Bed #1 - South
 

Bed #2 - North

Choose site and get materials together.
 

Remove all vegetation. Place in compost pile.

Aerate the soil so it will dry faster if needed.

Loosen the soil at 90 degrees to the first to break up the soil further.

Dig and level a footing area for the bed so it will set level. Because of the slope on one side, a footing of landscape timbers will be used to keep the back side of the bed at a reasonable level.

Because this area drains a lot of runoff during wet weather, a footing of 2 to 3 inches of gravel is laid down first to help facilitate drainage.

The timbers were staked down with reinforcing bar stakes and the new bed frame secured on top with 6 inch pole barn nails. The bed frame is held together with 3/8 inch by 6 inch long lag screws.

Sand and compost are added to the base prior to filling and dug in to facilitate better drainage.

The bed is filled with equal parts of compost and soil and liberal amounts of sand. The are dug and mixed in between layers. Continue until the bed is full.

Make row spacing's easier by marking the sides of the beds at 4 or 6 inch intervals.

Drill a 1/4 inch hole approximately 1 inch deep at each of your spacing marks.

Use a nail or other similar "stop" to butt your row marker up against to make quick, straight rows.

Cut strips of old newspaper to proper size.

Roll the paper strips around the mandrel loosely.

Fold over the bottom edge of the paper.

The bottom folded over and ready to press.

Press and twist the pot into the form in opposite direction as rolled.
 

Gently slide pot off of mandrel. This will require a little practice.

The finished pot outside.

The finished pot inside. Don't worry if the bottom is not completely closed.

Planting The Pots

Pre-moisten the planting media and keep stored in a closed, plastic container until needed.

Drill holes for drainage in your planting flat. Four 1/4" holes along each end of flat. Place this flat inside a second flat to catch water.
 

Fill Pots w/soilless mix. A muffin pan works well to hold pots for filling a dozen at a time.

Filled pots ready to plant. A standard flat holds 32 pots. Do not crowd the pots as they will swell slightly when watered.

Not all seeds will germinate, so plant two or three to each cell. Thin to one healthy plant after they sprout and form their first set of true leaves.

Filled and planted flat ready to place under lights. Be sure to mark each pot with what is planted.

Water flat well but gently. A pump-up garden sprayer works well to provide a fine spray without a lot of mess.

Cover the flat with with a plastic cover to hold in moisture and place under fluorescent lights unless darkness is required for germination.

Place the filled flat on a heat mat under fluorescent lights. The lights will be lowered close to flat when the seeds start to geminate. Remove plastic cover at that time for air circulation.

If you order plants like onions or other live plants that arrive before the weather is conducive to planting, go ahead and temporarily plant them in flats or pots to hold until later.

New Life Begins - The Seeds Start Sprouting

Remove the protective cover and lower the lights to within 3 or 4 inches above the plants. At this time, the lights will need to be kept on for 12 to 14 hours per day. Adjust the lights as the plants grow.

Place an oscillating fan set on low to blow across the seedlings constantly. The moving air will help to toughen the seedlings and keep molds and mildews from forming.

Do not plug the fan into your timer. It needs to run constantly. Rotate your flats every day or two and water often, as the soil will dry out quickly in the moving air.

Regardless of how clean you are, damping off disease can still occur. Remove the diseased plant immediately.

Preparation Continues

Aerate the soil in one direction. Take in about 6 inch strips. This is being done to allow soil to dry.

Dig at 90 degrees to break up strips further.

Remove winter mulch from existing bed. This will allow soil to warm. Also remove any weed growth that has occurred.

Take a preliminary soil temp. to see how close you are to optimum soil temperatures. The beginning temperature is 57° F.

Install a center support to allow rain to run off and roll out film covering.

Spread out film evenly over bed.

Stretch out the film and weight down securely to protect it from winds.

Finished bed covering to raise temperatures and keep dry. The ends have been left open to allow air to circulate and dry the soil. These will later be closed to hold in heat.

After a few days, check the temperature. Here we are at 63° F. Target - 65° F

Take a soil sample from at least the top 6 inches of soil. Remove all vegetative matter and stones.

