‘Sustaining the Soul of Organics’ - Making a Sustainable Garden Bed

Yup the garden seed catalogs are coming already. Do you really want to open them up and start planning? Or would you rather enjoy some snow? Well that’s how I feel about my own garden – it has to wait until I enjoy a little bit of the off-season, snow and have Rippling Waters crop plan finished. But here are some suggestions for making a garden bed.

We get a lot of questions about how to make raised beds, since most of our customers have backyard lawns that they want to turn some of the space into a garden. Also I find that most people have extremely busy lives and don’t have much time to devote to their garden, especially when it comes to weeding. So here is a great way to help – you’ll just have to invest most of your time in the beginning to create a raised bed.

The method I like best is using resources you already have around your home. I use a layering technique of organic matter often called Lasagne Gardening (you can buy books about it from us). In essence you are creating a compost pile. Although making the bed in the fall from saved organic matter will give it more time to breakdown, a spring raised bed works just fine.

Start by laying out your raised bed area with 4-5 layers of newspaper or flattened cardboard boxes or something similar to these. Water it to hold it down. Then put your bed frame on top if you’re going to use one. Simple scrap boards can be used for sides. Next put down a layer of larger pieces of cut shrubs if you have any. If you have any sand add about an inch of that next. Then start layering other organic materials you have compiled like unfinished compost, leaves, hay, grass clippings, or animal shavings/manure. Layer the greener, nitrogen-rich and animal residue materials between the carbon brown materials like leaves and hay. Your carbon layers should be thicker than the nitrogen layers, as high as 10-1. Other nitrogen rich amendments you can buy are blood meal, fish meal, soy meal, cottonseed meal, general fertilizer and greensand. Adding bonemeal is also great because plant roots love the calcium and your soil organisms love the silica found in bonemeal. WATER thoroughly each layer. Finally finish layering the bed with compost (nitrogen layer), peat moss or some chopped leaves or hay, and finally topsoil.

You want to top off your raised bed with a nice thick 4-6” layer of mulch. I almost always use mulch hay for this because it is porous for water seepage, decomposes well, and isn’t too acidic.

Now you have a weed-free, highly fertile garden bed! Soon your layers will decompose until you have a wonderfully dark colored, earthworm filled soil. Then to replace the volume of your bed as it decomposes, each year add a little more compost and yard waste or leaves that you now know to stockpile.

If you want to make a quicker bed and don’t have the compost materials stockpiled, we have all the ingredients for sale to make the Square Foot Garden bed mix as well as the amendments listed above. Come on out to the farm and stock up – we’ll help you make the best garden bed ever!

The Versatile Bean

Garden Planning: Seed Suggestion – the Versatile Bean

One thing I’ve noticed that folks don’t seem to grow many dry beans in this area. Why not? Maybe because of the long growing period (70 days shell, 95 days dry) or that you don’t get quite as much harvest as you’d like per foot or that your neighbor doesn’t grown any. I hope I can change your mind.

There are many dry bean varieties that you might just love because of their various uses. Many you can eat as a slender young green bean, then keep longer on the vine to eat as a shell bean and then even longer as a dry bean. Also beans up to the shell bean stage can be made into dilly beans. What I learned this year that you can basically use any bean in this manner. I had wax and green beans go by the snap bean stage, so I used them as a shell bean a long with the shells that I was growing. They were great and I had enough of all my varieties to freeze a couple of bags!

My all time favorite for snap beans are the French filet; we often grow Masai or Maxibel. If these grow to hard dry beans, save them for next year to plant as seeds.

My favorite shell bean is Vermont Cranberry Shell. This is fine to eat both as a snap or a dry bean. They have a pretty pink mottled shell as well as on the dry bean. For shell beans pick when the shell has turned this color and is still pliable.

Some of my successfully grown dry beans are Black Turtle and Jacob’s Cattle. This year I’m going to try a true kidney variety. I also suggest Soldier and why not try Garbanzo. To harvest them let the shells dry, pick one and see if the beans are nice and firm, if so it’s time to pick them. This year my pods were quite wet (along with most garden plants!) so I laid them out to dry on a screen. I suggest this is actually done every year, unless they are exceptionally dry. Then put them in a bag, smash the bag a bit to loosen the beans from the pods, and then it’s quite easy to pick the beans out and store them in an air-tight container. You’ll have a true winter storage crop.

A fun and informative bean catalog is from the Vermont Bean Seed Company; easy to order at www.VermontBean.com or call (800) 349-1071.

Because dry beans have a long growing period you do need to keep them up off the ground as much as possible so they won’t get wet and rot. Many shell & dry bean plants are taller than snap beans, so I’ve fenced them with just a 2’ chicken wire to help keep them off the ground. I’ve also mulched them with straw or really coarse hay. You don’t want to use the type that can break down fast, because it’ll just add to the rotting problem.

“Beans have been a staple food in cuisine throughout the world for thousands of years. Archaeologists have discovered beans in ancient Egyptian tombs and in ruins of Native American habitats in the Southwestern United States.

“Well-known as a powerhouse of nutrition, beans can also be a foundation for imaginative dishes. Abundant with soluble fiber, they combine well with grains. They are virtually fat-free, have no cholesterol and are a good source of vitamins. The mild flavor makes them perfect partners with sandwiches and main dishes.” (from Vt. Bean Seed Catalog)

The rewards of gardening is harvesting and eating – the versatile bean will be a great reward for your gardening efforts!