Welcome
back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. Today’s post covers a topic that was discussed
last week at the online meeting of a group I am in called Sustainable Neighbors.
There is a link at the end of this post that covers how you can sign up and
attend these meetings online but also once this pandemic business is over with
there will be a formal meeting place and time posted here on LITFM. There is a
pretty big announcement this week as the 10th Annual Botanical Test
Gardens are going to have the spring tour as planned. The tour is on the 19th
of April which is just two weeks away. The address of the tour will be provided only
to those that RSVP so if you are in the Fayetteville area on that day between 2
and 6pm, you might want to add this tour to your to do list.
Now,
before anyone asks the tour has been extended by an hour so that anyone wishing
to attend whom is practicing social distancing and can space out their visit
and the tour doesn’t have more than ten people at any given time. As with every
year I will special stuff on hand for sale and you are going to see some
horticultural stuff you might not be used to.
Since
the big event is covered let’s get onto the main topic of the day, Raised Beds.
Last week in our Sustainable Neighbors meeting we discussed what a raised bed
was and wasn’t and I used photos of raised beds in the test gardens to
illustrate the point. In today’s blog post that will be covered but this is
more of a how to post rather than a quantified post. So to start off, what is a raised bed? Well
the simplest definition is that a Raised Bed is a garden bed that uses a
walling material to raise the internal soil level and or grade through
artificial means above whatever the native soil level is. This means that if
you create a rectangular bed and use treated lumber to elevate the soil level
that is a raised bed, but also if you use railroad ties to create a terrace in
the side of a hill that is also a raised bed. Stacking tires and filling them
with soil or cutting the bottom out of an old wash basin or tub and filling
that with soil also counts as a raised bed. How you raise the soil level is largely open
and limited by your imagination, implementation, budget and materials on hand.
Those who know me and have seen the test garden have found out that I prefer
brick and stone, but that’s largely because they were at varied times the cheapest
alternative. So with the basis of raised beds covered, let’s move on to how to
build one.
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| The original bed as seen in summer of 2019. |
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| The land is first cleared and the granite rocks (walling material) is placed to establish the shape of the raised bed and work out any problems with the design early on. Newspaper weighted down by smaller rocks is applied as a weed blocking mulch on the internal areas of the raised bed to be. |
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| The first step was to collect the materials and lay out the white granite border. As you can see there is newspaper, a large tote full of Black Kow, and I've already dug out a shallow one foot deep trench. Half the excavated soil was added to the compost bin. |
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| The Black Kow and remaining native soil are mixed and blended so that it can be reapplied as nutrient-dense sub-soil to feed the plants that will be planted shortly. |
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| The actual top soil is a mix of native soil and potting soil to encourage strong feeder root systems. This mixture is the top two inches of the overall soil mix. |
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| The newspaper is placed and weighed down with small rocks so that it can act as a temporary weed blocking mulch. The other side will receive the newspaper covering shortly. |
Building a raised bed is only as complicated as you decide it has to be. The above series of pictures shows the expansion of an existing raised bed as part of a integrated plan to build what will eventually be a windbreak that produces edible crops and or a food source for pollinators. As of the time of this writing no additional plants have been planted in the bed, but this is going to change shortly and you can bet the pictures will be up here.
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| Iris spuria - Beardless Iris, This one was not easy to nail down the exact breed of, but after a few years and hitting up Iris growers with pictures, this is a yellow Spuria Iris, though their more famous name is 'Blue Iris' as most of the varieties are, you guessed it blue. I have one specimen int he gardens and it's everything my traditional Bearded Irises are not. The foliage isn't at all similar and to an untrained eye might be mistaken for a wild onion. |
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| Rosa rugosa - Beach Rose, Beach roses are the toughest rose you can get, but their large single blooms are still something to write home about. This specimen started as a underground runner that somehow navigated thirty feet of lawn, through the root mass of a dogwood to appear in a garden bed a few years ago and I let it stay because it was so remarkable. I think the fact it's in shade most of the time is the only thing that keeps it in check. |
With
all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to
advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably
don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover
the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research &
Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the
backbone of this blog. Also, as of the
start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the
acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With
that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and
fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell
Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on
Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look
for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
Plants
& Stuff Available Now:
Food
Plants:
Celery, Tango: $3.00
Lettuce, Buttercrunch Bibb: $3.00
Lettuce, Cherokee: $3.00
Lettuce, Reckless Fire: $3.00
Lettuce, Red Parris Island Romaine:
$3.00
Rhubarb, Victoria: $3.00
Swiss Chard, Bright Lights Mix:
$3.00
Tomato, Cherokee Purple: $3.00
Tomato, Chocolate Cherry: $3.00
Tomato, Pink Accordion: $3.00
Tomato, Sweet Thousands: $3.00
Herbs:
Herb, Black Fennel: $3.00
Herb,
Common Sage: $3.00
Herb, Tansy: $3.00
Herb, Cuban Oregano: $3.00
Ornamental
Plants:
Abutilon
‘Orange Hot Lava’: $4.00
Coming
Soon:
Castor
Bean, Impala
Castor
Bean, Zanzibar
Chia
Cotton,
Erlene’s Green
Cotton,
Mississippi Brown Lint
Cotton,
Red-Foliated White
Datura,
Black Currant Swirl
Henna
Lemon
Grass
Lupine
Pepper,
Paisila Bajio
Pepper,
Shishito
Pepper,
Hungarian Paprika
Roselle
Tomatillo
Due
to the current Covid-19 situation and the state’s requirement that all citizens
are not to gather in groups of more than ten, the weekly Sustainable neighbors
meeting is online. Please check the sustainable neighbors Meetup.com page for
more info about how to attend our online meeting.
https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/
Since
our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or
join anything, you can come on in and join the meetings. If not, you can always
send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market.
This
brings to a close the seventh LITFM post of 2020; stay tuned the next episode
which should be posted on the 17th of April. There will be more
garden updates and other cool stuff.
