Pictured Above: Here are our finished raised beds before planting. All together there are 7 beds, all roughly 5′ x 9′, totalling about 450 sq feet.
It’s May, andI need to overhaul a large section of the yard to make way for this year’s vegetables.我有一个大计划,打算把我们家周围现有的篱笆换掉。正因为如此,对我来说,今年的花园能让我在它周围工作,开始在栅栏上工作是很重要的。最终,这片宅地将被美妙的带有岩壁的高地所包围。与此同时,这就是我们所做的。
How to Get Rid of the Sod
我的计划是把我们院子的整个东侧挖出来;这是阳光最充足的一大片区域,也是放置我们大部分园艺的最佳区域。然而,为了做到这一点,我必须以某种方式处理掉400多平方英尺的草地。
Many permaculturalists advocate sheet-mulching, which basically involves covering all the grass up with a weed barrier that will eventually break down, such as cardboard, newspaper, or burlap. There are a lot of glues and other chemicals used in the manufacturing of cardboard and newspaper that I personally did not want in my garden.
粗麻袋会很好,但在这里它们很贵,需要一段时间才能分解,所以我怀疑植物的根能轻易突破。
Enter the sod cutter:
Removing the Grass
割草机就是你见过的更大的奶酪切片机。你走在它后面,就像一台割草机,但它不是剪草,而是把刀片滑到草皮下面。当它完成后,你会得到那些整齐的12或18英寸宽的草皮条,它们通常被铺在新草坪上。
Normally I would have just used a flat shovel and spent the whole day to do this –a sod cutter definitely isn’t a mandatory tool to create a raised bed with sod walls.然而,我的朋友Michael上周早些时候打电话给我,告诉我他要为另一个项目租一个割草机,而且他完成后我就可以借用,因为至少需要4个小时。租用割草机的费用是4小时55美元,24小时85美元(2011年5月租的)。我付了他30美元的额外费用,因为我们保存它超过了4个小时,所以它实际上花了30美元,并为我节省了至少3个多小时的铲雪工作。我可能不会再租这样的房子了,除非我搬走500平方英尺或更多的草皮。几个人在一个下午的时间里做不到这一点。
Cutting the Bed & Building the Walls
Cutting up a total of about 450 square feet took less than 1 hour with the sod cutter.
The next step was to use the cut strips of sod to build the walls for our raised beds. Here’s a rough outline of how the grass was used:
Building the walls actually took longer than cutting the sod did. There were 2 of us moving the sod strips into place and it probably took 45 minutes. Cutting the sod took maybe 30 minutes after we got the machine running.
After the sod walls were built up, here’s what they looked like:
Filling the Beds with Compost, Wood Chips, and Soil
下一步是开始用堆肥和土壤填充床。我更喜欢尽可能多地使用现场的材料,所以我用了大量的草屑分层,然后用我们院子里的树枝和小树枝来填充底层。从那里,我往16英寸高的床上倒了大约6码的杨树木屑。在那之上,我倾倒了大约6英寸的泥土。
我确实收到了10立方码的“蔬菜混合物”土壤。我们所有的土壤都是就地培植的,经过几年的改良就好了,但这是我需要快速注入养分的一个领域。这可能是我最后一次需要花园土壤,所以这对我来说是一笔值得的开支。土地的总成本是367美元,包括税。我想这是买到美味蔬菜的小代价。
Hugelkultur
At this point, I’m sure a few people will point out that all of those wood chips have huge carbon levels and will lock up all the nitrogen in the soil. These beds are a form ofhugelkultur(proper hugelkultur woulduse more stumps than wood chips, but they have a similar effect). The first couple years there is a chance that nitrogen will get sucked up by the wood chips.
Compost, grass clippings, and a few other nitrogen sources on top of my heavy feeding crops should help to mitigate this. Eventually, the wood will have soaked up so much nitrogen that it begins releasing that nitrogen. So there’s a long-term payoff that I think can be reduced in the early years.
