Vince has been working the last two days to get two more raised beds built. They look so nice and I am so happy to have them.
He still has to line them and fill the with the garden mix. I like to use close to equal parts raised bed soil, peat and composted cow manure. Vince said he can have the bed on the right filled with dirt today. I like to let it all sit through at least a couple of rains for the dirt to settle. I often have to add more soil and it’s much better to do that before planting.
The bed on the left is on a pretty good slope so Vince has to do some “engineering” to get it level. Also, he dug holes in front of that one and will put posts in concrete, then put wire fencing up and I’ll have a trellis. I’ll probably plant snow peas on it for now. Then, in the spring, I’ll plant loofah. That needs a very strong support. I may put a straw bale or two in front of the wire and grow cucumbers in them.
Last year I stuck rhubarb everywhere. It’s in the front beds, the side beds, the back beds, in with the asparagus. As soon as Vince gets that one bed ready to plant, I’m going to dig up some of the rhubarb, for sure what’s in the asparagus bed, and transplant it to the new bed. I’ll probably dig up what’s in the back bed and transplant it too. It hasn’t been very happy in that back bed.
Garlic is a good companion plant for rhubarb. I can plant garlic after the first frost so I’ll add it to the rhubarb bed. I have to make the best use of my space.
Within the next couple of weeks, I’ll pull the eggplants. They’re in a 4′ x 4′ raised bed that has a fixed bottom and I’m going to transplant the horseradish to that bed. It can be invasive but with that bed having a solid bottom, that’s my best bet at keeping the horseradish contained.
With the two new beds, I will have five 4′ x 8′ beds and four 4′ x 4′ beds. Of course, I wish I had more but that’s about all I have time to care for.
coursey nelle says
Looks great!
Dottie says
They look GREAT!
Sandi B says
Judy, I’m sure you’ve shared this before, but what kind of garlic do you grow? And, where do you like to order your garlic from?
I planted some last year that I had gotten from a friend. One variety came up and thrived. One variety came up, but died early on. (Probably happened while we were gone this summer.)
judy.blog@gmail.com says
For years I ordered from Hood River Garlic. In Texas, we would plant 300 to 400 and we bought probably 99% of our garlic from them. Are you in growing zone 6b or 7? I think you’re in 6b which is the same thing I’m in. The advice from experts is to grow hardneck in zones 1-6 and to grow softneck in zones 7- 10. Honestly, where you and I are located, I think we could grow both just fine unless it was one of those winters where we had several nights in a row with the temps down in the -20’s.
This year I ordered German Extra Hardy Garlic from Baker Creek/Rare Seeds It arrived yesterday. They are out of stock now but you can sign up to be notified when they get more and they are trying to get more.
Also, it wouldn’t hurt to buy some grocery store garlic and plant it. You never know what you’re going to get but I bought some nice bulbs at Natural Grocery and will plant those when I plant my other garlic.
Sandi B says
Thank you! We’re 6b also.