Have I mentioned in this space over the last eight years how downright hard it is to grow vegetables in the ground?
I know that may sound crazy, but just hear me out…
While humans have been been growing food directly in the ground since the beginning of time (or close to it), we started our growing adventures on a city lot in raised beds with hauled in soil…
A contained and largely controlled environment…
Which we totally took for granted until we moved out of the city and started growing in the ground with challenges like:
- Inconsistent water availability
- Weed seeds that hadn’t seen the light of day in ages
- Pest pressure, great and small, from above and below
Now, don’t get me wrong, having S P A C E to grow more food than we ever have before is such an amazing blessing and opportunity.
And also… 🙂
And so, this year we’ve decided to go back to our roots!
No, no… we’re not heading back to the city (I don’t think we ever want to live in a city again)!
We’re building a couple of covered raised beds in the Kitchen Garden to extend our growing season and protect against a few of our most pressing challenges (currently weeds and gophers).
And so we’ve secured the bottom of the bed with wire mesh and are hauling in just a bit of soil.
Each bed will be 8×3 feet and only 8 inches deep. Perfect for some little carrots, beets, all the greens, and maybe a few brassicas is I can get my sh*t together in short order.
With one bed built and planted out, I am beyond psyched to watch the first sprouts poke their little heads up and greet the late summer sun.
Now to build out the second bed and their respective lids before the temps drop.
Do tell, do you have plans for a few fall veggies?
xoxo,
M
I agree with you completely! We have been discussing raised beds, straw bale beds, anything other than in the ground. No gophers here, but the weeds are crazy. That said, our fall seeds are in the ground (since we never got around to doing anything other than discuss). Beets, radishes, lettuces, rapini, and broccoli this year.
That is such a great idea! I am a huge fan of raised beds, for all the reasons you mentioned. It is so much easier to control soil quality and ensure that specific crops get their needs met. I have some at the community garden plot I acquired this summer. The weather is slightly unpredictable here in the fall, but I’ve planted a fall garden with beets, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, celery, spinach, collard greens, and chard. I’m doing an experiment, I’ve planted the same veggies in two different places, in raised beds at the community plot, and in containers at my balcony. Looking forward top see where they thrive the most. The balcony is like a big sunroom and the community plot garden is on a south facing hill, but it can be rather windy, and then there’s the pests that I have a harder time keeping up with on the other end of the city. I do envision having a small place in the country one day, with a large area for raised beds, surrounded with berry bushes and fruit trees. (The most abundant crop this year so far is raspberries, they just keep coming.) Best of luck with your garden!