Food pyramids are not only functional and efficient, but also beautiful!

https://www.facebook.com/greenrenaissance/photos/a.781246451893141.1073741835.120085081342618/789485791069207/?type=3&theater

How to Condition and Plant a Straw Bale Garden

http://bonnieplants.com/library/how-to-condition-and-plant-a-straw-bale/

When it comes to thrifty, versatile ways to garden, it’s hard to beat a straw bale garden. It often costs less than a bag of potting soil, you can put it wherever you want (no soil required), and it’ll eventually turn into compost – so what is your garden this year can feed your garden next year. How’s that for recycling?

Many garden centers, home improvement stores, and feed stores sell straw bales. Once you bring yours home, there are just a few steps you’ll want to take to get it ready for planting. Learn all about them in our handy video or follow the instructions below.

Choose a sunny spot

Once that bale gets wet (details below), it’ll grow much heavier and harder to move, so make sure it’s where you want it to stay. If you pick a grassy area, put several layers of newspaper or a piece of cardboard underneath to keep grass and weeds from growing up into the bale. Or, if you want to give your bale a more polished, upscale look, consider building a simple, handsome frame to hold it. Ours (pictured above) has casters on the bottom for easy movement, making it perfect for a deck or patio. Use these step-by-step directions to build our Straw Bale Frame. (Tip: You’ll want to condition the bale nearby before you put it in the frame, to avoid getting conditioning-related runoff on your deck.)

For best results, position the bale so that the side showing cut straw ends (left), not the side with folded-over straw (right), is facing up.

Position the bale

Turn the bale narrow side up, so the strings holding the bale together are now on the sides (you don’t want those strings to be on top, just in case you sever one while you’re planting). On one narrow side, the straw will be folded over; on the other, it will be cut. Make sure the cut side is up, as the hollow straws will allow moisture to penetrate better.

Condition the bale

As soon as moisture hits the bale, it will start to decompose, and the inside will heat right up – definitely not a good thing for the plants. The solution? Condition the bale before you plant. This process usually takes around 10 to 14 days. For the first 3 days, simply water the bale thoroughly so it stays damp. For the next 6 days, in addition to watering the bale, use a liquid fertilizer like Bonnie Herb, Vegetable & Flower Plant Food to add nitrogen to speed the decomposition. Simply add a capful to a gallon of water and pour it all on the bale. (Another option is to sprinkle a cup of ammonium sulfate on the top of the bale on days 4 through 6, then a half-cup on days 7 through 9. Each time, water the fertilizer in.)

As the bale goes through the conditioning process, the internal temperature may rise to 120 degrees or even higher.

On day 10, return to simply watering the bale, and continue doing that until the temperature inside the bale starts to reflect the temperature outside. Use a compost or meat thermometer to keep tabs; you’ll see the temperature start to rise after the first day or two, spike about midway through the process, then start to come back down. Once it reaches ambient temperature, the bale is ready to be planted.

Choose your plants

You can grow just about anything in a bale that you can in the ground — with a few exceptions. Tall plants like indeterminatetomatoes and corn, for example, get too tall and heavy, and can start to break the bale apart. (If you wish to grow tomatoes, stick with bush or other determinate varieties.) Running plants like sweet potatoes can be harder to grow in a bale, too. Also, if you live in a very warm, humid part of the country, the bale may begin to decompose more quickly than in other climates, so you’ll want to stick with smaller plants like herbs and flowers, or use it for your cooler weather leafy crops. Whichever plants you choose, space them the same as you would in the ground.

Give these plant a few weeks and you’ll have plenty of bell peppers to harvest!

Plant the bale

Remove straw to form a hole that is as deep as rootball of your plant (though if you’re planting a tomato, of course, you’ll want to go deeper.) Place the plant in the hole, add some quality potting soil around it for extra nutrients and stability, then fill the rest of the hole in with some of the straw you removed. Water well.

Water and fertilize regularly

Your plants will receive less nutrition from the bale than they would from soil, so it’s important to fertilize them every week or two. You’ll also want to make sure not to let the bale dry out.

And you’re done! You can create your garden out of as many straw bales as you want, arranged in whatever shape or style you like. Happy growing!