Trim the sides down to a strip approximately 1 inch wide.

Place your sample into a clean bucket. Take samples from many locations to get an accurate reading.

If the soil is wet, dry before making a test. After drying, sift the soil through a fine sieve like screen wire to remove all course and large material.

Make your test according the manufacturer's instructions. Then make any changes needed based on your results. Our sample resulted in the following:

pH = 7.5 - adjust with sulfur to 6.5. I would have expected a more neutral number with the amount of compost used.

Nitrogen (N) = Low. This is normal after a winter because nitrogen is very volatile and easily lost to rain and air.

Phosphorous (P) = Medium. About as expected.

Potassium (K) = High. This high reading is due to the wood ashes that were used in the compost. K will follow water and is easily depleted.

The perennial beds need to have their winter mulch removed so the soil can warm.

After removing mulch, we used a bagging mower to chop and pick up the debris. This went into the compost.

Lawn weeds are in full swing. We normally prefer to hand pull them with a mechanical weeder.

Lawn weeds are treated as a harvestable crop for the compost pile.

Soil can be tilled with a "mini-tiller", but a good cultivating fork and rake will save the back. Begin the first tilling with a cultivating fork.

Finish tilling the soil by thoroughly pulverizing large clods with a steel garden rake. Each year this should get easier.

Using a guide board placed where a row is to go, dig a shallow furrow for the seed. Here we are planting lettuce.

Normally, we would mix small seed with sand and plant. This little hand seeder came free with a seed order. Comes with an adjustable planting plate and works pretty well for small seed.

Here we use a rake to very lightly work the seed into the soil and pull a small amount of soil over the seed.

Use the back of the rake to gently tamp the soil over the seeds. This will firm the soil over the seed without overly compacting the soil.

We planted several rows of Mesclun, Romaine, Beets and Kohlrabi the same way.

Onions were planted very thickly in multiple rows. These will be thinned to the proper spacing by using them for fresh green onions (scallions).

Planting locations were laid out for cabbages using our planting board to determine spacing's. These are planted @ 1 foot intervals to be picked at a smaller 6-8 inch diameter.

Use a bulb setter to make quick work of planting small plants. This works well for all small plants and is a real time saver.

Small plants often come out with the roots matted tightly. This is normal, but these need to be loosened for proper root development.

One way to remedy this is to pull the roots apart before planting.

Another and quicker method is to use a sharp knife to make several slices through the matted roots. Don't forget the bottom roots. Neither of these methods harms the plant and will cause the plant to send out new roots.

These cabbages are Early Flat Dutch that were purchased from a local nursery because the seed arrived to late for early cabbage. This seed will be planted for a later crop.

Peas were planted along the new trellis using the planting board.

Trellises and plant supports need to be installed at the time that seeds are planted or while the plants are very small. Waiting could cause damage to the plants and makes the task much more difficult. Before installing any plant support, carefully consider the type of plant and weight to be supported.

Determine the best type and location for the trellis and insert the uprights deeply for best support.

Measure and mark each piece to be cut. Here we are using 1 inch PVC pipe for the cross pieces. The center piece is to be the same width as the bed. The upper support is to one foot wider each way to double as a hanging support.

Cut the pipe at your marks. Here a PVC cutter is used (available at most hardware stores), but a hacksaw would also work well.

Mark each location for a hole or other joinery. Start with middle supports first.

Next, mark each location for a hole or other joint on the top support.

Since we're doing double duty with the upper support, we also mark the hole locations on the ends of the upper support for hanger holes.

Drill holes through the middle cross-piece. These go all the way through the pipe.

Next, drill holes for the upper support. These are drilled through one side only, except for the hanger holes, which are through holes.

A note here:

Depending on the size of holes needed, they may need to be fairly large (as in this case of 7/8 inch). For this task you may need to purchase a fairly large drill bit, which could grab. A better choice would be a hole saw of appropriate size.

We used a rotary tool with a carbide bit to enlarge the holes. In any case, use extreme caution to properly support the workpeice to avoid injury.

