{"id":464,"date":"2012-04-09T21:50:58","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T02:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/?p=464"},"modified":"2012-04-09T21:48:40","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T02:48:40","slug":"how-to-install-a-raised-bed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/09\/how-to-install-a-raised-bed\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Install a Raised Bed"},"content":{"rendered":"

I enrolled in the Citizen Gardner class which provided me with some excellent knowledge on installing a Raised Bed garden.\u00a0 I’d like to share my approach with this community.\u00a0 The first assumption is that you’ve built the raised bed already.\u00a0 If not, check out http:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/11\/how-to-build-a-citizen-gardener-raised-bed\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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  1. Site Selection – Ideally, you want about 8 hours of direct sun, but the intensity can be a problem.\u00a0 There are shading remedies (i.e. hoop houses, etc.) that help with sun intensity. My side yard has a southern exposure, which should provide fairly good of morning sun.\u00a0 I am, however, shaded in the late afternoon by a large tree in my yard.\n

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    Site selection<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
  2. I fed the microbes beneath my bedding area with lots dry molasses, watered it in HEAVILY, laid down layers of cardboard, and watered everything in HEAVILY.\n

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    soaking cardboard weed barrier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
  3. I laid down an expansive cardboard barrier (2′ beyond\u00a0perimeter, 2′ between beds, 3′ between beds and house to give a little\u00a0more buffer from the hot brick during\u00a0Summer)\u00a0to “turn the lights out” on Bermuda grass lawn.\u00a0 Try to lay cardboard 2-layers thick.\n

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    Continue soaking cardboard weed barrier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
  4. My dad once told me, “(mild explicative), when I was coming up Bermuda was a weed.” Dad was right, especially from the perspective of a vegetable garden.\n

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    Soaked, soaked, completely soaked cardboard weed barrier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
  5. Import organic, well-amended soil to begin an organic garden. It saves a lot of time and effort.\u00a0 I used Living Earth’s Vegetable Garden Mix, http:\/\/livingearth.net\/products-services\/products\/landscape-soil<\/a>.\u00a0 Another popular choice Soil Building Systems Organic Growers’ Mix http:\/\/www.soilbuildingsystems.com\/BeddingMixesData.php<\/a>#.\u00a0 It took about 1 cu. yd. for my two 48″ x 48″ x 10″ beds.\n

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    organic vegetable soil<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
  6. Make sure your beds are level.\u00a0 This will help with erosion by providing proper drainage. Notice I used stones on the front corners (my yard slopes away from the house)\u00a0to accomplish this. When you move in your soil, use 5-gallon buckets.\u00a0Take your time, being careful to not bump the bed off level. It helps to have 2-3 people hauling soil and 1 person spreading the soil in the bed. My wife\u00a0spread soil, while my sons and I hauled the soil in.\n

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    level beds filled w\/ organic vegetable soil<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
  7. Walking area around\/between beds (24″). Covered the cardboard with hardwood mulch to 1. choke out Bermuda and other weeds 2. retain water during dry periods 3. help to decompose cardboard thereby adding organic matter to the soil 4. provide soft walking\/kneeling media for gardening.\n

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    Ready to plant!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
  8. Added string sections as final preparation for planting.\n

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    Close-up of prepared bed.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you have any questions, let me know.\u00a0 Dirty hands!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I enrolled in the Citizen Gardner class which provided me with some excellent knowledge on installing a Raised Bed garden.\u00a0 I’d like to share my approach with this community.\u00a0 The first assumption is that you’ve built the raised bed already.\u00a0 If not, check out http:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/11\/how-to-build-a-citizen-gardener-raised-bed\/. Site Selection – Ideally, you want about 8 hours of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_glsr_average":0,"_glsr_ranking":0,"_glsr_reviews":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[115,34,33,114,116],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to","tag-cardboard","tag-citizen-gardener","tag-planning","tag-raised-beds","tag-soil"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1jPFc-7u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":504,"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northtexasvegetablegardeners.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}