Another interesting link: http://modernfarmer.com/2013/07/straw-bale-gardening/

The Many Benefits of Hugelkultur

Hugelkultur are no-dig raised beds with a difference. They hold moisture, build fertility, maximize surface volume and are great spaces for growing fruit, vegetables and herbs.

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/many-benefits-hugelkultur

Hugelkultur, pronounced Hoo-gul-culture, means hill culture or hill mound.

Instead of putting branches, leaves and grass clippings in bags by the curbside for the bin men... build a hugel bed. Simply mound logs, branches, leaves, grass clippings, straw, cardboard, petroleum-free newspaper, manure, compost or whatever other biomass you have available, top with soil and plant your veggies.

The advantages of a hugel bed are many, including:

The gradual decay of wood is a consistent source of long-term nutrients for the plants. A large bed might give out a constant supply of nutrients for 20 years (or even longer if you use only hardwoods). The composting wood also generates heat which should extend the growing season.

Soil aeration increases as those branches and logs break down... meaning the bed will be no till, long term.

The logs and branches act like a sponge. Rainwater is stored and then released during drier times. Actually you may never need to water your hugel bed again after the first year (except during long term droughts).

Sequester carbon into the soil.

On a sod lawn Sepp Holzer (hugelkultur expert) recommends cutting out the sod, digging a one foot deep trench and filling the trench with logs and branches. Then cover the logs with the upside down turf. On top of the turf add grass clippings, seaweed, compost, aged manure, straw, green leaves, mulch, etc... 

Hugel bed in Ontario, Canada (By Travis Philip)

Hugelkulter from permies.com: Pallets used around periphery

Steeped raised beds: From 'Sepp Holzer's Permaculture'

Sepp Holzer recommends steep hugel beds to avoid compaction from increased pressure over time. Steep beds mean more surface area in your garden for plants and the height makes easy harvesting. The greater the mass, the greater the water-retention benefits.

Vertical logs

Hugel bed dug in clay with logs put in vertically, next branches and lots of wood chips. Top 6" will be wood chips and dirt. This bed will store water and give nutrients for many years to come.

Straw bale gardens require less soil, less water and hold heat. As the straw breaks down nutrients feed the plants. Combining a straw surround with a hugel interior, topped by lasagne layering is an excellent idea for an area with poor quality soil.

Hugel bed in Ontario, Canada (June 28) by Tim Burrows. Tim surrounded his very tall hugel bed in pallets!

Sheet mulching (lasagne gardening) is like composting in place. Above: just a suggestion as to sheet mulching layers. Nitrogen-rich material such as fresh grass clippings or green leaves put right on the hugelkultur wood would help jump start the composting process. Could also include seaweed, straw, dead leaves, leaf mould, etc...

The first year of break down means the wood (and fungi) steal a lot of the nitrogen out of the surrounding environment, so adding nitrogen during the first year or planting crops that add nitrogen to the soil (like legumes) or planting species with minimal nitrogen requirements is necessary, unless there is plenty of organic material on top of the wood. After the wood absorbs nitrogen to its fill, the wood will start to break down and start to give nitrogen back in the process. In the end you will be left with a beautiful bed of nutrient rich soil.

Tree types that work well in hugelkultur:

Hardwoods break down slowly and therefore your hugel bed will last longer, hold water for more years and add nutrients for more years. But softwoods are acceptable as well, a softwood bed will just disintegrate quicker. Mixing woods with softwoods and branches on top, to give off nutrients first, and hardwoods on bottom, sounds like a plan if you have access to multiple types of wood. Yet the newly decomposing softwoods at top will eat up a lot of nitrogen at first, so compensate for that.

Woods that work best:
Alders, apple, aspen, birch, cottonwood, maple, oak, poplar, willow (make sure it is dead or it will sprout).

Trees types that work okay:
Black cherry (use only rotted), camphor wood (well aged), cedar/juniper/yew (anti-microbial/anti-fungal, so use only at very bottom or unless already well aged. Cedar should be broken down before new plant roots reach it), eucalyptus (slightly anti-microbial), osage orange (exceptionally resistant to decay), Pacific yew (exceptionally resistant to decay), pine/fir/spruce (tannins and sap), red mulberry (exceptionally resistant to decay).