After cutting the holes, slide the pieces together so that the trellis is supported at the top, middle and any other direction needed. Here we painted the white PVC pipe for aesthetic purposes only.

Cover the trellis with appropriate wire. Here we are using 60 inch wide chicken wire with 2 inch openings.

A note about garden wires:

Different wires are appropriate for different crops. Lighter wires, such as the chicken wire we are using work well for crops like beans, peas and possibly cucumbers if not to vigorous, As the density and weight of your crop increases, so to should the

strength of your wire and trellis system be. Crops such as  melons, squash and heavy crops of cucumbers should be trained to a heavy wire such as concrete reinforcing wire or livestock panels from which the fruits can be supported.

Caution: Working with wire can cause potentially severe cuts and abrasions. Unless you are experienced with working with such wire, it is recommended that you wear sturdy gloves. Also, make it habit to always wear appropriate eye protection when working with wire of any type.

Even starting late, the plants are growing large. Now it's time to get some thinning done and "up-size" the pots for many of them.

Here is a pot with two seedlings. For proper development, one needs to be removed.

Before doing any work with plants, especially small ones, always disinfect tools with a mix of one part bleach to ten parts water.

Never let disinfecting solution stay on your tools as it is highly corrosive. Rinse thoroughly with clean water after a few minutes.

Choose the strongest seedling (not necessarily biggest) and cut the rest off at the surface, leaving only one.

If your seedlings are small, you can often dig one out (called "pricking out") and replant to increase your plants. Do not do this once they have become larger, because this will severely damage the roots of all of the plants.

Replant the seedling into a larger container, completely covering the original planting pot if it is biodegradable. Children love to help with this.

If the original biodegradable pot is not completely covered, it will act as a wick to draw moisture out of the pot. At this point, it does not harm the plant to buried a little deeper than it was growing originally. For tomato's, it is beneficial to bury it as deeply as possible.

The Rains Continue

The rains continue for a second straight week, but the seed continues to sprout well.

The second bed (bed #1) was filled to approximately 2 inches over full originally. But all of the rain has settled the ground to three inches below the top of the frame.

The standing water around the beds shows why raised beds are so advantageous. Marginal land can easily be used to produce good gardens.

Almost an hour after the storms pass, The yard is still a lake. We recorded 4.22 inches of rain in three hours with most coming in less than an hour.

During the height of the storm, the raised beds were half submerged in water. Exactly how much rain there was is unknown because it was blowing so hard.

We faired better than many. We didn't loose any trees. During the height of the storm, this Maple (40 feet away) couldn't be seen for the rain.

During the height of the rains, none of these features could be seen. This picture was taken about an hour after the height of the storm.

Flags were blown off of their holders and blown around like so much debris.

Limbs were blown out of trees. We were lucky however, because we only lost relatively small limbs. There hasn't been a lot of limb growth yet since the ice storm a couple of years ago.

The perennial beds took quite a beating from the storm.

The seedlings in the raised beds look pretty dismal and flattened.

It's not as bad as it looks here. Most of these seedlings will recover and straighten up.

More than two hours after the storm passes, the back yard is a swamp, with standing water.

No need to complain or get depressed. Just get in, start picking up and move on. This is not the first time this has happened and it won't be the last. Life goes on!

The old roses that have been frozen back the past few years were blooming beautifully. The temporary arbor I built last fall though has proven woefully inadequate.

At least one pair of Robins has chosen our eves again to raise a family. At least one pair, and as many as three pair of Robins have built under our eves every year for the past several years.

We're home and things may not be going as originally planned, but we're not down yet. We do but make adjustments and find a way to go on.

While raised planters were always a part of our makeover plan, adding these cut off barrels now seemed to be a good move.

The problem with adding these cut off barrels as planters is that I have so many more things that I want to plant in them than I have barrels. Right now I only have three. By cutting the barrels off at approximately 1/3, I end up with one large and one small

planter. Between the two, I can grow virtually any crop I want to. To provide drainage, cut several one inch holes in the bottom and glue screen wire over the holes with silicone adhesive. With some proper cleaning and the right paint, these can be made quite attractive.

