A while ago I was toying with the idea of building some raised beds for a vegetable garden. My wife was worried about the chemicals in pressure treated lumber (even the newer stuff), and I'm not interested in wood that will rot or dealing with the cost of cedar.

So that leaves me with using a sunny part of the lawn. Fine by me. Less lawn to mow and fertilize. Now I have to figure out the steps to take to turn part of my lawn into a garden.

Some websites recommend various combinations of removing the top layer of topsoil (where the grass is), replacing some dirt with "better" dirt, and adding compost, sand, and peat moss. All mention tilling. None address the inevitable weeds that will pop up due to all the soil disturbance.

Some pertinent data (as of last fall UMASS soil test):

- My current soil structure is 50% sand, 45% silt, 5% clay
- Soil is very rich in P (31 PPM) and K (320 PPM)
- pH is 7.3 (as of last fall)
- I have some micronutrient deficiencies that I will be addressing in April: Boron, Copper and Manganese
- OM is 5.5%
- I was planning on dropping Dimension on my lawn at the appropriate time. Do I need to avoid the area I plan on using for a garden, or will any tilling sufficiently break the pre-emergent barrier? No problem for me to avoid the area as that area does not typically have crabgrass problems. I could just use Quinclorac to treat any bad spots.
- We'll be growing zucchini, cucumber, eggplant, sweet peas, maybe tomatoes.

I would very much appreciate any advice on the specific steps I can take to prepare a garden bed for this spring/summer. Thanks in advance!

What do the kids say today - Baby got back ???? ....... (and ibuprofen )

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PS - get going because those peas go in real soon - way before any of those others do.

and another thing - some plants are best 'direct sown', some are better off transplanted. Tomatoes for example, love to be transplanted.

Peas MUST be directly sown. Dimension will mess that all up ... if the birds don't

Harbor Freight sells blue plastic tarps cheap. Cover your garden area with one before applying Dimension. These tarps then become radiation protection from the Japan tsunami. (C&C sent me Email that proves this!!!!!!)

There are a lot of ways to construct a raised bed from as simple as piling up dirt, to building a structure. One method I have used a lot does not cost a lot to build and fairly easy DIY.

I use cinder blocks and some hardware cloth. Excavate an area of say 4 feet x 8 feet to about a depth of 2 to 4 inches. What you really want to concentrate on is getting a good level grade to sit the blocks on. Line the area with rodent hardware cloth, and then lay your first row of cinder blocks. Fill block cavities with any type of soil or sand to stabilize them. Then lay another row of cinder blocks offset just like you would with any brick, and fill the cavities with dirt. Then all that is left to do is fill the bed with a good quality garden soil.

I like Texasweed's idea a lot, or just go with a mounded bed for drainage in the lawn. Whatever you like, veggies will do fine in either.

+1 Gary on the peas; they like to be chilly and hate to be moved!

Skip the Dimension there and accept the weeds--and the hoeing. Any knock to the developing roots isn't good, nor do I know offhand if Dimension is rated for vegetable gardens. If it is, any parts you don't directly plant can be treated at the rate recommended for vegetables.

I have a suspicion that it isn't, but I could be wrong.

GaryCinChicago wrote:What do the kids say today - Baby got back ???? ....... (and ibuprofen )

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I think I might try the double digging method. Well, I'll pay some high school kids to do it with me barking orders, I mean, supervising.

Would you just use the native soil, or would you add compost/peat moss as some articles suggested? One article suggested 1 shovel full of compost per 3 shovels of dirt. I know the compost has to be fully composted.

We're personally building "square foot garden" beds this year. 6 total inches of 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite. I have a Brother that did it last year with VERY good results, so we're expanding our Tomatoes and herbs windowsill garden to a couple 4'x4' beds in the yard.

Depending on your soil, I might recommend going deeper. I did 12 inches of complicated funk, errr 'soil' because my base soil is heavily compacted. The first year all my tomatoes and peppers refused to break through the hard layer and instead shot roots out sideways, covering the sq ft garden in a really wicked rooted mass. That was at 6 inches deep, so i built the sides up higher and filled it back up with compost, composted cotton burrs, some peat, vermiculite and humus/manure. Hopefully this year they benefit from the added legroom.

jfd.lew wrote:Depending on your soil, I might recommend going deeper. I did 12 inches of complicated funk, errr 'soil' because my base soil is heavily compacted. The first year all my tomatoes and peppers refused to break through the hard layer and instead shot roots out sideways, covering the sq ft garden in a really wicked rooted mass. That was at 6 inches deep, so i built the sides up higher and filled it back up with compost, composted cotton burrs, some peat, vermiculite and humus/manure. Hopefully this year they benefit from the added legroom.