Tree types to avoid:
Black locust (will not decompose), black walnut (juglone toxin), old growth redwood (heartwood will not decompose and redwood compost can prevent seed germination).

This article was cross-posted from www.inspirationgreen.com/hugelkultur.html

Further resources

Want to learn more about huglekultur beds? We highly recommend Sepp Holzer's Permaculture, a ground breaking book that will teach you all you need to know! (Also available as an eBook) (For US readers, you can buy from Chelsea Green HERE)

Desert or Paradise by Sepp Holzer (For US readers, you can buy from Chelsea Green here)

How to make hugelkultur raised beds in Permaculture 68 as a pdf

Small-scale hugelkulter in raised beds

How to make vertical raised beds for urban green spaces

Video: How to make a hugelkultur bed

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Raised Garden Beds with Corrugated Tin

http://www.finegardening.com/item/8756/and-the-winner-of-aprils-photo-challenge-is

http://ext.homedepot.com/community/blog/meet-the-material-corrugated-sheet-metal-at-home-depot/

TIPS FOR A RAISED-BED VEGETABLE GARDEN

Raised-bed gardening is a great way to grow vegetables -- especially if the garden soil is poor or compacted or has poor drainage. And there's no bending over to pull weeds or harvest vegetables.

Raised beds take very little space, and can be built right over a concrete patio. Drainage in a raised bed is superior to that in an in-ground garden bed. A 12"-deep bed provides ample room for most vegetable roots.

The soil in raised beds warms up more quickly in spring so planting can be done earlier. And if the bed is narrow, 3' or less, there will be no need to step on the soil and thus it prevents compaction. It's much easier for roots to grow in loose soil.

Don't build a raised bed on a wooden deck: when the bed is full of soil and water, its weight could cause structural damage.

If the raised bed sits directly on the soil, line the planting bed with hardware cloth or chicken wire at building time to prevent visits from burrowing animals such as gophers and moles.

The bed may be made of wood, stone, brick, cinder blocks or any other material from which you can build a base at least 12" deep. Choose a location that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight each day. Almost any type of vegetables can be grown in raised beds. Exceptions are potatoes, whose roots need a lot of room, and corn, which would grow so high that harvesting would be difficult.

Here's how to plant a raised bed:

1. Fill the bed with good-quality potting soil or compost, and rake the surface smooth and level. Remove any rocks or debris.

2. Plants in raised beds may be spaced a little closer together because fertilizer and manure can be concentrated in the small gardening area.

3. Plant lettuce by poking holes in the soil with your finger at 6" intervals, and sprinkle a few seeds into each hole. Once the seeds germinate, thin to one seedling per hole.

4. You can also broadcast seeds over the surface of the raised bed. If you plant carrots, apply fine-textured potting soil over the top of the seeds. Carrots will attract some species of butterflies to your raised beds.

5. Cucumbers may be planted along the edge of the raised bed, where they can trail over the side. Cucumbers will grow right on top of your patio.

6. Water the garden well immediately after planting.

http://www.diynetwork.com/outdoors/tips-for-a-raised-bed-vegetable-garden/index.html

Raised Garden Beds: How to Build

Raised garden beds are fairly easy to construct and even easier to maintain. Here is advice on how to build raised garden beds for your backyard.

Benefits of a Raised Garden

• Ideal for smaller spaces (versus a conventional row garden)
• Great for rocky, poor, or abused soil
• Produces a higher yield for the area, thanks to better drainage and deep rooting
• Allows for a longer growing season, since you can work the soil more quickly in the spring in frost-hardened regions
• Makes gardening easier; for example, intensive planting creates shade mulch to keep the weeds down

Raised Beds Video

Here is a fantastic video on How to Use Raised Beds in Your Garden. Click picture below to watch video.

After you finish watching it, click here to try out the online Almanac Garden Planner which has a special raised bed feature.