At this point in time, one difficult issue to deal with is that I can not do most of the things I once did, even though it is temporary. Therefore, enlist help where you can to do what you can not. And even if you can do it, allow others to help you with anything they are

My oldest granddaughter (Adrian) enjoys helping Papa spray the weeds growing in the patio bricks with homemade weed killer.

I Can't Stand It Any Longer

Start by tilling the bed to break up clods, remove stones, etc. These beds are approximately 18 inches deep. They were originally to be filled with perennials, but this year will tomato's.

An organic fertilizer is added to increase its fertility. Organic fertilizer was chosen for its eco-friendliness and the fact that it won't burn the plants.

Mix the fertilizer into the soil well before planting.

Dig the planting holes. Yes, you're seeing right. We are using a post-hole digger to dig planting holes. The plants are large and could have been planted in a trench. But using a post-hole digger puts the main roots down where the soil will stay moist longer.

Remove all of the side leaves and branches before planting. The plant will form roots all along the stem for a much stronger plant.

Five tomato's are now planted in this planter. We have two indeterminate tomato's for season-long production and three determinate plants for a lot of tomato's right away. Stakes and cages need to be installed at this time.

The background isn't much to look at right now. Bear in mind that this area of new patio and planter was just completed last year and the clean-up has not yet been completed.

But then, Hillbillies ain't to heavy into pretty either - LOL!

You don't find Hillbilly shacks on the cover of "House Beautiful"!

The mulch was placed to tightly around the base of the tomato. This allowed fungus to develop and attack the plant causing a damping off disease.

The damping off disease appears as a black, soft area encircling the stem at the soil line. This decomposition causes the plant to die and fall over.

While one plant dies, the rest can appear perfectly healthy. In this case, make sure the mulch is pulled back from the stems to allow good air circulation.

Squirrels will dig out new plants and seedlings getting into the freshly dug soil. Most of the time they will chew the plant off to get at the soil.

Starlings are notorious about cutting seedlings of all kinds of plants off.

The barrel that I cut off earlier is now complete and will take our gardening efforts to a new level in our quest for working smarter - not harder.

After cutting and grinding the edges, drain holes are drilled roughly 3 to 4 inches apart around the bottom of the barrel.

After thoroughly cleaning the barrel inside and out, small pieces of aluminum screen wire are cut and glued over the holes with silicone adhesive.

The screen wire serves two purposes. First, it keeps the soil from washing out of the planter through the bottom and second, it keeps ants and other insects from burrowing into the soil and building nests inside the planter soil.

The finished barrel with all of the drain holes covered.

After the holes are covered, thoroughly clean and sand the outside of the barrel for better paint adhesion and to smooth out imperfections, then paint.

We used a paint designed for plastics in order to minimize the need to repaint any time soon. We used a light tan, textured paint in order to help hide normal barrel dings. The light color, besides being attractive for our application, will reflect sunlight and minimize heating the soil inside.

Four year old Redbud tree planted in the first planter.

Portulaca (Moss Rose) seed was ordered and will be planted around the base of the tree to add color. The moss rose will reseed itself and will come back every year for two or three years, when new seed will need to be added.

Along with the moss rose, small garden statues will be added for extra interest and whimsy. These will be displayed on cement "stages" made from concrete that will be painted.

More barrel planters will be added later to contain an old fashioned lilac with planting sockets and who knows what else we will come up with to plant in our new planting system.

The tomato's have been growing for a couple of weeks now and it's time to finish the support system for them. The uprights are 3/4 inch by 8 foot plastic coated steel plant support poles purchased locally. They were installed at the time of planting.

The tomato's have been growing a couple of weeks and are about 18 inches tall. It is time to start getting them supported.

The support system installed.

The 7 foot support system is built so that the plants will be "woven" through strings that will be tied to the uprights in a trellis system as the plants grow upright. The plants have been pruned to two main stems and will continue to be "pinched" until they near the top of the supports.

To keep the uprights from pulling in as we tie strings across, we have installed a top support. It is made by drilling "sockets" into the top piece at each point an upright intersects. The top piece is slipped over the uprights and tied in place.

