Tag Archives: raised bed

Comparison of new soil with old soil

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I started off this year with an experiment of 2 identical raised beds. In one, I moved in garden soil from an established raised bed, and in the other, I filled with brand new soil mix from Living Earth. I planted 2 different varieties of onion on 2/2 and planted carrots, radish, lettuce, and beets on 2/6. We had pretty bad freezing weather for multiple days that killed a lot of the seedlings and about half of the onions. You can see in the picture how much better the oil soil performs. The new soil has a lot of wood bark in it, and that wood is tying up all the nitrogen while decomposing. I’ve added blood meal to help, but you can see what a difference in growth is between the two.

Hügelkulture Bed Created July 4, 2019

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Me, Aiden, and Bryson started moving all the tree trimmings in place to create a hugelkulture bed today. The wood is stacked 2 to 3 foot high, then I’ll add another 2-3 foot of soil on top of that.

Bryson and Aiden standing beside wood stacked up for new huglekulture bed
Starting to add soil to top of wood for huglekulture bed

Three New Raised Beds Created 3/2019

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With the help from a den of Cub Scouts, we set up 3 new raised beds.  They are 4′ x 4′ and made out of treated 2×12 lumber.  I filled them with planting mix from Texas Pure, which contains 50% compost, 25% sand and 25% top soil/loam.

  • Three new raised beds are in the foreground
  • Visual divider to show bed in square foot sections
  • New soil mix was added to existing bed
  • New soil mix was added to existing bed
  • New soil mix was added to existing bed

Hoop Shade Structure for Raised Beds

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Trying to get seeds to sprout in the August heat can be difficult.  The ground drys out faster because the protective mulch has to be moved out of the way exposing bare soil, and the sun is so oppressive that many plants won’t survive a day of full sun when they have just popped out of the ground.  A way to help is to provide shade.  If you are using wood-framed raised beds, this is pretty easy to do.

Use 3 pieces of 1/2″ PVC electrical conduit.  PVC water pipe is also usable, but the electrical conduit has the benefit of UV protection, so it should last a good bit longer.  Attach the ends of each pipe to an edge of your raised bed frame.  I just drilled holes in the pipe and used exterior screws.  Holes can also be drilled in a 2×4 to provide a hole for the pipe to sit in.  Lay a fabric such as burlap, greenhouse shade cloth, or window screen over the pipes and secure with zip ties, rope, or specially made snap clamps.

This hoop structure provides a way to provide shade in the summer and can also be used along with clear plastic to create a greenhouse in the winter.