Grow Better Veggies

Class: Garden Bed Design & Construction

2010 Class Dates Now Scheduled!

This is a vegetable garden landscape design and construction workshop.  Learn where and how to site your vegetable beds for maximum effectiveness (considerations of climate, season, and sun exposure are all discussed).  You will discover numerous approaches to bed design: from hay bales to lumber to cinderblocks.  Learn basic carpentry skills as we construct a bed during class.  See how we do it! 

Also receive valuable information on how and what to fill your newly constructed beds with.  Not all soil is alike!  We've got supplier recommendations for you that will save you money and give you maximum results due to superior soil fertility. 

Topics also covered in class:

Starting out: Learn how to install a vegetable garden on any surface, from an existing lawn to concrete.

Bed sizes: Proper sizing is important, from their height to their width.  You want maximum workability and comfort to you, the gardener.

Paths: Considerations of path materials, cost, and efficiency.

Holding in your soil:  From various types of lumber, to many other hardscape materials, learn what you can do and how to save money doing it.

Filling your new beds: Top soil blends vary in vitality and useability.  Learn how to get a deal and the best start for your new plants.

The class is held at Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond, California.  Click here for farm directions and a map.  If you've got questions before you register, you may contact Cynthia at loveapplefarm@gmail.com.

ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.

Available Dates: (Choose one)

February 27, 2010 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
June 6, 2010 (Sunday) 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Tuition: $50

Choose a class date for check-out:

February 27, 2010 $50.00 June 6, 2010 $50.00

Adding Fertility: Sow a Winter Cover Crop

Although our winter garden is in full swing, we nevertheless do not have every single bed planted out with cool-season vegetables. That's because it's important, if you can, to put some of your garden beds into a rotational cover-cropping program. A cover crop, or green manure, is a plant sown not for eating but to enrich the soil. Instead of taking nutrients OUT of your garden, they actually add them back. They also act to improve the soil's structure and it's ability to sustain growth and hold water and nutrients.

There are many types of cover crops, from legumes which grab the nitrogen out of the air and infuse it into the soil, to buckwheat, which serves to choke out invasive weeds before they take over your garden. The choice of a proper and productive cover crop for your garden firstly depends on the time of year you are sowing it. Some green manures won't germinate if it's too cold, while others can handle frost, even snow, with no problem. Secondly, you should consider whether you've got a special agenda over and above a basic desire for adding soil fertility.

For my California garden that gets plenty of frosts, but no snow, I had a larger choice of crops that would survive the winter here. Knowing that, I then sought to figure out what other benefits besides improving my soil health I could gain out of a specific cover crop.  After a bit of research, I settled on Pacific Gold Mustard.  I've got a few dodgy pests in my soil, and this type of mustard supposedly deters both wire worms and harmful nematodes.  The fact that David Kinch can also use the delicious spicy young leaves in his signature "Into the Vegetable Garden" dish, also played into my decision.

For a 50 square foot bed, we use about half a cup of seed.  The bed is not prepared at all, just cleared of previous vegetation.  We sprinkle the seed uniformly on top of the soil, trying to achieve about two or three seeds per square inch.  We then scratch it into the top inch of soil with a hard metal rake.  It's better to use an up and down motion rather than an actual raking movement.  If you rake back and forth, you're more likely to get bare patches where you've raked the seed out of place.  We then make sure the bed is kept constantly moist until germination occurs.  This usually means we've got to water every day if it doesn't rain.  The seeds can begin to emerge 48 hours after sowing, if the weather is mild.  If not, expect to wait a week before you see any green.

Once up, back off on the water, only giving it a spritz during extremely dry conditions.  You can begin to eat the tender greens within a few weeks by either pulling up the whole plant or by snipping off individual leaves.  It's best to mow down the whole lot before it flowers and sets seed, though.   We will cut all of the mustard off at the soil level in about late February, turn it all under the soil with our spade forks, and let it naturally compost for a month or two before we plant our warm-loving veggies.

So a triple threat: soil health, pest control, and yummy eats!

Preparing a Bed for Replanting

Feeding the soil is probably the single most important thing you can do to grow better vegetables.  I do it every single time I change crops in a bed, even if it's a quick crop, like radishes. On the odd occasion when I've forgotten for some strange reason (or been too lazy) to amend the bed before planting something, it's always immediately evident to me: slow growth, yellowing and stunted plants.  Now I never "forget" to amend the planting bed between crops. 

The above is a shot of the bed I'm going to prepare for planting.  You'll see that it still has the residue of the old crop: celeriac, (also known as celery root).  The harvest debris is still on the bed.  It will have to be removed.

Once the harvest debris is removed, I then remove the irrigation lines from the bed and place them temporarily in the mulched path:

We prep beds in various ways, depending upon the crop, but for this bed we will use what's become known on the farm as the 'standard amendments'.  I always use humic acid on my garden beds first.  Not too much, just a sprinkling of it.  I use about one cup for a 4 x 12 foot bed, or about two cups for 100 square feet.  Here's a shot of the humic acid I buy from my local organic feed and farm store:

And this is how the humic acid looks in the bucket.  It has a fine dark brown pebbly appearance:

Humic acid is an organic soil amendment that can (1) increase microbial and mycorrizal activity,, (2) promote nutrient uptake, (3) accelerate seed germination, (4) increase crop yields, and (5) aid in reducing frost damage.  Sounds great, doesn't it?  Betcha you guys haven't been putting this great stuff in your soil, have you?  Well, now you can, there's no reason not to, particularly since it's not very expensive.  A bag goes a long way.

Now that the humic acid has been sprinkled on the bed, I then put on a goodly amount of crab meal.