Vegetable gardening in raised beds ... advice?

[dud]

Spring is still a way off but I am starting to prepare for the spring and gardening. I plan to build two raised beds approximately 8 feet long each. These will be very small and with space at a premium I am looking for advice on preparing the soil (sandy) and what vegetables to grow in such a small area. Our current preferences are grape tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. What else would you plant?

Any advice on prepping the soil would be appreciated ...

 

[cabri]

First, talk to the local county extension service.

They will have the know how to guide you on everything from A-Z

 

[iamwiz82]

My garden has 6 8'x4'x1' raised beds. I buy my soil from a local greenhouse. Every year I till and add more as necessary. Keep in mind that you are potentially talking about quite a lot of soil. You will want to prepare for that delivery and/or picking it up yourself. Each one of my beds holds over 1 cubic yard.

One Zucchini plant will feed a small army. We grow parsley, tomatoes, onions (though this is a space hog for you), potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, herbs of all sorts, etc.

 

[NoTine42]

Organic matter (compost/manure) is usually a good bet. Soil drains too fast? Add organic matter to help retain some moisture. Clay soil that doesn't drain? Add organic matter so water doesn't stop.

If you want super easy, just dig out a 1' cube and replace with Miracle Grow garden mix.

Lettuce seeds can be planted super early (just sprinkle them on the snow) but generally get bitter in summer heat.

I would add a few larger tomatoes (at least Roma). And when you plant tomatoes, bury them a few more inches, the stems will grow roots (most plants don't like that, but tomatoes love it)

Cucumber and zucchini are super easy to grow (people that grow them are usually trying to give them away)

A border of marigolds around the edge of the beds can help reduce some pests.

 

[Leymenaide]

The John Innes soil mix
2 parts loam
1 part peat moss
1 part clean sand
to each cubic yard of mix add
2 lb superphosphate and
1 lb ground limestone

Best modern store mix Pro grow BX a basic starting mix that can be enhanced with pearlite sand and pine bark mulch to pretty much fulfill any need.

In a new raised bed I would use Pro Mix with some pine bark mulch. makes life easy.
I am a member of the National Garden Writers association and a published author.

I do not know where you live but the garden I like the most is the one I plant late August and September for fall and winter harvest.
Corn salad
radish and all sorts of lettuce
almost no weads almost no work.

 

[skyking]

I amend the soil with aged manure and straw. The straw improves drainage.
Another suggestion is these simple inline timers.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Orbit-1-Port-Single-Dial-Timer-62056/100126132?N=5yc1vZc63j
I set them up with a standard small drip irrigation kit, and then adjust things till the moisture is right. Lets you get away for a few days in the middle of summer with no worries.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Piss all over your tomatoes. Thank me later.

 

[Brovane]

Spring is still a way off but I am starting to prepare for the spring and gardening. I plan to build two raised beds approximately 8 feet long each. These will be very small and with space at a premium I am looking for advice on preparing the soil (sandy) and what vegetables to grow in such a small area. Our current preferences are grape tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. What else would you plant?

Any advice on prepping the soil would be appreciated ...

Have you looked at the resources on square foot gardening?

http://squarefootgardening.org/

 

[Kaido]

Spring is still a way off but I am starting to prepare for the spring and gardening. I plan to build two raised beds approximately 8 feet long each. These will be very small and with space at a premium I am looking for advice on preparing the soil (sandy) and what vegetables to grow in such a small area. Our current preferences are grape tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. What else would you plant?

Any advice on prepping the soil would be appreciated ...

Check out container gardening (especially using self-watering pots) & vertical veg. Also check out DIY outdoor hydroponic towers. I have a thread from about a year ago discussion growing your own food if you're up from some reading here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2361702

DrPizza needs to chime in, he grows a truckload of stuff as well :thumbsup:

 

[Kaido]

Oh also, good resource for growing tomatoes:

http://joehewitt.com/

 

[tsiunltdus]

My sister not on made raised garden beds but used the flower pots with the larger openings for planting a lot of her vegetables. Worked out real good for her and she had plenty of produce to freeze and can.

 

[slag]

Spring is still a way off but I am starting to prepare for the spring and gardening. I plan to build two raised beds approximately 8 feet long each. These will be very small and with space at a premium I am looking for advice on preparing the soil (sandy) and what vegetables to grow in such a small area. Our current preferences are grape tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. What else would you plant?

Any advice on prepping the soil would be appreciated ...

I did just this last year. I created a large raised bed with 2x6 boards and used 4x4 square posts on the inside corners to bind the 2x6's together and to use as a place to put the bird netting. It worked great. We had onions, carrots, 8 tomato plants, cukes along the garden fence, 4 bell pepper plants, and a few cantalopes that never matured because I neglected to water them.