Frankenbucket

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Only in the Ozarks. A couple of years ago I saw a little old lady tending her raised bed garden's which were set up in old rusty wheelbarrows. She must have had a dozen of them with all kinds of vegetables in them and no stooping over.

[JHCC]

Linda Chalker-Scott, a soil scientist and professor of horticulture at Washington State*, has a good blog post about raised beds: https://gardenprofessors.com/tools-tips-and-terrible-traditions-for-raised-beds-part-1/. Worth a look in itself, and has links to a number of good resources as well.

*and one of my smithing customers; I made her a custom taproot weeder for thistles.

[ThomasPowers]

I wonder how the Sun suggestions work for the desert Southwest where full sun will destroy a lot of plants used to more temperate climes? "Shade Cloth" is a big seller here.

I was very happy last year to be able to find some tomatoes that will set fruit under our heat conditions out here.

I've pointed out to my wife that she should look for suggestions from people gardening in similar climates; so we're reading up on sites from Arizona.

[Daswulf]

Thomas, if you can get more hail damaged tin roofing that would bring the raised bed up to a less bendy height. Then tho you do have to fill the space so there is that. Only the top so many inches need to be soil for growing in. 

Another idea is a benched boarder so she can sit on it while gardening. 

I can bet shade cloth is a big seller there.

[ThomasPowers]

I have a number of cedar 2x12's from when my Mother had a shade structure removed from her house.  I was planning to use them and have moved the first batch to the yard where they will be installed.   I expect I will be using 2 high after my wife decides that 1 high is too much bending over.   

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Ive known people to use old stalk tanks for raised bed gardens, 

they fill the bottom few inches with gravel and then layered compost, livestock  manure and soil to fill it up to the top, 

you can grow quite a bit in a 8’ diameter stock tank,

it’s tall enough it keeps out the cottontails and the metal bottom keeps out all the ground dwelling critters, 

[Daswulf]

If you have them in the native soil it is good to let some in. Like worms, other beneficial insects and fungi. I've heard often to line the bottom with chicken wire or more tight wire fencing. 

Nothing wrong with having it sealed off to all critters but holes for drainage is beneficial. 

I have uneven ground and dug out and sank my raised beds. I filled the bottom space of them with brown compost like sticks logs and dry grass clippings. Then added some of the topsoil back and then some better soil from up where I tilled. This will decompose over time acting like a little bit of a hugelkultur bed and I'll add compost as it needs it from there. 

[smokey07]

l live in central oregon where the soil is mostly rocks and clay. we have six recycled bath tubs for raised beds. drill a few holes in the bottom for drains , a small layer of rocks, then some weedstop cloth so the dirt doesnt move down. then soil and compost and plants. one has raspberries, one has strawberries. and veggies in the rest. tubs are all fiberglass so there is no rust problem. keeps the small rodents and critters out of them.  and there is no real bending over to have to deal with.  Smokey

[Scott NC]

  All good ideas.  We have two old rusted out True Value wheelbarrows I want to use for planters but mom says they are "antiques" and wants to save them.  I suppose....  I may have to put Frankenbucket on temporary hold as I have some things come up that need my attention.

 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

12 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Nothing wrong with having it sealed off to all critters but holes for drainage is beneficial. 

They have drains, that’s what the couple inches of gravel is for so it holds the dirt above the drain holes, 

Also I forgot to mention that it’s usually done with old tanks that have pin holes to

[Scott NC]

  Billy, I bet you could flush out a whole slew of snapping turtles in a stock tank.  I wonder if the juice would make good fertilizer?

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol, i dunno bout snapping turtles but I’ve read about people doing that with fish in hydroponic setups 

[Frosty]

14 hours ago, Daswulf said:

and sank my raised beds.

Sunken raised bed gardening.

I just gotta to love you Das, you've drawn a visual that'll keep me smiling all day. 

In the 70s a couple friends of mine bought an open to entry "homestead" in the bush. We replaced the sod roof on the creek cabin and put a 2" x 12" sill board on so we could make it as thick as it should have been. 

I spent most of that summer and all the next winter into summer living there. Someone gave me some strawberry starts and remembering Dad telling me about strawberry barrels I planted the starts in knotholes in the sill board. By mid summer there were lush strawberry plants growing out of the knotholes and spreading across the roof. By that fall you could pick strawberries anywhere along the roof line or go nuts if you climbed onto the roof. 

As an experiment I planted a potato plant I'd grown as a house plant one winter, in an old tire. A potato had sprouted so I put it in an empty pot and it loved life in the kitchen window till it took over the kitchen table.