Construction Tips

Materials

• Many people are concerned about the safely of their wood frame. First, rest assured that CCA pressure-treated wood is banned as it was leaching Arsenic.
• To ensure that the wood lasts, there are several options:
  1) Regular pressure-treated lumber sold today has a mixture of chemicals applied to prevent the moist soil and weather from rotting it. Although pressure-treated wood is certified as safe for organic growing, some people have reservations about using it and there are various eco-friendly alternatives.
  2) More expensive woods such as cedar contain natural oils which prevent rotting and make them much more durable. They are more expensive to buy but they will last many more years.
  3) Choosing thicker boards can make the wood last longer. For example two-inch thick locally-sourced larch should last ten years, even without treatment.
• You could also use concrete blocks or bricks. Remember that concrete will increase the pH in soil over time.
• Some people use railroad ties, however, we would advise against this. Though the very old ones may be fine, newer ties use creosote-treated timber which is toxic.

Planning and Design

• Consider a location that's level and has the right amount of sunlight.
• In terms of bed size, 4 feet is a common width. Lumber is often cut in 4-feet increments, and you also want to be able to access the garden without stepping into the bed.
• Length isn't as important. Plots are often 4 feet wide by 8 feet long or 4 feet wide by 12 feet long.
• The depth of the bed can vary. Six inches is a minimum. Plants need at least a 6- to 12-inch rooting zone, so 12 inches is ideal.
• Before you establish the bed, break up and loosen the soil with a garden fork so that it's not compacted. Go about 6 to 8 inches deep. For improved rooting, some gardeners like to remove the top layer (about a spade's depth), dig down another layer, and then return the top layer and mix the soil layers together.

Building the Bed

We'll speak to timber-built beds in this article since lumber is the most common material used.

• To support timber beds, place wooden stakes at ever corner (and every few feet for long beds). Place on the inside of the bed so that the stakes are less visible.
• Drive the stakes about 60% (2 feet) into the ground and leave the rest of the stakes exposed above ground.
• Ensure that the stakes are level so that they're in the ground at the same height, or you'll have uneven beds.
• Set the lowest boards a couple inches below ground level. Check that they are level.
• Use galvanized nails (or screws) to fix the boards to the stakes.
• Then add any additional rows of boards, fixing them to the stakes, too.

Soil for Raised Beds

• Fill the beds with a mix of topsoil, compost, and other organic material, such as manure, to give your plants a nutrient-rich environment.
• Note that the soil in a raised bed will dry out more quickly. During the spring and fall, this is fine, but during the summer, add straw, mulch, or hay on top of the soil.
• Frequent watering will be critical with raised beds, especially in the early stages of plant growth. Otherwise, raised beds need little maintenance.

Plants for Raised Beds

Almost any crop can be grown in a raised bed. Vegetables are most common, but fruits and even shrubs and trees can be planted, too. Remember that some plants will hang over the edge, so try to think about where you are planting what.

Here's one of many plot plans to consider, courtesy of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

http://www.almanac.com/content/raised-garden-beds-how-build

14 Simple Gardening Tips and Tricks

From using leftover coffee beans to preventing dirt from getting underneath fingernails, master gardener Paul James shares his top 14 tips and shortcuts to make spring gardening a breeze.

Here, the latest tips and tricks from Paul James, host of Gardening by the Yard:

1. To remove the salt deposits that form on clay pots, combine equal parts white vinegar, rubbing alcohol and water in a spray bottle. Apply the mixture to the pot and scrub with a plastic brush. Let the pot dry before you plant anything in it.

2. To prevent accumulating dirt under your fingernails while you work in the garden, draw your fingernails across a bar of soap and you'll effectively seal the undersides of your nails so dirt can't collect beneath them. Then, after you've finished in the garden, use a nailbrush to remove the soap and your nails will be sparkling clean.

3. To prevent the line on your string trimmer from jamming or breaking, treat with a spray vegetable oil before installing it in the trimmer.

4. Turn a long-handled tool into a measuring stick! Lay a long-handled garden tool on the ground, and next to it place a tape measure. Using a permanent marker, write inch and foot marks on the handle. When you need to space plants a certain distance apart (from just an inch to several feet) you'll already have a measuring device in your hand.

5. To have garden twine handy when you need it, just stick a ball of twine in a small clay pot, pull the end of the twine through the drainage hole, and set the pot upside down in the garden. Do that, and you'll never go looking for twine again.