In the meantime, that wood soaks up huge amounts of water, which is in turn soaked up by my veggies. That’s important here in Seattle, where we have very dry summers. This first summer, I’ll still have to water regularly, since the wood chips haven’t had enough rain to soak up. In year 2 I will theoretically need to water far less than a traditional raised bed without all of the rotting wood inside.
Add Some Finishing Touches
Finish With a Living Mulch
Raised beds can be notorious for drying out quickly, because the water tends to obey gravity. As a result, it is super important to have some sort of mulch to help the beds retain whatever moisture they have. I have decided to use a “living mulch”, which is just a mulch made out of a cover crop of some sort. In this case, we will seed the walls of the raised beds withNew Zealand White Clover.这将作为一个活的覆盖物,防止杂草形成的墙壁和保持水分,但它也会吸引蜜蜂和固定氮到土壤中,更不用说看起来很好。For more information see my post aboutclover as a living mulch.
Total Cost
My grass clippings, branches, sod and wood chips were free. I spent $8 on a pound of clover seed and used about 60% of it. I spent $30 on the sod cutter. This could have been free with a shovel and a couple friends. I spent $34 per yard on the veggie mix soil. I probably used 2 or 3 yards for the garden beds, so let’s say $90 on soil. This also could have been free if I had just used soil on hand. While my total cost was $130, it’s important to note that $120 was spent on shortcuts. The primary cost of building these beds is a little sweat and finding the materials. So these raised beds can work for any budget. Also, had I not raised them so high, I would have needed less material, which would have made the beds much closer to free.
So, that’s how we built our raised beds. They are still an experiment in progress, so be sure to follow along with us for the growing season to see how they turn out and too see what we would have done differently.
Bob Kochsays
Bob Koch
About 13 years ago I decided I never again wanted to mow the lawn. Instead, Japanese Maples & Rhodies. To get rid of the lawn I thought of Roundup or plastic sheets, then hit on the idea of suffocation by mulch. First I looked in the yellow pages at tree services. Nearly all the time they say “call for free wood chips”. They have to pay big money to haul them and dispose of them. If you call and ask, they’ll be so much more than happy to deliver them free of charge, free period. A driveway full. A 6-10 inch covering of wood chips was all that was needed to take out the grass. Never heard from it again. No additional plastic, cardboard, burlap, nothing. Free. Done. You also relieve someone of a financial burden.
Kane Jamisonsays
Hi Bob, just came across this comment, good points. We had access to the sod cutter for free this year which is why I opted to use it for the garden bed, but for the rest of the yard we have begun the process of sheet mulching. At this point we have all the cardboard we need, we’re just waiting on a wood chip delivery. The cardboard is being used in areas of the garden where we’re not growing vegetables.
Nancy Suttonsays
Thanks, Kane, for the detailed visual history… I’m looking forward to see the results next year, especially how much watering you have to do in our dry Seattle summers.
我将在春天埋葬各种大小/种类的木材,“hugeliing”,以节约水资源。再加上涂上液体黄金的壁炉木炭,可以保持更多水分。Should be interesting smile emoticon
Plus snagged wood chips from the orange ‘Asplund’ trucks that I sporadically find in the vicinity… usually glad to dump at your address, when you accost them wink emoticon Now, I just have to wheelbarrow them up the driveway…. invigorating!
I like letting the beans go for the sky, as they will be once-harvested when dry, and the poles can be brought down.
Kane Jamisonsays
嗨,南希,hugelkultur的效果最好是在一个完整的雨季之后,让床吸收水分,所以我们的床明年在这方面可能会做得更好,除非我们今年冬天继续不下雨。如果你已经有了木头,在掩埋它之前,试着把它浸泡在儿童游泳池或桶里或其他什么地方。
Careful about too much fireplace charcoal, it can throw off the PH of your soil if you have too much – depends on how much wood you burn.
我希望我种的豆角能起作用,但遗憾的是,我种的所有豆角都没起多大作用。I saved the poles to try again next year.
Thanks for stopping by!
Jeff Cokenoursays
Great site – thank you for creating it!
Johnnysays
只是想知道你为什么不跟你朋友分摊割草机的费用?
Kane Jamisonsays
Ha, good question. The rental expense was covered by his work. =)