Plant supports don't need to be something that is replaced every year. Take time to make supports that can be reused every year. Here we are using aged oak, but any wood you have handy will work just as well. They will incorporate holes for tying strings to.

The uprights have been cut to length (approx. 6 1/2 feet) and the normal surface oxidation is being sanded off.

Lay out the location for all of the holes prior to drilling. Here we are laying out holes on 4 inch spacing's.

We primarily use Jute twine in our garden for tying up plants because it is bio-degradable. Jute has a tendency to stretch and work down supports so we drilled holes through our supports through which the strings will be tied. This will eliminate this problem.

Drill the holes for tying strings to. Here we are drilling 3/8 inch holes. Any size will work, but make the holes large enough that you don't have to fight to get the strings through.

Cut points on the ends to be inserted in the ground. Be sure to round off all sharp edges that would be ground off by inserting in the ground. This will help save your paint later.

Every year, gardeners lovingly plant many things in planters looking to dress up an area of their patio or landscape. The result looks good, often great, but why not add additional interest and a little whimsy to those pots and planters to go along with the beautiful colors and textures. Pots and planters can be excellent backdrops for small garden statuary and art pieces of visual interest.

Here a Redbud tree is planted in a homemade planter. Looks good, but it can be made better.

Here we are using the planter as a stage for some garden statuary we have collected. The area around the statuary has been overplanted with Portulaca (Moss Rose) for additional color.

The entire surface will be covered with mulch to conserve moisture and to hide the bare soil until the Portulaca sprouts and covers the planter. The statues are temporarily placed on plastic bases. Permanent bases of concrete have been cast, but they will require approximately 4 to 6 weeks to cure before they can be painted and used.

We are planting large barrel planters with small trees and shrubs. But we do not want that large expanse of bare soil around the tree or shrub. The answer is to plant annuals beneath it. But digging holes to plant will damage the roots of whatever is planted in it. The answer - incorporate planting pots into the planter up front.

Cut planting pots from 2-liter pop bottles. Cut just below where the bottle curves at the top to make a deep pot.

Drill drain holes in the bottom of the small planting pots. You will be watering at the same time as the planter, but the smaller pots still must drain.

Tamp the soil lightly as you fill the planter to remove air pockets. The tree should be set approximately 1 inch below the surface when done.

Incorporate your small planting pots as you fill the planter. Here we have 6 individual pots spaced evenly around the planter and set approximately 1/2 inch below the surface.

Even though we tamped the soil as we filled. It settled much more than we anticipated. I probably should have added sand to the mix, but it should do fine by topping it off with some aged compost.

The tub we planted settled over 2 1/2 inches. This is to much for a good display. Bothe the tub and planter will need to have everything reset after they dry a few days.

I opted not to buy tomato caging for the one determinate tomato that survived. I wanted something that was more flexible in application so it could be used for more than tomatoes and the like. But it needed to be very sturdy and as attractive as possible. I already had some aged oak stored away in the garage that was about the right dimensions already for what I wanted.

The new stakes were driven into the ground about a foot in a triangle configuration.

Green jute twine was tied between posts about every 4 inches to form a cage for the tomato.

When used as tomato supports, twine can be tied between posts every four inches or as needed. The holes through the stakes guarantees that the twine can't slip around. If one string breaks, it's only one string and can be easily repaired without disturbing the others. A simple threading needle was made from an old wire coat hanger for threading the twine through the holes.

July came in with rains continuing to come, but decreasing. The temperature is steadily remaining in the 90's and it is clearly not an advantageous time to be planting. But we're going to try to begin over anyway.

The remaining 5 celery plants would be better placed in a single row, so they were lifted.

The area ready to be worked up and planted with the celery, orange and purple carrots.

Because we were planting carrots in a new bed that is still fairly tight, we added additional sand.

After adding sand and loosening the soil, we added more compost to all areas.

After digging all areas, we added an organic, low-release fertilizer.

The fertilizer was thoroughly mixed into the soil prior to planting.

The celery was the first thing to get replanted and watered in well.

Small seeds of carrots, etc. can be difficult to spread evenly and waste a lot of seed with thinning.