6. Little clay pots make great cloches for protecting young plants from sudden, overnight frosts and freezes.

7. To turn a clay pot into a hose guide, just stab a roughly one-foot length of steel reinforcing bar into the ground at the corner of a bed and slip two clay pots over it: one facing down, the other facing up. The guides will prevent damage to your plants as you drag the hose along the bed.

8. To create perfectly natural markers, write the names of plants (using a permanent marker) on the flat faces of stones of various sizes and place them at or near the base of your plants.

9. Got aphids? You can control them with a strong blast of water from the hose or with insecticidal soap. But here's another suggestion, one that's a lot more fun; get some tape! Wrap a wide strip of tape around your hand, sticky side out, and pat the leaves of plants infested with aphids. Concentrate on the undersides of leaves, because that's where the little buggers like to hide.

10. The next time you boil or steam vegetables, don't pour the water down the drain, use it to water potted patio plants, and you'll be amazed at how the plants respond to the "vegetable soup."

11. Use leftover tea and coffee grounds to acidify the soil of acid-loving plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, gardenias and even blueberries. A light sprinkling of about one-quarter of an inch applied once a month will keep the pH of the soil on the acidic side.

12. Use chamomile tea to control damping-off fungus, which often attacks young seedlings quite suddenly. Just add a spot of tea to the soil around the base of seedlings once a week or use it as a foliar spray.

13. If you need an instant table for tea service, look no farther than your collection of clay pots and saucers. Just flip a good-sized pot over, and top it off with a large saucer. And when you've had your share of tea, fill the saucer with water, and your "table" is now a birdbath.

14. The quickest way in the world to dry herbs: just lay a sheet of newspaper on the seat of your car, arrange the herbs in a single layer, then roll up the windows and close the doors. Your herbs will be quickly dried to perfection. What's more, your car will smell great.

http://www.hgtv.com/gardening/14-simple-gardening-tips-and-tricks/index.html?soc=sharingfb

What Can You Grow In Mini Raised Garden Beds?

What Can You Grow In Mini Raised Garden Beds?

Anything you'd like!

http://www.artandappetite.com/category/home_decor/

Raised Garden Bed Plans

How to Build a Raised Bed

A simple way to build raised bed frames.

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/how-to-build-a-raised-bed

When it came time to build new raised beds for the Organic Gardening Test Garden last spring, the executive director of the Rodale Institute, where our test garden is located, recommended a simple design. Mark Smallwood—“Coach,” as he’s known around the Institute—showed us how to build a raised bed using four pieces of untreated framing lumber, with not a scrap of waste. Each bed requires:

• Three 2-by-12 boards, 8 feet long
• One 2-by-4 board, 8 feet long
• 21/2-inch galvanized deck screws (approximately 28 screws)
   

When purchasing lumber, inspect it for straightness. Straighter boards will result in tighter corners. Cut one of the 2-by-12 boards in half to make two 4-foot lengths; these will be the two end pieces.

Cut the 2-by-4 board into one 4-foot length, to serve as a center brace, and four 1-foot lengths for corner supports. The two uncut boards will become the sides of the raised bed.

After drilling pilot holes, attach one of the side boards to an end board with three evenly spaced screws.

Place one of the corner supports in the angle between the boards and attach it to the side board with three screws. Repeat for the remaining three corners.

Attach the center brace to join the two sides at their midpoints. Use a square to position the brace at a right angle to the sides (5). The brace prevents the sides from bowing outward when the bed is filled with soil.

The finished bed measures 4 feet by 8 feet—a size that makes seed sowing, weeding, and harvesting easy—and raises the planting level by almost a foot. The wood can be stained, if desired. We liked Coach’s raised beds so much, we built 10 of them for the garden. —Doug Hall

Why Garden in Raised Beds?

• The soil can be liberally supplemented with compost and other organic amendments, creating a rich and porous root zone that nurtures plants.
• The bed sides act as an edging, helping to keep out weeds and turfgrass.
• Many gardeners, including those of restricted mobility, find that the slightly higher soil level facilitates maintenance.
• The elevated soil of raised beds drains quickly and doesn’t become waterlogged, and it warms up earlier in spring. (Although those two characteristics are beneficial in cool, rainy climates, gardeners in hot, dry regions may consider them to be negatives.)