Dr. Jacob Mittleider wisely said that “
no amount of scratching after a crop is planted
can overcome the ill effects of poor seedbed preparation.”
Let’s avoid problems, extra work, and disappointment later by creating the ideal
environment in which our vegetable plants can grow and thrive.
Growing in narrow, slightly raised, level, ridged beds with wide aisles offers many
advantages over other growing methods, such as:
- Aisles are dry and inhospitable for weeds, bugs and diseases, and not muddy for feet.
- Precious water goes only to the plant roots, saving over half and minimizing diseases.
- Two rows of plants are watered at the same time.
- Feeding down the center of the bed feeds two rows of plants efficiently and quickly.
- Weeding is quicker and easier, and weeds are quickly shaded out by close-planted crops.
- Plants grow into the aisles for needed sunshine.
- Vertically grown plants in one row are easy to care for, prune, water, feed, and weed.
It’s easy to get carried away and try to do too much, so I recommend you start fairly small,
grow only varieties your family loves to eat, get proficient with a few things, and have
fun doing it! If you grow vertically with tomatoes, beans, squash, cucumbers, peppers, and
eggplant, etc., which are everbearing and the highest value crops, you’ll be amazed at the
yield you get. And you’ll have food to eat and give away all season long from just a few
30 foot long soil-beds.
Let’s start with a space of 25 feet X 40 feet. First, buy 20 – 18”-long wooden stakes.
Measure and stake the perimeter of your garden area, then clear and remove everything
you can, including annual and perennial weeds and their roots. Make it as level as possible.
Measure in 5 feet from each corner and set the stakes for four soil beds, each of which will
measure 18 inches by 30 feet with a 3 foot aisle in between. Use 4 stakes per bed and attach
nylon strings to the stakes to outline the sides of the beds
When you’re done staking and stringing, your garden area should look like this:
Now you’re ready to make your beds! Starting in the middle of each aisle, use a shovel, hoe,
or rake to move about 2” of soil from the aisles into the 18” soil-bed areas. This will make
the beds 4"- 6" higher than the surrounding aisles. Be sure to do this uniformly throughout
the length of each bed. The idea is to get each bed looking like this:
Next, you need to level your beds. Take a straight 6 to 8-foot 2x4 (or 2x2) and securely
fasten a spirit-level or string-level to the center of it.
Move soil from the high end of the bed to the low end so that you create an even, level
planting area throughout the length of the bed. Ideally there should be no more than a 1 inch
height difference in a 30 foot length bed. Do NOT move any soil from the aisles to level the bed.
Why go to all this trouble? Leveling your beds makes watering or irrigating them a much
easier task. A little extra time spent now will save you a whole lot of time later!
Preparing the soil with nutrients comes next. To each soil bed apply 32 ounces of Pre-Plant Mix
and 16 ounces of Weekly Feed Mix uniformly down its length, then till or spade it in thoroughly
to a depth of at least 8 inches. When done, smooth the beds again so each one is level and
uniform in shape down its entire length.
The final step is to ridge your beds. Ridging is vitally important to keep weeding and
watering chores to a minimum. Pull soil from the center of each bed to the sides using
the string as a guide. The peaks of the two ridges should be 4” above the planting area,
and 18” apart, directly under the two strings as shown below:
If you have done it properly, you now have an ideal nursery in which your plants can grow healthy and fast!
Next week we’ll learn how to plant seeds and transplant seedlings to give you the best possible results.
You’ve made your beds. Now you get to “reap” in them! See you next week.
Jim Kennard
Jim Kennard
is President of the
Food For Everyone
Foundation, a non-profit organization with the
mission of "Teaching the world to grow food one
family at a time". You'll find many free vegetable
gardening resources, including a gardening ebook,
greenhouse plans, automated watering plans, and
a free chapter from each of the great gardening
books and software CD's Jim offers, at the
website:
www.foodforeveryone.org
