Yesterday we had 120 bags of organic raised bed soil delivered to our driveway. You can see them in the header photo. A retired guy who was the head of the city solid waste department picked them up from Bomgaars and brought them to the house. He has a forklift for just such loads. He knew my dad. The raised beds will ship this week. We have enlisted the help of a young man to move the bags of soil into the back yard. The gate on our fence is too narrow for a tractor, so he will move the bags with a big wheelbarrow. He is a cement worker for his day job and used to date one of the daughters of the former owner of our house. Everyone seems interconnected here!
Best friend is excited to plant chard, heirloom tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. The raised beds are 32 inches high and will be good for plants that need deeper roots. I am planting a late crop of spinach and lots of basil for pesto. We will have herbs in separate pots on the deck. We saw two large deer roaming our neighborhood a few nights ago and I am glad our yard is fenced.
I want to get some Canadian roses to plant around the house, as well as some hydrangeas. We thought about putting in a raspberry bed but it would be too complicated due to underground wires and such. We also have a Birch tree badly in need of pruning, but we will leave that for the fall, as well as planting spring bulbs.
How are your garden plans coming along? What are your experiences with raised beds?
Trail Baboon 
i choose plants that fit my lifestyle and are easy and firgiving otherwise they die. hosta are my favorite. daylillies too. i will plant some tomatoes and basil they seem to do best together. never done salad. gonna hunt mushrooms this year
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i guess i dont understand raised beds. is it that you dont want to dig a hole?
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We decided that we are not spry and limber enough to have the same large gardens we had in ND.
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I’m guessing tim for these first two comments…
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You mean to tell me that with all of your crazy ideas, you can’t come up with another reason for raised beds? I don’t buy it.
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Husband just finally got some dirt in egg cartons over the weekend, and planted some basil and other herbs, and chard (?) or spinach. I just stepped outside to take a look at the garden, and realized it’s time to start weeding.
No experience with raised beds, but seems like a good idea (after they are in place.)
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The ones we ordered can be configured into 9 different shapes. We will make them into the 3.5 × 6.5 foot shape. Friend likes Cherokee Purple tomatoes. I like Brandywine tomatoes. I also like San Marzano’s for a Roma variety. I will have to order plants if we can’t find them locally. Brookings has a wonderful greenhouse we will check out to see what they have in the way of bedding plants.
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For a split second I thought you had a picture of MY driveway! Today was Day 3 for my “mulch runs”. I don’t need quite enough to have mulch delivered so I have to pick it up myself. I get 8 bags a day as that’s what fits in my little Honda Insight. 2 more days to go. The bags are all piled up along my back fence right now as I probably won’t start spring clean up for at least another week.
My “in between my bales” plywood finally gave up the ghost last year. In fact, I just left it in the yard over the winter and there are just wispy strips of it left that I will probably clean up today. Bought two new pieces at the hardware store last week and will be applying some varnish to them this week before Ben brings my bales on Sunday. I have already purchased the nitrogen fertilizer that I use to condition the bales before I plant… usually on Mother’s Day.
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I have been responsible for care of raised beds over 3 different floors for 8 years. Our senior living apartment iis close to the river in Minneapolis. Getting deep beds is smart-plants seem to do better. We have irrigation (drip lines) in 2 of 3 floors but no matter how you water, you need to check moisture as less deep beds drain inconsistently (depending on the health of the lining). We dig in organic fertilizer and add soil if able, every spring and then sprinkle organic over the next few months. We leave dead non veg plants over the beds in fall to protect pollinators. Wind blew a big ripe zucchini some of its foliage out of its bed twice on our 2nd floor!
I tend to plant herbs in each garden, annual flowers, and certain vegetables depending on sun exposure (cucumbers love our 5th floor as does chard and kale; tomatoes do best in certain sunniest beds and basil seems to love everywhere if you pay attention to nighttime temps (< 50-55 degrees it is very unhappy). In shadier areas (from tall downtown buildings) the big begonias do well as do coleus. Perennials just can't survive even in the deeper beds. Staking and pruning the tomatoes is vital as the raised beds make them high enough as they grow that a short person can't reach the top branches!
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Less and less gardening as the years pass. My wife is the chief planter/weeder, and she’s losing interest in all the maintenance. We haven’t done any prep yet. Will probably trim up some of the perennials, plant a few herbs in pots, and some tomatoes and maybe peppers in a few spots like last year.
Chris in Owatonna
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Rise and Get the Garden Bug, Baboons,
I bought another raised garden bed for the deck, so now I have three. I will grow some beets, kohlrabi, lettuce, spinach, basil, rosemary etc. in those. The pots will contain tomatoes and peppers. The raised bed in back that is now my cold frame, will have zucchini and anything else I can get in there. Bags of garden soil are hanging out under one of the beds, so soon I will refresh the soil with that.
I am starting hollyhocks again and hoping I get some productive plants in the front this year. I love those. I found out that the day of my favorite bedding plant sale, we must go to Iowa for a 50th anniversary of husband’s cousin. Every year something interferes with my participation in that and I am getting resentful! I must get my garden mulch soon and find someone to lay it down.
Off to do my Monday errands and prepare to be away later this week. Sister and Bro-in-law are coming to stay with husband and McGee while a friend and I go to Savannah, GA for the Hidden Garden Tour.
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