Raised Beds Gardening

[Lady Maverick]

I started posting in the 2025 gardening topic but realized that I was going to overwhelm that subforum with my focus on just one type of gardening. I took a clue from some previous gardening subforums (balconies, winter, etc) and decided to start this one with a focus on raised beds.

I grow vegetables and flowers in raised beds with something happening almost every day during all seasons. I would like to be better at tracking and documenting the success and failures of my gardening efforts. That is my WHY of posting here.
What, when, where are the facts I will be trying to capture. I am unsure of how best to organize this data so it will be a trial and error as I gather data. Hopefully it will become apparent the best way to organize it as the facts gathering process happens.

[Lady Maverick]

cut/paste from a previous post I made in main 2025 garden forum -
I rarely venture outside of H&F and PWYC threads in the SHE village. Today I went looking for a gardening thread. I am glad to find this dedicated topic. Being in the garden brings me joy. It is my happy place.

Garden chatter -
** 115 plants purchased. They were all small (a mixture of 6 packs and 4" pots). When I brought them home from the store, they took up residence inside next to windows so the plants have full sun. I have been transplanting them from small pots into 8" pots using homemade compost. After being transplanted, then they are put outside in a sheltered corner on the south side of our home. This allows their roots to grow as well as getting them used to being outside. I have about half of them transplanted into bigger pots. Two plants (basil & a pepper plant) didn't survive the wild winds.


** Vegetable plants growing in the raised beds - onions, garlic, potatoes, swiss chard, strawberries, mustard greens, asparagus, beets, radishes, and now....tomato!.
Today = First tomato plant of 2025 season was transplanted into the raised bed.
** Being harvested - onion tops, Swiss chard, mustard greens....and now asparagus!
Yesterday = First purple spear asparagus of 2025 season was harvested. I immediately ate it.

** Flowers growing - Autumn Joy Sedum, multiple mums, daylilies, daffodils. (all were left in the ground to over wintered and came back this year)

3/22 - Bed #2 - planted four tomato plants. Each one was planted in net pot to protect it from gophers. Experience has shown the roots will grow through the opening in the net pot without any problem. Put slice of pool noodle around the stems to keep cutworms away. Each plant is surrounded by 3' diameter by 5' tall wire cage. The top of the cages are horizontal wire cattle panel which will allow the plants to grow without boundaries. Each plant was mulched.
Planted two Zinnas in the center area between the 4 tomato plants. This is an experiment to see if the zinnias can grow vertically fast enough to not be shaded by the tomato plants.
Planted six begonias scattered around the garden. 4 in strawberry bed #10. Two planted in earth boxes.
3/23 - Bed #2 - planted Beet seeds around the wire cages. Planted 1 basil plant
Bed #3 - planted two tomato, 2 Zinnas, 1 basil plants
Bed #6 - harvested purple asparagus
Bed #10 - strawberries are blooming!
Bed #11 - potatoes are breaking through the top soil in abundance. It is time to start the process of putting straw over the green potato tops.
Watered plants while burning wind damaged tree branches in firepit until I grew weary of feeding & watching the fire.

3/24 -
Bed #2 - Sprinkled ashes from firepit around 6 plants
Bed #3 - planted two Tomatoes & a Marigold
Bed #4 - planted two Zinnas
Bed #5 - removed dried asparagus ferns and tomato stalks from last year.
Bed #6 - harvested purple spear asparagus
Bed #10 - pulled about a half dozen weeds.
Bed #11 - covered up green tops of potatoes with straw
** Firepit - emptied ashes from yesterday burn. Firepit filled again with tree branches provided by the windstorms. I will wait until the winds calm down near the end of day before I burn it.
**Watered garden with 2 small sprinklers. I move each sprinkler each time I walk around the path. It is an enjoyable, easy, and rhythmic way of observing details of each bed/plant while getting those steps in.

3/25 -
** Firepit - burned more branches. Will let it cool off overnight so the ashes can be put in garden beds.
** Bed #4 - noticed multiple pepper plants growing from seeds. These seeds were inside peppers that I tossed on top of the mulch/compost at the end of last year. I find nature amazing how it can overcome the odds of surviving and thrive while doing it.
** Bed #5 - planted two tomato, a marigold and a basil
** Watered with 2 small sprinklers as I walked and observed the garden.

3/26 -
Raised Bed #1 - Planted beets & radishes seeds
Raised Bed #2 - planted zinnia, dianthus & unknown flower
Raised Bed #3 - planted Zinnia
Raised Bed #4 - Planted Zinna
Raised Bed #5 - Planted Zinna (3 each)
Raised Bed #6 - harvested purple asparagus
Raised Bed #11 - mulch scattered over green tops of potatoes. Removed butterfly markers
Earthbox #4 - planted dianthus and begonia
Earth box #5 - planted unknown flower. I lost the ID tag. Oops.
Rained .6" last night. No need to water today.

