JTCM05 "What size are the beds and what size lumber did you use?"

I used 2x6s stacked on top of each other.

WENDEYZEE"When will you plant, and do you grow your own starts, whatÂs your veggie plan?"

I have already started planting, the peas ,beets, lettuce ,broccoli ,kohlrabi ,dandelions ,bok choi, cabbage ,Swiss chard are starting to come up. Yes I do grow my own starts they are in the cold frame, Inside my house under lights and in the greenhouse

SOLANA"How did you attach the horizontal runs of conduit at the top of the fence to the uprights?

Well I weaved the horizontal runs of conduit in and out of the chicken wire ,then I attached the chicken wire with lath to the base of the beds ,then I pulled up the horizontal conduit on to the vertical conduit and its so tight that it dosent fall off

ArenÂt the font colors nice. :)

Originally posted by john13:
ArenÂt the font colors nice.

The forum has no "Quote" feature of any kind, so we all have to sort of improvise. Maybe some day they'll switch to something like vBulletin. ;)

Really nice! Wish I was half that organised!

Those are some beautiful beds. My husband built some last year and we added heighth this year so I can sit. My question is... Do you grow tomatoes? Are they overbearing? What about green beans? Are they pole? It felt like it became to crowded last year. I mix mulch from my mulch beds and top soil. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated?
Thanks,
Pat

What kind of lumber? Treated/Cedar/or some sort of pine?

PAT123_PA "Those are some beautiful beds. My husband built some last year and we added height this year so I can sit. My question is... Do you grow tomatoes? Are they overbearing? What about green beans? Are they pole? It felt like it became to crowded last year. I mix mulch from my mulch beds and top soil. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated?

This is my second year of gardening but I started last year when I was 13 so I donÂt have that much gardening wisdom. I built the beds this winter so I donÂt know if the tomatoes overbear but I will see this year. The tomatoes are inside the house growing under lights and I am home schooling so IÂm able to be home to take care of my garden. The green beans are going to be pole and bush.

The lumber is ceder deck boards.

Very impressive!

Thank you all for your kind comments.

*shakes head in disbelief* Wow! I am speechless... okay not really but definately impressed. I am going to bookmark this page and make hubby look at it for "improving" my garden next year. Very very nice! Is the garden for a homeschooling project? I am sure that you will get an A if it is! Thank you are sharing your pictures and for letting everyone pick your brain for details!

BLUEJEAN "Is the garden for a homeschooling project?"

No itÂs just something I like to do.

But I am learning a lot.

What are you using for the hoophouse construction (and parts list ).

It looks like PVC underneath. What and from where is the plastic?

I'd love to drop something like this over my raised beds; my beds are constructed from white vinyl to match the fence so I don't have the wide surface of the decking on which to rest the pvc.

Thanks in advance.

Andrew

ANDYINNYC "What are you using for the hoophouse construction (and parts list )."

Well I just drilled 1/2 inch holes in the top of the 1 1/2 part of the 2x6 and put the pvc in the holes then connected the plastic to the box (Not the beds) with lath. The plastic is just normal 6 mil clear it will probaly last for 2 years because i'm going to bring the box inside

3 10 ft pvc pipe
lath
plastic I dont know how much
three hinges
and I think thats all.

John

You also want to put the holes(For the pipe) on the inside.

John, very nice setup; I have similar planter boxes, but not nearly as nice. I also use conduit pipes for framing and overhead support. checkout http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j187/dee70/doubledeck.jpg to see how I'm doubling my growing area.

-s

Here's sunnym's photo:
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Do the plants underneath get enough light?

r.e. enuf lite, I'll find out this summer. My backyard generally gets 12-14 hrs of sunlite during the summer (san Jose, CA). note the pic was taken at nite and in the middle of winter right after I finished putting the 2nd floor addition. Actually the 2nd floor addition was made because my wife complains she wants more space for flowers instead of tomatoes!!

WOWZA!

You have done yourself proud John13! Since I have a 13yo daughter I have to ask...did you have to earn the money to build this yourself? My daughter and I garden together. She does the heavy stuff my back can't take and in return I foot the bill for the stuff we need to garden with. I'm very curious as to where you got some of your ideas from? And did you have adult help in construction? Or are you a master with power tools as well? Very very nice garden John!

MeMo

MEMO "I'm very curious as to where you got some of your ideas from? And did you have adult help in construction? Or are you a master with power tools as well?
Well I got some of my ideas from tons of books I got from the library and from me. My dad helped me flatten the garden out with our front end loader while I did the laser level. Then I cut the boards and made the box's put them in place and pounded the stakes in and leveled the boxes up or down with the laser and screwed them to the stakes. Then we filled them up with 1/2 soil 1/4 compost 1/4 vermiculite. Then I did the rest myself. As for the money my dad helped me buy the vermiculite but I bought the rest with money I had gotten from selling veggies last year in the old garden .

I guess i'm pretty good with power tools.

You are at that!

What sort of tools were used to flatten the conduit that you screwed to the bottom of the frame? Are the bends fairly uniform? How did you achieve that? I can imagine that if they aren't it could be a problem to have edges sticking out since they are along a path....one might catch their ankles on any protusions. At least I am clumsy enough to catch my ankles on things like that lol.

Is it feasible to make a hoop house over a bed using metal conduit and applying it in the same way you did for the fence braces? Or perhaps it's not possible to bend the metal type far enough to make a hoop?

I like your ideas. I live on a farm in the midwest and recently lost my job in town. I'm thinking forward to starting a small scale buisiness that would include a farmers market, possibly a flea market and further down the road maybe some craft and woodworking consignments. I'm going to need some sturdy hoop houses to start annuals, perennials and vegetables in. I don't think plastic conduit would hold up to the never ending wind we have here. What are your thoughts please? You can email me if you'd care to.

