I am going to set up 4 raised garden beds this spring. They will be 6' x 12' each with their own water timer. I'll be using my own compost (adding 10 lbs of worms in spring) and topsoil to fill the beds.

Anybody have any suggestions for what to plant and group together to make the beds work better? I am in Zone 6B. I want to try and grow a nice mix of stuff to keep me out of the grocery store.

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Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys

I've got a hellacious compost pile, but I only use it to get grass and plants to grow inmy yard. I'm too lazy to grow my own food. Maybe I'll take that up if I ever get to retire.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I am a glass artist and work from home. I figure the more sustainable my lifestyle is, the less I need to rely on steady income. Money always comes in waves. I also think it will be healthier and cool to expose my kids to such things.

I used to not care about such things, but the responsibility of having kids has made me think differently.

__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys

Google "Compost Tea"...to learn how you can make some decent liquid fertilizer from alfalfa pellets and water. We're looking into how to do it on a larger scale to fertilize our forage. And, I've also visited with the folks at Sustainable Growth Texas about providing these services to us.

I'm not an organic farmer by any stretch but, I truly dislike the agbiz' chemical addiction to pesticides and commercial ferilizers and am willing to explore other possibilites.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I'm somewhat of an organic gardener mainly because I'm too lazy to bother with fertilization and pest control. Knowing what's on your food is a nice benefit, too. Now that a good portion of our produce is coming from Mexico, using who knows what on it, I try to grow as much as I can in my little suburban lot. I pretty much just keep adding compost every year and it's been fine but if you really get into it the teas do work well. I've got a customer that specializes in the teas for lawn application and swears by them.

I think your best bet is to just group them with similar types: Salad greens and herbs (lettuces, cicoria, spinach, chards and the herbs), Fleshy fruits/veggies (cukes, squashes, tomatoes, peppers), Root crops (radishes, carrots, turnips, beets) and then Peas and Beans. Corn is fun but takes a lot of room and is pretty needy as far as Nitrogen levels go. The groups all have similar water and nutrient needs. Then just rotate them to a different bed every year.

We carried an organic line a few years ago but the handling, storage and packaging protocol was well above our capabilities given the return on investment. Organic and non-organic varieties can not be stored in the same storage area (even though they are in separate sealed and lined bags) and the packaging equipment must be exclusively for the organic seed and in a separate, sealed area from the non-organic packaging equipment (or throughly cleaned in a strict fashion). Since many of the organic farmers in southern N.E. didn't have a problem with plain old untreated seed it didn't make it a tough business decision to go back to our old ways. On a strictly monetary level, the organics ran 3 to 4 times the cost of untreated, open-pollinated varieties. That said, people weren't beating our door down for $20/lb. Danvers carrots and $25 Detroit Dark Red beets.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Thanks for the tip. I make a compost tea currently by adding a few scoops of my compost to a bucket of water and let it sit for a day or two. I use it on my flower beds and in the pots I had tomatoes in. I haven't heard about the alfalfa pellets though.

I have been OK with doing pots of tomatoes and herbs but I need to learn more about being successful with a larger garden. I hope I can pull it off this coming year.

__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys

Thanks for your thoughts Swamp. Those groupings seem to be most logical. I want to give myself the best chance for success so I appreciate the input.

My plan is to have these four beds in the corners of an outdoor fenced in dining patio with room for my grill. I have visions of picking veggies from the garden in front of the dinner guests and throwing them on the grill. All will be washed down with homebrew

__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys

When dealing with forages, Sustainable Growth takes it a step further and 'brews' the tea for the particular forage they want to fertilize. This methodology may work for vegetables as well. I'll look through my notes later and post more details.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.