[Lady Maverick]

3/27
Bed #4 - Tomato (celebrity) and marigold planted
Bed #10 - Strawberries - observe blooms, pull misc weeds
Bed #11 - Potatoes - piled mulch on top of the green


Finished planting for 2025 spring garden -
Bed #1 - Mustard greens, Swiss chard, radishes, beets, onions and garlic. Flowers = Mum
Bed #2 - Tomatoes (4), onions, garlic, beets, radish. Flowers= Zinnas, marigold
Bed #3 - Tomatoes (4), onion, garlic. Flowers - Zinnas, marigolds
Bed #6 - asparagus, strawberries. Flowers =
Bed #10 - strawberries. Flowers= mums (3) and begonias (4)
Bed #11 - Potatoes, onions, garlic, radish, beets. Flowers = Mum

[Nancy]

Joining in...
I am back inside after cleaning out the bird waters in the back yard, rinsing off lawn chairs.
Fertilized the back yard too in the center part it was needed.
It's raining litely so letting God do the watering part before and after for me.

Thinking of the seeds I can scatter about and need to get spinach & kale as well.
So I'll be looking for seeds of them and hunt for plants too.

[Kittykatt]

Joining in as well!

Years ago, when I had my allotment, I grew everything in raised beds. It definitely helped the drainage and meant I could concentrate on improving the soil in just those areas, not wasting time improving the paths!

Today, I just have my garden. We live on the side of a hill, so originally the garden slopes from right to left, and also from the end down to the house. If you wanted to sit out, you had to plug your chair into what passed for lawn, so it didn't fall over!

Then about 20 years ago, we had the whole thing landscaped, to make it more useable. I now have a split level patio, a small lawn, and all my plants are in a raised border that curves round, so is wider at the far end than by the house. I truly think this is one of the best things we ever did, as the garden is so much more useable. Also, now we're getting that bit older, it's very nice not to have to be crawling around on the ground, or bending over all the time to tend the plants. (My front garden doesn't have raised beds, it's just filled with roses, but that's tiny, so isn't a huge amount of hard work, except in autumn for the pruning and spring for the mulching )

I tend to take photos throughout the year, so I have a visual comparison from year to year (and also a visual reminder of what hasn't done well, and may need to come out!)

[Lady Maverick]

OH! I so enjoy reading about your gardening thoughts and efforts.

I am putting my time & effort into getting those plants out of the pots and into the raised bed. I quit documenting each step because it was slowing me down. I have a goal of getting everything planted by April 1st. Once that is done then I will circle back and catch up on documenting.

Today focus -
"** Finish planting Tomatoes
** start planting peppers
** Continue planting flowers
** Water and monitor the newly transplanted plants.
And as always - enjoy each moment spent in the garden doing what brings me joy.

[Nancy]

Joined this activity today ~
did some weeding got the driveway out front finished.
I started a couple days ago had a rain delay and was able to
get back to it today. Yea for progress!

My plants do better in the earth than in a raised bed or planter.

I did dead head two beds by the deck and patio.

[eightistenough]

I need this as well! Mine are more containers at this point but I'm working on permanent raised beds. I'm in a new-to-me grow zone, 8b, while I came from 7b. What grow zone are you in Lady Maverick? When I tried to begin hardening off a lot of my cabbage seedlings died, so I'm wary to put them out there just yet again. But I'll need to since I'll be traveling for a couple of weeks in another 1-2 weeks

I also have an aeroponic tower garden inside as well. After reading an interesting tidbit last fall, I decided to keep the pepper plants I was growing in the tower for as long as they would last. They are still growing and producing - all fall and winter I have added basil, peppermint, a red cabbage, and a cantaloupe but the cantaloupe just up and died

I'll have to get a list of what I've got in the seed start trays tomorrow.

[Nancy]

Garden Time:
15 min. or so in the garden is good for the soul.
I dead headed 2.5 beds this also is going to count for my new habit and
A M stretch!

-----

I "planted" the branch to give the pumpkins some thing to grow on this year.
I'll try a few different places to see what ones do the best.
I have some volunteer seedlings going already.

[Lady Maverick]

What grow zone are you in Lady Maverick?

I'm in 7b grow zone. However, my raised bed gardens are protected on 2 sides by the house and the other 2 sides by a 8' solid fence. It seems the plants respond more like 8a because of the protection surrounding them.

I am in the final push to get all the plants transplanted from pots to the raised beds. I haven't counted today but there are something like a dozen more pots waiting to be planted. I set a goal to have it done by April 1st.....realizing that our official last frost date is April 10th.....so I am pushing the limits and accepting the risk of losing everything.

I have gardened many ways and methods over the years. I love gardening in any form so am interested in giving everything a try. With trial and error I have learned my preferred method of gardening (raised beds) for most things. It does limit what I can grow in some cases. I've grown watermelon, cantaloupe, and corn in raised beds, but they really need more room to do their best IMHO. The vegetables that I am most interested in eating all grow well in raised beds so that works for me.