Raised Bed Recipe

Thanks to Steve Schultz for his raised bed "recipe."

Ingredients for 4 x 8 raised bed (makes one bed)
6 5/4”x6”x8’ cedar decking (referred to by builders as “five-quarter decking”)
.5 4”x4”x8’ (you get 2 beds out of one of these pieces)
32 2.5” deck screws (these are sold in 1 and 5 pound boxes; I think you get about 2 and a half beds per pound)
Procedure
Cut two of the pieces of decking in half (4’ lengths). Pre-drill two holes in each end of all 8 boards. The holes should be just big enough for a deck screw to pass through without grabbing. In the short ones (4’) drill the holes 1.75” from the end. In the long ones (8’) drill the holes 2.75” from the end. Cut the 4x4 into 11” lengths.
Lay 2 4x4 pieces on a flat surface like a driveway or deck, four feet apart from each other. Use 8 deck screws to attach two 4-foot boards to the corner posts. Try to make it square, so the boards are at right angles to the posts.
Repeat for two other posts and two other short boards.
Stand the two short ends on their edges parallel to each other and 8 feet apart. Use 8 screws to attach two long boards to the short end assemblies. It might help to have a second person to help hold things in place. Repeat for the other side.
Carry into place and fill with good soil or mixture of peat moss, vermiculite and compost!

The pictures are one completed bed ready to position and fill and the ingredients for the second on the porch.

Is anyone hearing the question "What are these wood boxes I'm seeing all over Princeton?"

Happy Gardening!

TwoGardeners

Time to Garden

Hello again Lawn to Food participants (and to those who just want to see how we grow)!

We had a long winter and now we are planting early crops and planning for the heat lovers.
Last fall, we smothered an area in our front yard for a future vegetable patch. At that point we weren't planning on raised beds. In the meantime WEC and Lawn to Food have made raised beds available so we are joining in. Ours is located in that front yard seen in a previous entry. Raised bed gardening is a completely new experience for us. We'll all learn together!

Speaking of learning - be sure to keep Dorothy and Fran's Lawn to Food brochure handy. There's a wealth of very practical information in there.

For more detailed reading our standbys are The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith, Rodale's All New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, and The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch. All three offer a good common sense approach to gardening issues. A new addition to our list is All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. This is another practical gardening book written specifically for the raised bed gardener.

There is always something new to learn as we garden. Enjoy the excitement and experience of growing some of your own food!

TwoGardeners
(aka Merrie and Paul)

Fall and Winter Ideas

What do gardeners do when the weather isn't conducive to working outside? We read. We plan. We remember how great the last garden was. Here are two books that have inspired us and we hope others will suggest their own favorites.

"The Earth Knows My Name" by Patricia Klindienst is a series of interviews with a very diverse group of gardeners. These people have worked the land for generations and have a respect for the Earth that most in our nation do not. They shared their stories, sometimes reluctantly, with the author to create one amazing book. Excellent gift idea!

"In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan is another good choice. Once you've read this one, you'll be ready to go outside and start your garden. Real food from the garden will be the reward for your efforts. Also, if you Google Michael Pollan you can read his numerous articles related to food in America.

There are many "how-to" gardening books available at the library and bookstores. We'll talk about some of our favorites in a future post.

Happy reading!
Twogardeners

Master Gardeners of Mercer County - A Great Resource!

The Mercer County Master Gardeners of Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County is a group of volunteers who provide horticultural information and programs to the community. Trained by faculty and staff of Cook College, Rutgers University, and by horticultural experts, the Master Gardeners are knowledgeable about a wide range of gardening subjects. Help hotline #: (609) 989-6853.

Photo Gallery

Starting your own Lawn to Food Garden

First, locate a suitable area. South facing is best but a fairly open area without too many obstructions (trees and buildings) is fine. A vegetable garden is most productive in full sun.

Our choice for the Lawn to Food project is a 10x15 plot in our front yard. It's the sunniest area on our property. Once you have chosen the lawn that will become food, be realistic about the size you can manage. Gardening is supposed to be an enjoyable experience rather than an overwhelming one. Now is the time to begin. Follow our easy steps to get your garden going.

Eliminating the present lawn is the next step. Mow the designated area as low as your mower will go. Remove any other vegetation (we had some flowers). When starting a new garden, we take a few samples of the soil and send them for testing. Local extension services and universities process them for a small fee. The analyses are helpful when it's time to add amendments (organic material, minerals, fertilizers). A few years back, we had a result that said we had almost nothing in our soil.

Here's a step the kiddies might enjoy. Soak your recycled newspapers (no glossy inserts) in a container of water until saturated. Wet paper smothers the grass better and doesn't fly away while you are working with it. Using an 8-10 page thickness cover the entire area overlapping edges so no grass is visible. We had some leftover compost in the garage so we threw that on top of the paper. The next layer will be hay/straw or weedblock. Weedblock comes in 3x50 foot rolls. Roll it out, cut to fit, and hammer in garden staples. Be sure to overlap the edges. Hay/straw also works. To kill some nasty weeds, we used "books" of hay, that's the sections in each bale. Be generous with your layer of hay/straw. This will overwinter until the soil can be worked in the Spring.

We are twogardeners and we have been asked to document the process of starting a home vegetable garden for the Lawn to Food project. Our gardening experience includes 10 years in a community garden and many years on a city lot with less than full Sun. Although flowers did fine in the yard, vegetables did not. And we wanted vegetables. Now, we have an opportunity to change a small patch of lawn in our front yard to a home vegetable garden. (The demise of a neighbor's maple tree has given our front yard more sun.) We will be posting some pictures documenting the step by step elimination of our lawn plus other ideas that have helped us to continue to "grow" as gardeners. There is no one right way to do this. Every gardener is free to experiment and enjoy the experience is her/his own way.

We hope you'll visit us regularly.

Twogardeners