Making A Raised Garden
Friday, September 18 by Hamish Dodd
G’day green fingers,
Hamish here. Thanks for joining me again.
This week we are constructing a raised garden bed from scratch and setting up a glasshouse in our inner city garden.
We built our raised bed using Macrocarpa logs. The reason we built them out of Macrocarpa is because it’s untreated timber. Treated timber, of course, has arsenic in it and we certainly don’t want this leeching into the soil. With the right tools and the right guys on the job we had this whipped up in two days.
We lined the inside of the raised bed with weed mat to help protect the timber from the soil touching it and stop the Macrocarpa rotting. We used stainless steel nails and stainless steel bolts so as they won’t rust over time, either. If you have the room this is a great way to grow vegetables and helps save you from back pain. Ours is particularly fancy, you could build something just as good in a shorter amount of time.
The Yates Gardening Guide on page 70 has step-by-step instruction and everything you’ll need to make your own no-dig garden. We filled our raised bed with Yates Potting mix to ensure the best quality soil. Remember, over time the soil in your raised bed will be stripped of its minerals, so you will need to treat the soil with Nature’s Way Bio-Gold pellets. If you’ve used the soil from your backyard to fill your raised bed, you’ll need to consider treating it, if clay, with Gro-Plus Dolomite lime, which will help to break down the clay and provide you with the nutrients, required to grow lush vegetables.
The great guys at Arthurs, who manufacture fantastic glass, shade and hot houses, have kindly supplied us with an awesome, ventilated glasshouse, complete with racking, for free. Cheers guys, for a small NZ business you’ve helped me out massively. Check them out at * www.arthurs.co.nz. The beauty of growing in a glasshouse – particularly if you’re going to have heat pads, like me, is you can grow whatever, whenever, however. Cool Kids Grow
Just because you are growing in a glasshouse doesn’t mean your produce will be free from pests and disease. The Yates Gardening Guide in chapter seven tells you all your need to know about pests and disease, including what to look out for, and how to deal with it.
My new favourite find is Tuscan Edge Self-watering pots. These pots are fabulous for time starved people who forget to water their plants, and people who don’t have large areas of space to work with i.e. people who live in apartments with small balconies. The smaller pots can even sit on your kitchen bench growing herbs to create culinary delights. I’m going to be using mine to grow tomatoes and lettuces. To test the various yields of my tomato plants, I’ll be placing one pot out in the garden, one pot in the glasshouse. The other pot I’ve given to my sister-in-law, so she can give it a grow, as well. I hope she doesn’t beat me!
Next week we talk more in detail about growing from seed. I’ll even break out my Give it a Grow kit from which I’ll be growing my tomatoes and lettuces. Yates is giving you the chance to win one of 150 gardening books with any purchase of Nature’s Way product between 1 September and 7 December. See instore for competition details.
Happy growing! Catch ya next week,
Hamish
“Back to blog >”:/hamish-dodd/
Comments (8)
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Sam
Yates site member
19:32, 20 September 2009
Great website. I'd like to win a prize!
Maggie
Yates site member
16:12, 22 September 2009
Wow, what a fantastic looking "back yard" - I can't wait to see it finished. By the way, I have a recipe for Loquat Pickles from Digby Law's wonderful Pickle and Chutney cookbook.These are sharp and excellent with lamb ahnd hogget particularly.The loquats must be ripe and unblemished. Once you have prepared the fruit, cover them with spiced vinegar, otherwise they discolour very quickly. You will require 2 and a half cups of white vinegar, 1 tbspn sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbspn peppercorns and of course ripe loquats. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar,salt and peppercorns. Bring to the boil, then strain and allow to cool. Prepare the loquats by trimming and removing the stones. Pack them fairly firmly into 500ml jars. As soon as the jar is full, cover it with the cold spiced vinegar. Shake out the air bubbles and add more vinegar, then seal. Let stand for about 1 week before using. Makes about 3 x 500ml jars. Hope this helps.
Jody
Yates site member
21:41, 22 September 2009
Love this site - great to see the glass house, it's a helpful nudge to get ours completed over summer. We have dug a huge hole in the ground for our 'heat sink' like on "it's not easy being green' and have the 3 walled second-hand frame and glass ready to put up as soon as the base is secure, the heat sink lined and filled and top soil covered. Still not sure what material to use as the 4th wall, bricks would look nice but too much work.
Corey
Yates site member
15:58, 28 September 2009
I have a green house with brick its good to look at but you need to spray weed killer if dirts around… Hope this helps you with your greenhouse…
rebecca
Yates site member
14:03, 23 September 2009
What is a heat sink please? Curious
Corey
Yates site member
15:56, 28 September 2009
Wow… Great “out of the box ideas” can someone tell me where to enter a promo code?
Hamish
Yates Garden Expert
10:17, 29 September 2009
Hi Rebecca
Sorry for the confusion – hope I didn;t do a typo! What I meant is a heat pad available from Pacific Growers or the Switched on Gardener – they are great for warming the roots of your seedlings and young plants to stimulate growth.
Janine
Yates site member
12:42, 07 October 2009
Hi Hamish, found out about the blog and the kids part in an education magazine and thought I would check it out. We are building raised beds at our school in the last few days of the school holidays and I am now reconsidering the design since seeing yours. I will definitely have the students keep an eye on your blogs and see/compare our results with yours… thanks
David
Yates site member
14:41, 10 March 2010
Hi, would it be ok to use old treated timber [the old wooden surround from bark adventure playground]. 10+ years old as a raised veggie garden edging. I’m trying to think of ways to recycle the old playground edging as well as a sustainable veggie garden project.
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