I remember putting 4 tomatoes in a 3 by 8 ft bed, even that was crammed. He can't get that many cages in there can he? If it were me I'd just let em sprawl, but he doesn't know better yet. Plus my beds are 22 inches high.

BTW, kind of spendy mistake as the Bonnie plants go for $3.95 a piece at Walmart.

There are no cages or stakes or anything so maybe his intent is to let them sprawl. Looks like there's about 3 feet of chicken wire surrounding the bed and attached to the frame. I'm guessing that's there to keep their dog out of it.

Bonnie plants were $2 at HD last week, so I hope he got them there.

6" high and then he didn't fill it but left 2-3" unfilled? He is growing all these in only 3-4" of soil spread on top of sod? Yeah it will be interesting. Sad too.

Dave

Agree with Dave. Soil depth is the problem. !2 plants in 32 sqr-ft is like 2.7 per plant. You can manage it by good staking and some pruning. Not ideal but can be done.
Tomatoes need at least 12" deep good soil. My raised beds are 11" high but underneath is some half decent native soil that I have tilled and conditioned before filling in .. 6" is hardly enough for things like radish; hehe
Another possibility is that the grass might come up, depending on the grass variety.
Maybe you should talk to your neighbor and suggest her/him to double the height.
Sey

Exactly ... and we still have a couple of nights down in the 30's later this week on top of it all. I'd like to take a picture and post it but that might be a bit unethical.

I know most of us will make mistakes when first getting started and we'll learn from those mistakes, but this is a absolute classic example of how not to do it.

But after he realizes what a disaster this is, I'll keep him supplied with tomatoes over the summer and try to (gently) guide him in the right direction next year. Right now, I suspect he might think everything's going to work out fine and is excited about the prospects of a huge bounty.

Sey...

Everything's planted now, so I'm not sure how he'd manage to get any stakes set up. He won't be able to get the stakes through the sod and untilled layer below the bagged soil layer. Maybe hammer some rebar into the ground?

As Dave said, it is sad because if (or when) he fails, he might get discouraged from trying it again next year.

Ethical schmeshical. I want pictures.

You joke, but rebar makes for good stakes. It ties well, can't rot, lasts forever, costs 33 cents per foot in the half inch size, and is easy to attach mesh to. win-win-win.

I also picked up a $2 Bonnie plant at HD. Yellow Cherry Sun Sugar.

Yeah. This year HD was selling them @ $2 each vs. Bonnie price tag of $3.65. I also bought two: Big Beef and Indigo Rose. Not a bad price. I was at Whole Foods store. They had some very nice Heirlooms. But the price was toooo high : $7.25 .Because ther are ORGANICALLY GROWN ?haha. Who cares? You are not going to put them in your salad.

Wow, that is a lot for a tomato plant. I was emailing with the farm that supplies them in our area, they said they will have them at the Tacoma store when it opens in May. Did you see any interesting varieties? (I really shouldn't buy anymore! I have no more space.)

Whoops, I hijacked the thread. I, too, want to see pictures of this disaster of a raised bed!

Wormgirl,
Yeas they (WF) had a lot of good popular varieties. I re think they had hybrid too, like 4th of July.
The thread is already dealt with, I think. The neighbor is not going to get any benefit from it anyway. We hope nitsua does not mind us getting off the track.

Sey

No problem, Sey.

It might take a month or two before things start getting interesting regarding the neighbor's first garden.