Anyway, I laid an old tire on the ground and made a layer of gravel in it and emptied the flower pot potato plant in it. Then I filled the tire with straw till just a few potato leaves showed. Before long I had to put another tire on the pile and added straw. By "harvest time" the potato was starting to flower, I knocked the 10'+ tall tire pile over and picked out the potatoes. The potatoes were in the tires themselves, not in the straw in the centers and had a curved shape with a fabric texture. I don't know how many potatoes I harvested but I was giving them away to the whole trailer court. I'm guessing a couple hundred lbs. easy.

The court managers kept threatening to evict me if I didn't get rid of the tires but I paid my space rent 6 months at a time and told them they'd have to refund the unused portion and I'd sue for moving expenses. The next summer there were potato stacks in front of a number of trailers. Most were painted. 

I'm here to tell you, you CAN raise a bed too high! A person shouldn't need a ladder to tend it.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

MY wife was getting all excited about some ideas she saw on the net; till I pointed out that they would cost several hundred dollars to do.  I suggested she come out to the scrapyard Saturday and see what she could pick up for US$20 or less...

I don't think she can deal with gardening in her present state of health and so would prefer to not spend a lot on it and end up having to do it all myself so as to not waste the investment.

[Daswulf]

I like the bathtub idea smokey. 

Lol Frosty. It is still raised. Partially. I did it to level them out and as a bit of a barrier to grass and shallow burrowing critters. Didn't stop any slugs but I have some plans for them this year. 

I'm planning to expand with more raised beds this spring.  I like the potato tire idea. Liz found a picture of a wishing well made from tires so she had me build one and I used it for a center piece of the raised beds. The beds are 8'x4' easy to make and I can build them up if I feel like it later.

 

 

Scott, hope its nothing too serious.  We'll wait. Frankenbucket got way off track with the subject but its all fun. 

How about crazy bucket planters? 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol, Daswulf, that’s a fun idea! 

you could make five gallon chia pets! 

only it would be vegetable leaves for the hair! 

[Frosty]

Frankenplanters!

Looks nice Das. I think if I did another tire tower I'd give it a brick paint job. 

An old acquaintance was all excited to invite us over to enjoy his raised fire pit. It still gives me a good visual and it's been 40 years. 

Ahhhh, I remembered BEFORE hitting submit! A weather guy on the news was talking about chill factors and the above ground winds. 

Life is full of mixed metaphors and oxymorons. Washed in a sea of straight lines. Life is GOOD! 

Frosty The Lucky.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I am wondering where Das finds boarders who will put up with being used as planter edging.... I don't know anyone who would lay there for a whole growing season, but it may depend on how much rent he charges them

 

Here in the desert I have sand and gravel, so raised beds are the only way to go. Not like back home in CA where anything you planted grew well, and big.  70# Hubbard squash, 11' tall Indian corn, 4' long banana squash, and a sunflower with an 18" center.

[Farmall]

Dad and I made 4 foot by 10 foot raised beds by first marking out the locations (there are 6) and digging down 2 feet into the native soil.  We then used 2 2X!0's to make the beds 20" high.  Took the native soil, mixed it with the same amount of composted horse and turkey manure and filled the beds up to the top.  Lotta starting work, but they sure produce.

[JHCC]

The downside to filling raised beds with organic matter is that it sinks as it decomposes. Natural soil doesn't generally have that problem. 

[ThomasPowers]

Stinking is part of living in the country!   _____________________ (Straight line for Frosty.)

[Farmall]

Best part of living on the dairy farm is getting up in the morning and smelling the dairy air!

 

[Daswulf]

John. All soil needs replenishing to keep it fertile. Raised beds kinda tell you they need topping off. There are many ways to build it up, compost being one. If you have a lot of trees around or neighbors who do and bag leaves for disposal in the fall, look up leaf mold compost. Aged manure has been mentioned. The aged horse manure I've gotten in the past was like very rich dark soil with only a soil smell. It was very good stuff for the garden. 

[Scott NC]

18 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Frankenbucket got way off track with the subject but its all fun. 

  I secretly enjoy it.    As long as the gist of the original conversation gets made who cares?  It's great fun and even going off the rails there are things to be enjoyed and learned.  Like now, I'm learning about above ground gardening.  I'll get back to ol' Frankenbucket when I can.

  We used to used bagged leaves on a large scale.  In the fall I would drive around the local towns in my truck with a trailer and collect peoples bagged leaves.  They were usually thrilled to get rid of them but I always asked.  Hundreds of them.  I would line the skirting of the mobile home on the farm with them for insulation when the cold winds blow and in the spring on the garden they would go.  Mixed with straw and compost, I would plow them in in the fall.  We used plastic for weeds so of course I had to pull that up first.  I did that for 20+ years.  Talk about fertile.  The big fat earthworms loved it!  Now, I have to adapt to new ways and means....  Talk about downsizing.   This was the tomato patch.

 

[Scott NC]

17 hours ago, Frosty said:

Frankenplanters!

  Lol...