock manure

Shredded office paper

Worm casings

Alternate layers of whichever of these materials you're able to get and make a big raised bed lasagna. Save your compost for the top lasagna layer. Then top the whole bed off with mulch! Mulch helps hold water and keeps weeds at bay.

The Best time to Build Raised Beds is in the Fall

You can build beds any time, but building in the fall gives your bed contents time to settle and break down over the winter. Your lasagna layers need time to break down into finished soil, which crops generally prefer. Then just add some more organic matter on top in the spring before planting.

What To Plant

Here's some crop suggestions to go easy on your garden in the first year. After the first year though the sky is the limit!

Beets

Herbs

Leafy greens

Legumes

Onions

Maintaining Raised Beds on Pavement

Irrigate: Even with your fabulous organic material lasagna, your raised bed on pavement will still dry out. Prepare to water regularly, especially in the seed and seedling phase. After your crops get established a deep weekly watering should be enough unless it's extremely hot/dry.

Fertilize: During the summer, add some liquid fertilizer every couple of weeks (during your watering sesh) to push nutrients down into the soil. Some great liquid fertilizer options are comfrey tea, fish fertilizer, and worm tea.

Soil Renewal: Every fall top your beds off with some new organic matter. Over time your raised beds will decompose and sink, so fill those babies back up so they're ready for next spring! And don't forget to mulch!

Aerate: As your layers decompose you'll want to do some gentle aerating with a digging fork to keep the soil loose and crumbly.

Use Cover Crops: Cover crops help enrich the soil and keep it from drying out.

Summer cover crops: Buckwheat, cow peas, millet

Winter cover crops: Daikon radish, oats, winter rye

Happy growing!!

Source

#gardening #urban gardening #small space gardening #raised beds #hugelkultur #suburban gardening #urban farming

[wildrungarden]

9/18/23 ~ Marigolds I didn’t even try to grow. Just seeds that fell into the compost garden from last years flowers 🌼 featuring one of my now FOUR Marshmallow Root plants 🙌🏻 I am going to try and collect seeds from the Marshmallow Root this year.

#indoor garden #container gardening #sustainable gardening #vegetable gardening #starting seeds #grow organic #grow your own food #organic gardening #tomato garden #green witch #herb garden #cooking herbs #medicinal herbs #marshmallow root #marigold #compost garden #raised beds

[mauricesmall]

There is a certain feeling you get when you grow great soil that grows great food.

#soil health #compost #lettuce #onions #atlanta urban ag #raised beds #food systems #food access #biodiversity #permaculture #maurice small

[ncdweller]

Coconut Coir soufflé on ice.

I was mixing up dirt and coir last night, and noticed the sun was about to sink behind Rabbit Mountain.

I thought it was a good idea to throw another block of coir into the wheelbarrow, add water, and call it a night.

It was 25F this morning, and I have a frozen block of coir. Triple or quadruple its original size. It’s 33F now.

#slaughterhouse house #raised beds

[artificial-condition]

If anyone has opinions on this let me know!!!

Im trying to figure out what to put between my raised beds and sources are so varied. I don’t want to leave it bare because the grass gets unmanageable and it makes me avoid going outside to garden. I’m so torn :(

Also feel free to comment/tag/message me or whatever if you’ve got something I don’t mention or have really strong feelings on this

No pressure on this but I would appreciate if you reblog if you know anyone who gardens, I need answers!!! :)

#gardening #garden #gardeners on tumblr #gardenblr #gardencore #raised beds #polls

[willbrakeforneature]

looking back at the year ~ August 2023

summer is for botanizing

warm up in the garden

runs inspired by orchid sightings

the lush green, and the warming sun

cool down walks with Toad

#nature #running #trail running #kentucky #native plants #orchids #crane fly #rattlesnake plantain #southern indiana #yarden #lobelia #black eyed susan #toad the dog #Ohio River #biking #raised beds #raised bed turned big ol flower box

[mezmer]

last photo for scale. going on $400 or so put into this and we need $100s more to fill the rest

#gardening #raised beds #herb garden #herbalism

[west-x-midwest]

Garden beds up built! They fit with plenty of space for the pup to run. Going to get soil this week to top them off then I really have to dive in to planning who goes where because cold crop pick up with Keep Growing Detroit (KGD) is April 22nd (!!)

#michigan #detroit #outdoors #urban #urban gardening #Keep Growing Detroit #KGD #veggies #raised beds

[bambuita]

The uncontrollable garden 😳🥰

My husband placed woven weed fabric around the beds to try to control that crazy crabgrass and it still finds it way

At least it doesn’t affect production

8/12/22

#raised beds #ohio #gardening #crabgrass #zone 6 #garden #vegetables #fruit #flowers #seeds #harvest

[soilthesimpletruth]

Trending now: This purple Asian brassica. Pakchoi at its finest. Lettuce in the background.

#pak choi #purple #brassica #compost #lettuce #food systems #food access #soil food web #community composting systems #soil health #food sovereignty #atlanta urban ag #raised beds #Visionary Growing Solutions #vgs #maurice small

[invoke-parlay]

We were able to harvest 11 bush beans and 7 Oregon sugar pea pods so far! I am sooo excited! I hope these stay fresh long enough for me to have a big enough harvest for a meal! I have a cucumber that’s also almost ready, I could probably make a delicious green salad!!

Im just so happy to be able to grow some of my own food despite having no yard of my own, and also to be able to share my passion with others through the community garden and the Grow It Forward NY program ☺️

#blessed #growing food #gardening #11 beans #plants #happy #garden #western Ny #food #planting #beans #peas #community #community gardening #raised beds #community garden beds #container gardening #urban gardening #rooftop gardening #July 24

[n2qfd]

Ok, shutting the raised bed assembly facilities down! The tie bars came a little under finished but that was workable.

#gardening #raised beds #metal #assembly

[wildrungarden]

11/21/23 ~ Lil Brussels coming thru at school 🥹🥹

#indoor garden #container gardening #sustainable gardening #vegetable gardening #starting seeds #veganuary #grow organic #grow your own food #organic gardening #brussels #brussel sprouts #raised garden beds #raised beds #eat your vegetables #eat your veggies

[animal444]

My mom told me she might buy me a raised bed cart thing and the thought of being able to grow my own strawberries and cucumbers is amazing!

Digging through the soil with my bare paws, monitoring the growth of a living being that I helped create, eating it’s fruit and starting the cycle all over again, absolutely incredible.

#staring #other tags: #otherkin #plants #houseplants #raised beds #garden #strawberry