Planning a Vegetable Garden

Posts Tagged ‘Rocky Soil’

A raised bed vegetable garden is a good option for vegetable gardening in cooler climate zones, or any zone where you have a thin or rocky soil type.   The soil in raised beds warms up quicker, as well as provides more depth for rocky garden soil.

Raised beds are also good if your soil drains poorly.  Even an extra 6 or more inches of drainage in a raised bed can be the difference of your vegetables’ roots breathing or drowning.

Raised Bed Benefits

Do you want to grow bigger, healthier vegetables?  Would you like to be able to utilize better the space for the land you have (especially if you are doing small space vegetable gardening)?  If your answer is “Yes!”, then you should consider incorporating a raised bed design into your garden plot.

With a raised bed, the plant roots have extra room to grow and are more likely to produce a good harvest than vegetables grown in a crowded, shallow space.

Making a Raised Bed

To construct a raised bed vegetable garden you need the following:

• A raised frame (wood, rock or brick) to hold in the extra soil.
• Extra soil, which needs to be nice and loamy (check out the types of soil post for more information on loamy soil).

The width of the raised bed depends on how large you desire the garden to be.  A common height is between 12 to 21 inches, but it can be more or less (but no less than 6 inches).  For instance, some people like it knee height, others like it almost hip height, so they don’t have to bend over as much.

You can use regular garden dirt that has been mixed with amendments such as compost, peat moss, and manure for your raised bed soil.  If you have the money to do so, you can buy a combination of top soil and compost and fill the entire bed with it.  Unless you have a very small raised bed, though, that might get expensive.

FYI, your raised bed soil preparation involves raking the soil level.  This prevents low spots or places where the water can pool around the plant and thus hold excessive moisture. If after you water the first time you see depressed areas, you know you need to rake or even add more soil to those areas.

If you’re interested in making a raised bed, here are some raised bed kits you might find interesting.

Alternative Ideas for a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

What are some other possible ideas for raised beds?  Glad you asked!

Here’s one — you can try using old tires as containers.  The morning sun heats the rubber, giving your plants warmth all day and night long; especially nice in cooler climates.  Similar to a raised bed vegetable garden, the tires will also shed water more quickly, preventing your plants from sitting in water all day.  Naturally, tires for a large truck will give you more raised space than tires for a sub-compact. 

Another idea is using an EarthBox, which is basically a huge container that also will water your vegetables automatically.  While I’ve never tried one, I have some friends who have and they swear by them.

Any way you create them, raised beds make good gardening sense.  Although it’s a little bit of work to set up at first, you’ll reap the benefits come harvest time!

There are several different types of soils that you might encounter in your garden.  Most have advantages, as well as disadvantages.  No soil type is a total loss — you can grow vegetables with a little help.

Sandy

The first type of soil I’ll talk about is sandy.  If you have it, you know it; light soil that sifts through your hands easily.  Dig a hole a foot deep and fill it with water.  Come back and hour later and check for any standing water; if the hole is dry, you have sand.

• Advantage:  The good thing is that this kind of soil is very well-drained; water doesn’t stand for long (if at all).
• Disadvantage:  Because water drains so well, it doesn’t keep nutrients near to the plants.  Nor does water stay accessible, and it dries out fast.

Solution:  Add humus to sandy soils; compost, sphagnum moss, earthworm castings all help to hold water and fertilizer closer to the roots.

Clay

Clay soil is the flip side of sandy.  Clay drains slowly, which can be a real problem in wet climates, as standing water can be the death knell for vegetables.  Dig a hole a foot deep and fill it with water.  Come back an hour later and if there is still water in the hole, you know you have clay.

• Advantage:  In a dry-ish climate, clay helps to hold water closer to the roots.
• Disadvantage:  In a very dry climate, clay can bake in the sun and prevents water from getting to the veggies.  In wet climates, clay drains so slowly that plants can drown.  If it’s a really heavy clay, root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes will have a very tough time growing (if they grow at all).

Solution:  Incorporate a small amount of sand and a goodly amount of humus to lighten the clay.  Compost is tops.

Thin / Rocky

In some parts of the country the soil cover is thin and rocky.  If you have it, you know it right away!  Just try digging and you hit rock within a few inches.

• Advantage:  This is a case where there isn’t much of an advantage, unless the soil you have is a nice loam (see next soil type).
• Disadvantage:  Roots can’t go very deep before they hit rocks, so it makes it very difficult for vegetables to get a decent foothold.  This means they are extremely vulnerable to drought.

Solution:  Grow your veggies in containers or raised beds, and incorporate plenty of humus.

Loam

If you have a loam soil type your are blessed indeed!  Loam is a just-right mixture of sand, clay and humus — vegetables love it and thrive.  There are no disadvantages to this type of soil.  Pick up a just-damp handful and squeeze it; it holds its shape briefly before crumbling.  Gorgeous!

Types of Soil for Your Garden

There really isn’t any soil type that can’t be used for growing a vegetable garden, with a little help in most cases.  Compost can be used to enrich any soil, even if it doesn’t seem to need it (like loam). 

You can make your own compost or buy it in bags.  If you have a small garden, buying a few bags may be the way to go.  If you have a larger garden, you’ll want to make your own compost, as buying enough bags every year can get pricey.