+1. You might as well go as deep as you need and save the hassle of self-potting plants. My raised garden beds vary from six inches to three feet, but the base soil underneath isn't that bad. Roots can eventually get through it.

Over time, that seriously improved soil is going to distribute itself a bit into the lower layers. Worms carry it, and so on. It's very slow, but works over the course of years or decades.

GaryCinChicago wrote:What do the kids say today - Baby got back ???? ....... (and ibuprofen )

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Darn you Gary! This evening I double dug a 4x8 plot and thought I was going to die. I got about 10 inches deep with the shovel, then another 8 inches with a pitch fork. I shoveled in small amounts of fully composted dairy cow manure (It passed the 3 week bag smell test, let alone 3 day) and peat moss. So I have about 18 inches of loosened soil (bottom 8 inches was not turned, just loosened with the fork. The top 10 inches was turned over completely. The result is this:





So now, my question is: What now?

1. I have some gypsum I want to add to the plot. Any good reason why I shouldn't?
2. I have some 10-10-10. Same question. If I add the gypsum and the 10-10-10, should I wait 2 weeks between the two so that they don't interact with each other?
3. After seeding/transplanting, I plan on top dressing with some more compost and peat moss. Good/bad idea?
4. My pH is high. Should I add some sulfur? Will that inhibit seed germination?
5. Anything else you guys can think of or offer advice on?

Thanks!

Looks nice!

Using your soil test (Click here for more information):

1) You don't really need it, and I'm not a fan of adding things that aren't required. If you really want to, limit the amounts to 2 pounds per thousand equivalent.
2) I don't see your P on that Logan test. If under 250, you can use it (and I rarely object to a little extra K, either!) There's no interaction between the two, so you can add them the same day.
3) Bad idea. At least until plants are a little larger, don't top-dress. They're very delicate, setting up root systems, and any knock to the stem can kill sprouting seeds. If you do it later, just keep it away from the stems to avoid any chance of rot.
3a) If your seeds are definitely OK sprouting in the dark (or don't care), you can top-dress immediately after seeding with a tiny bit of compost or peat--say a dusting. Remove the depth of that dusting from your planting depth on any seeds that need to be buried.
3b) If your seeds require light to sprout, don't top-dress or germination will be poor. Similarly, don't bury them.
4) Don't add sulfur. I don't see your sulfur levels on that test either, but sulfur isn't all that helpful unless tilled in (and I doubt you want to re-till that). Even then, changes are slow. When sprouting seeds, don't add sulfur up top to avoid any issues with germination (if the top layer goes over 200 PPM by too much, it can suppress seeds). Best not to take chances. Your pH isn't ridiculous, although I wouldn't grow blueberries there...

Morph,

This is the appropriate soil test to use for the area the garden is in. This test is from last fall. Since then, I dropped winterizer last november, then fixed the micros with Milorganite this spring (Copper, Manganese, Boron).



Also, yes, I will wait until the plants are nice and big before top dressing. Sorry, I asked that question wrong. Do any of your answers change based on the soil test?

Michael Wise wrote:I really like it surrounded by all that green.

Can't wait to see it when things really start growing.

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Thanks Michael (my name too )

I'm going to do a little experiment this year. I double dug this plot. I will build another plot right next to it, same dimensions. However, for that plot, I will have my neighbor bring in his garden tractor tiller. Not sure how deep it will go. I will plant my four veggies (sweet peas (I know it's late for them!), cucumbers, zucchini and eggplant) in both plots, and see which one does better. I'm not sure which one I want to do better. If it's the double dug plot, then I've just made more work for myself next year. It it's the tilled plot, then I just broke my back for nothing

Barley wrote:Morph,

This is the appropriate soil test to use for the area the garden is in. This test is from last fall. Since then, I dropped winterizer last november, then fixed the micros with Milorganite this spring (Copper, Manganese, Boron).



Also, yes, I will wait until the plants are nice and big before top dressing. Sorry, I asked that question wrong. Do any of your answers change based on the soil test?

Yep, that changes some answers:

You don't need anything. Period. This soil's great, and with the compost you added, probably better than it was before.

So no P, no S, no K, and no other letters either.

Oh, TLC PDQ, and it doesn't have to be on the QT.

Barley wrote:

GaryCinChicago wrote:What do the kids say today - Baby got back ???? ....... (and ibuprofen )

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Darn you Gary! This evening I double dug a 4x8 plot and thought I was going to die.

I warned you

Your testing with the tiller will be interesting. Watch the soil's tilth and friability to compare.

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I got into gardening late, which is a good thing, have a computer so I can watch stuff like the above and don't own a tiller.