Raised beds!

[susan]

Mike got 3 raised beds built for me on the short side of the garden. That's the side with the worst vole problem. We lined them with weed barrier and he filled them today. I'm hoping that liner will be a deterrent to the little varmints. I started planting them this evening, but ran out of daylight before I finished. One bed is 12ftx4ft and the other two beds are 8ftx4ft. There's 2ft space all around and between them so I can get my little seat in next to the beds when I'm working on them. So far I've planted red beans, yellow squash, crowder peas in one bed, navy beans and zucchini in the second bed. I was going to put carrots in one corner, but couldn't find my seed. Not sure what I'll plant in the other corner of it. The largest bed so far has pumpkins and green beans. I still have cucumbers and black beans to finish in that bed. My potatoes popped up, so I've got to pull some dirt over them tomorrow if it's not raining. I'm working on getting my tomatoes and peppers used to the outside weather so I can transplant them, in the meantime I'm working compost into that ground area.
I've picked the first round of turnip greens and ready to pick more. I also picked the collards and need to go back and pick the broccoli leaves. I'm fighting cabbage worms real bad on my little cabbage heads. I sprinkled rosemary on them the other day and I'm thinking of making a spray of rosemary. Don't know what else I can use that isn't lethal to me.

Susan

[Valerie]

Susan can you use DE? It doesn't have any smell and it's not good to breathe it anyway, for what it can do to lungs.

I'm seriously thinking raised beds are going to be my garden of the future. The drainage where our garden is is just horrible! Wouldn't you know the best drainage in the whole place is in the front yard!

I'm glad you got to get gardening finally! ;D

[Valerie]

Hi ladies!
This is Valerie's daughter Rebekah. I've hacked her account because I need some help! :/ My sister-in-law and I built an 8X4 raised bed earlier this summer. We were so proud of it! We put down plenty of weed barrier, and went to planting. For the first month or so, everything was growing great and looking beautiful! Right about the time we had some noticeable fruits and veggies on our plants, we notice the bottom stems and leaves were turning yellow and squishy looking. Within a week, all of our gorgeous tomato plants were completely dead. It was like one day they were fine, and the next, it's like the life got sucked out of them. Eventually, nearly everything we planted was rotten and gross. All of our cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelons, tomatoes, and zucchini. Miraculously, we still have some jalapeno and bell pepper plants, and some carrots. The pepper plants are definitely stunted though, but we actually have some jalapenos almost ready to pick! No bell peppers though. Does anyone know what the problem could be? We were really good about keeping bugs out as best we could. Whatever the problem is, it started with the tomatoes, and took out the whole South end of the bed, then moved its way North. Oddly enough, our watermelon vines(on the North end) are still alive, but when they bear, we get a little watermelon about the size of an egg, and then it rots and turns black

Please help!
Thanks,
Rebekah

[Valerie]

p.s. Those are obviously the wrong smilies. I need to get the hang of this...

[joanfromzonesix]

lotsa maybes -

could be fungus (poor drainage)-
could be a ph problem (too acid / not acid enough)
could be over fertilization (too much nitrogen)
could be lotsa things -

good garden soil is a very localized situation - advice like mine (from many miles away) is likely as valuable as warm spit - best for you to identify a close neighbor who has a great garden and pick their brain -

[Valerie]

LOL! How about that Beck? I didn't even know she was on here!


Joan, even a close neighbor probably wouldn't be much help. It was a raised bed, filled with bagged soil from the store. So if it was a fungus (what I suspect) it could have come from anywhere.