Small seeds were mixed with about 1 cup of sand and mixed. This allowed more even spacing with less thinning later.

The seed/sand mixture was spread along the rows, covered lightly and everything well watered.

We started by removing the few weeds that had sprouted up in the bed. These were put into the compost as our first crop.

The portion of the bed to be planted was then dug.

The portion to be planted was dug to a depth of 12 inches or more and thoroughly mixed.

Just a with the first bed (bed #2), the sides were marked at 6 inch intervals to make laying out planting rows easier.

Planting locations were marked.

The seed was planted at each location. The first knuckle on an average adults finger is approximately 1 inch, which is the depth to plant squash seed.

The seed is planted (three seeds per location) and will be thinned to one strong plant per location later and side dressed with fertilizer.

Some birds, especially European Starlings and squirrels can be a problem with newly sprouted plants. Beans seem to be a particular favorite. Birds don't eat the plants, they simply cut them off and leave them lie. Squirrels however, will sometimes eat the tender sprouts.

Starlings still managed to get to a few plants even while we were getting covers in place.

Birds and squirrels weren't the only problem we faced. While it was welcome. the weather took a turn to cool and wet just as the beans were sprouting. This caused a few beans to mold as they emerged.

For our "scarecrows" we used a combination of old CD's, aluminum pie pans and shiny can lids.

Brass fishing swivels allow the "spinners" to flutter freely in the breeze.

The spinners in place. The hangers were "L" shaped so they could rotate with the spinners.

A wire cage was created from chicken wire to span two rows of beans. Flashy CD's were added to the ends.

Roll the cut ends of the wire over to eliminate cuts, scratches and clothing snags.

The weather this year, for the most part, has been rainy and not to hot until recent weeks. But now, the rains are tapering off and the temps are staying in the 90's. It's time to start getting everything mulched well to conserve moisture and cool the soil.

When applying mulch, there's no need to put a lot of effort into it. Here we are using a "grabber" to eliminate back strain from bending over.

Newly planted seeds especially need mulch to keep the soil moist. Here, we've applied a light cover of mulch to carrots we recently planted.

When mulching newly planted seeds, apply only a very thin layer to start. Otherwise, the seed may be buried to deeply to sprout properly, You can come back later and apply more after they emerge.

We mulched the newly emerging bush beans and sprouting kohlrabi.

We applied a very thick layer of mulch around the newly planted squash.

While we were at it, we started mulching large planters as well. Here, we've mulched a planter of Native Ferns.

When we built the new steps, we never got around to cutting off the runners.

The runners are now trimmed off. This will make the transition much safer.

The trimmed stringers allow more room on the landing to get around the end of the stairs and they look better.

The patio has been cleared and is ready to finish.

The patio was swept off, new sand added and swept in and everything wet down to settle the sand.

After sweeping in new sand and wetting it down to settle, we allowed it a few days to dry. We put the first coat of sealer on it  July 7, 2009. The plan right now is to apply a second coat in a few days after it has dried. We also sealed the steps.

After prepping the bed use a rake to pulverize clods and prepare a fine seed bed. Tillers do to much damage to the soils structure.

Enough seed was counted out to plant 2 rows. These were soaked in water overnight. This will cut several days off the sprouting time.

Fertilizer was added and worked in. We made 2 rows, approximately 4 inches apart and about 2 inches deep.

Seeds were planted about every 3 inches. Extra seed was placed in between.

The seedbed was mulched lightly. More will be added later.

The entire seedbed was watered thoroughly.

Like any other crop, it is much easier to "pre-clean" the bulbs as they are harvested. Simply trim off leaves and the root with shears.

Here, we have a mess of kohlrabi and pearl onions ready to boil up for dinner.

The tomatoes are finally setting some fruits, but the numbers are not there. The foliage however, is very lush and dense because of the extra fertilizer.

Lush foliage is being produced on the tomatoes at the expense of fruits.

Likewise, the marigolds have very lush foliage. These are one annual that does best with only compost added to the soil.

The numbers of blooms are few and are pretty much hidden in the foliage. Later this summer, as the fertilizer is used up, the plants will produce more blooms.