MeMo

John, it looks like you will have a gorgeous garden! I would be impressed in any case but the fact that you are a teenager really wows me. It's actually got me thinking more about doing something similar when we move to our little farm in a few years. I've always liked the look of a fairly informal garden but each spring is a lot of physically demanding work. I would think yours will be much easier to care for now that the intial set-up is done. My back is thinking it is a very good idea;) The fencing would help solve some of the critter issues I know we will have too. Great job. Lori

Great layout,I"d like to see the outcome.

IM so jealous! I just have a little tiny garden, but then im a first-timer - I aspire to what your doing there !!!

MEMOIs it feasible to make a hoop house over a bed using metal conduit and applying it in the same way you did for the fence braces? Or perhaps it's not possible to bend the metal type far enough to make a hoop?

I think metal conduit would work great, my next hoop houses i'm going to make will be with metal conduit. One idea i did have is just make hoops out of 10 ft conduit and just push then into the ground.âº

John

What about using rebar to stake the sides of the wood frames leaving a portion of it exposed (sticking up) enough to slip the conduit over the rebar stakes? There would be very little chance of the wind catching the plastic cover and "pulling" the conduit out of the ground that way. Also there would be no opposing pressure to pop the conduit out of the ground.

MeMo

Amazing garden set up, regardless of the age of the gardener. You really did your planning and prep. I can't wait to see it with the veggies bursting out of the ground.

The garden is half way planted, so i'm going to take some more pic's tomorrow.

Here are the new pic's.
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Wonderful! Here's to another succesful year!!

MeMo

Looks great John, just love what you have done there. What's the little flowering tree near the middle? A cherry? It's pretty.

How did you post the pics?

No its a apple tree.

Your boxes are the perfect dimensions for square foot gardening - have you ever tried that? I love your set-up - I wish I had the room for all that!

Originally posted by saly:
How did you post the pics?

Unfortunately, there's no real mechanism or support for posting pictures here at GardenWeb. A shame since I think a lot of people would post great pictures if this were available.

If you have your own webhost, put the photo there. If you don't, get an account at PhotoBucket. Once you have the link to your photo, post it like this:

<img src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c248/mermet/greenhouse/27a79699.jpg">;

which will turn into this when you post it:

{{gwi:36364}}

gardening_in_va

I'm thinking to do one bed to try it out.

Feldon

How do you do this

Originally posted by saly:
How did you post the pics?

John

Feldon

How do you do this

Originally posted by saly:
How did you post the pics?

John

Hi,

I was wondering how your gardening season went in the new garden and if you have any photos?

:-)

Prairiemoon, I was thinking the same thing. Also, DH wanted to know what type of lumber was used if that hasn't already been asked. I was just thinking yesterday about this young man's garden and how I wanted to emulate it. I was curious about the expected lifetime of the wood and how often you might need to replace everything, of course depending on climate and all that. Lori

Well IÂm thinking that the wood will last for about 5 years. This year went pretty good some plants kind of got to big and fell into the paths so I couldnÂt really mow it so it doesnÂt look as good right now but stuff is dying down now so IÂm going to be able to mow it pretty soon I havenÂt really taken any pics this year throughout the season, sorry :(

Yes, Lori, I agree, outstanding job.

Hi John...

It is a very impressive set up for a garden. Really like the way you thought it out and had the fence all around and the hoop house for cooler weather. Looks like you had plenty of plans for climbers like cukes, etc. NO photos!!? LOL Well, maybe next year. :-)

Also, soon the growing season will be winding down and at some point when you have a chance to think about how the gardening year went, maybe you could update us. I would be very interested to know how your plan and design worked out for you. Did you have success with the trellis ideas for climbers? Did the paths stay weed free? Did the fence keep out what you were trying to keep out? Are you planning to use the hoop house as the weather gets colder?

As for wood for the raised beds. I tried to switch over to cinder block raised beds, but after making one, I decided I just didn't like it as well. So I made 4 small 4x4 beds out of 2x12" pine boards. Pretty thick, and I hope they will last me awhile. I would have liked to use something better, like cedar etc that would be more rot resistent, but way too expensive. I would have liked to take the time to line it with plastic or something to try to extend the life of it keeping the soil from contacting as much, but I just couldn't take that much time to do it. So...that is what I did.

Looks like a lot of work, but hope you enjoyed your first season growing in it. :-)

John,
gardening is one huge experiment. I think every gardener strives to impove over the previous year. I have learned to plan next years garden each fall and to make notes in my garden book of what worked and what didn't. The secret is to remember to read my notes in the spring when I am eager to get things going again.

Myself,
I prefer to have at least 4ft between beds, so when things a growing good there is room to move and harvest or get a wheel barrow down the paths.

Also I prefer not to have anything to mow between the beds. Less work, plus I think mowing tends to blow (weed) seeds into the beds. I use leaves to help keep the paths weed free. Don't forget the roots will extend out into the pathways too. The leaves bring plenty of worms to feed those roots.

Hold your head high, as mentioned above you have done a very impressive job.

Keep up the good work.
Gumby_CT

Here is a link that might be useful: ROOT DEVELOPMENT

Well I donÂt really like to take notes on paper but I do take then in my mind so I do sorta take them. I have learned a lot this year for next year and I think I'll take more pics next year, I hope as good as Gonefishing's ;)
And thanks for all you kind compliments.

John

...and I think I'll take more pics next year...

Ready and waiting!

;)