Innovative Raised Beds
I burned my pinky cooking butternut squash tacos last night and it hurts to type. So instead of writing a longer post, I thought I’d share a photo of my traditional raised beds built from recycled cedar fencing (top) and some alternative raised bed ideas I discovered at The Garden for the Environment in San Francisco. They include a curvilinear bed made of woven branches, a bed delineated with roofing tiles, an ornamental border framed up with recycled concrete, and a tall raised bed that is accessible to people with mobility limitations.
November 18, 2008
i love the roofing tiles. Bamboo Gardens has some pretty cool roofing tile bed edging that i’ve wanted to repeat (dare I say copy) many times. My problem has been finding roofing tiles at an affordable price and quantities that make sense. I suppose a recycling shop/website will be my best bed. Roofing suppliers have huge minimums!
Oh, and when you’re feeling better I want that taco recipe. I have several winter squash to cook and have been looking for the right recipe. I’m kind of bored with soups and stews at the moment. Tacos sound fantastic though!
November 18th, 2008 at 11:47 amI heard someone on KUOW talk about using wine bottles for raised beds today, Nov. 18, I think between 10 & 11 a.m. I can’t find anything here. Can anyone help me? skick@rockisland.com
November 18th, 2008 at 6:40 pmHere’s a link to a raised bed made of wine bottles. The idea behind the bed is that the air inside the bottles heats up and the heat transfers to the soil:
November 20th, 2008 at 12:28 pmhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/kuow/3030799656/in/set-72157603999625639/
[...] Innovative Raised Beds – So instead of writing a longer post, I thought I’d share a photo of my traditional raised beds built from recycled cedar fencing (top) and some alternative raised bed ideas I discovered at The Garden … [...]
November 21st, 2008 at 7:37 amHi Willie,
December 15th, 2008 at 3:26 pmYour soil look so lush & fertile. Don’t think it’s the existing soil.
May I know what kind of soil you put in your raised beds & do you
amend the soil? Others mulch their beds, do you?
Hi, Lily! We filled our beds with Cedar Grove Vegetable Garden Mix (http://www.cedar-grove.com/products/veg_gardenmix.asp) and mixed in a 2-inch layer of compost before planting. In summer I mulch with organic grass clippings and I planted crimson clover as a cover crop this fall.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:34 pmYour cedar beds don’t look very deep. Is the base (under dirt) cedar as well? I love
March 27th, 2009 at 4:17 pmthe idea of using old fence boards,ours are 20 years old so even though they were treated the
they should be fine.
Candi
I just created a raised bed using traditional hardscape 8″ border stones for the curvy parts and used cinder blocks in between for the long straight runs. I filled the cinder blocks with pacific topsoil’s 3 way mix and have planted lettuce and cilantro in the small spaces. It really turned out nice and I will share photos as soon as something green sprouts
I do have a question regarding vertical gardening. Do you know of any sources or ideas on this subject? I noticed it is becoming quite popular at the Flower and Garden show this year. Several exhibits had vertical wall displays with living plants. My question pertains more to utilitarian vertical gardening rather than the more aesthetically pleasing versions displayed at the show. I can’t think of a cooler idea for maximizing usable space as well as benefits for wheelchair bound gardeners.
April 28th, 2009 at 1:16 pmWhere is the picture using the bottles for framing the raised bed? I have 3 cartons of green glass water bottles and would love to use them inmy new beds, but how? Thank you
March 14th, 2010 at 12:34 pmNice woven branch raised bed, interesting!
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:32 pm.-= Priscilla Prince´s last blog ..My Cute Veggie Patch =-.