Planning my Spring Raised Bed Garden
One of the keys to a successful garden is to plan ahead and know what you are going to do before you do it. I like to start planning for the next season about 3-4 months ahead of time as I like to tinker with the plans as time goes on. So today I started to plan for my Spring Garden (I plan to build it in late January and start to plant in late February). Here is the first sketch:
Details:
Small Boxes to the East
The back two raised beds with the lattices will be for one row of pole beans in the back and one row of bush beans in the front. I plan to plant Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans and Blue Lake Bush in the South box and Purple Pole Beans and Purple Bush Beans in the North Box. South Large Box Both large raised beds will be 8-12’ long and 4’ wide. In the south box I plan on planting quite a large verity of fruits and vegetables. I don’t have a list yet but I plan on including such things as peppers, beats, onions, strawberries and a few herbs.
North Large Box
This box I plan on keeping many types of leafy greens, a few verities of lettuce, spinach, kale, chard and maybe some mustard. I will also grow some broccoli and cauliflower here.
The Hanging Wire
I plan on hanging 6-8 5 gallon buckets from this set up and growing a few tomatoes out of the bottom of the buckets. While the tomatoes grow out of the bottom I will be growing complementary herbs out of the top. I have never grown my tomatoes upside down, but this could be an easy way to save space and still get a nice yield! All plans are subject to change (and probably will).
What are your plans?
Related posts:
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I’ll be very interested in seeing how your buckets of tomatoes and herbs work. Sounds like fun.
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Last spring I tried both tomato and green peppers in upside down buckets. The tomato stalks were thick, leaves green. But fruit produced but never rippened. Green peppers grew but plant wasnt full and fruits were very small. Im attempting it again this week but going to try a new location with more sun. This is my second year gardening, so Im still in the learning process.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Great site! Added to favorites.
Janine
from Daytona
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I just found your blog. though you are in FLa and I’m in VA I’ve earmarked your blog to follow this season. This is my 3rd year with raised beds. 1st year way too raing, last year not a drop of rain in 3 months…we’re on a well so hose watering is out…my stuff grew beautifully but no veggies produced…this year I’ve added tons of llama “poop” and started working it in last fall. I hope we BOTH get good produce this year! Good Luck!
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