Raised Beds

[Wannabe]

It seems like everything grew slow and did not do well. I planted pole beans two different times. The early ones made sots of vines and no beans. The later ones never made it over eight inches tall. I had okra last year thet I had to bend over to cut the okra off the top and this year it is barely up to eye level. peppers have done well. I have had two good pickings off the tabasco (for pepper sauce) and habenaro plants. I think everyone down here has not had a good garden. Maby nest year will be better. I would like to make some more raised beds but instead of wood I think I use cinder blocks on the ground and make them permanent. When I moved the 16x20 storage shead in I had to move one of the beds over a couple of feet and it was pretty easy. I used a cinder block for a fulcrum and a 2x4 as the lever and scooted it over with no straining.
Bob

 

[Kayak Jack]

It would seem to me, that a raised bed would suffer more in extreme heat than one in the ground. Don't raised beds heat up faster, and drain faster than ground level? Do you have room to try both methods side by side?
I didn't know you could get seed or sets for Tabasco peppers! I grew a variety, one year, called Firecrackers. It was a short bush with dark green, waxy leaves. Little peppers the size of my little finger poked there noses out - BRIGHT red. In the sun, the plant was really pretty. I dried the "decorative only" peppers and crushed them for table seasoning. Just like the store-bought stuff.

 

[Wannabe]

Raised beds that are off the ground like mine do warm up faster. That is an advantage in the spring because you can plant earlier. The soil mix holds water very well. The excess will drain through and not waterlog the roots.
I ger tobasco pepper sets at the garden center in Baytown. You can also get seed packs if you want to start them from seeds. When they start maturing I wait until a good many of them have turned red and then I will take off the peppers off the plant. Doing that gets me red, orange, yellow, and green peppers and that will make a colorful jar of pepper sauce.
Bob

 

[Kayak Jack]

But, weren't you having problems with too much heat and not enough water?

 

[Wannabe]

Jack,
It was hot down here but not as hot as Ron was. It was so hot up at Ron's when he tried to water only about a quarter of the water comming out of the hose would get on the soil. Two thirds of the water would evaporate before it hit the ground. The problem with temp. is the ambient temp. and not the soil temp. if I understand it correctly. Ron may be able to explain it properly.
Bob

 

[tx river rat]

I planted in the ground and also raised bed ,the raised bed used less water and produced more .
No one up here made a decent garden ,once it got over a hundred every thing just stopped ,and it stayed over a hundred for a long time. When it cooled of things went back to growing and blooming ,I am one of the few that has anything still up and going.
When the temp gets over a hundred especially with low humidity plants go into a survival mode
stop growing drop excess leaves dont bloom. My house has big trees in the back and I moved my raised beds under them so it was a little cooler.
in the front with no trees it killed everything ,or it went dormant.
For the worst year on heat and no rain I guess they did better than anything else in this area.
I will keep plugging with them.
Found me a source for all the rabbit manure I want ,you can use fresh ,in compost and for top dressing ,no weeds and doesnt burn the plants.
Ron

 

[Kayak Jack]

Mulching and adding manure are both good things for gardens. Good on ya!

 

[tx river rat]

I need to take some pics but the raised beds are doing great . I just had a salad with fresh carrots
radishes,turnips ,swiss chard, spinich,snow peas,3 kinds of lettuce. Toped that off with some fried chicken MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM good.
Also have beets , mustard greens onions garlic coming on strong.
Ron

 

[catfish]

t rat sounds good except for the beets , send them to KJ :wink: :lol:

 

[tx river rat]

I agree on the beets ,but they are for my better half.
Ron

 

[hairymick01]

G'day Guys,

I just found this thread and a bloody good read it is. Thank you.

Some thoughts on the raised bed type garden, from another, normally very hot and usually dry climate.

I was working in Camooweal. (Go to http://maps.google.com.au/ and type in Camooweal.) in the far north west of my state a number of years ago. This is black soil country, similar to the way Rons describes his soil in Texas. This is at best, semi arid land and during the summer, the temps get well in excess of 100f and stay that way pretty much the entire time between September and about April. No vegetables will gow in the ground there in those conditions.

When I was there, I befriended the local butcher, a part Chinese/part aboriginal man (we used to call them black Chinese back then) who not only butchered his own cattle for his butcher shop but also ran a very successful small market garden. His ideas and his methods were revolutionary in that area at the time and he suppled a lot of fresh produce to an area that had to ship such items in from the east coast, over a thousand miles away.

His garden beds were in cut off water tanks. They were cut to about 2 feet high and then filled with soil, compost, lawn clippings and pretty much anything that would assist to break down the clay like black dirt into workable soil. When he killed a beast (cow), he collected the blood and he also ground down the bones and other offal and mixed the whole lot into his beds.

When his seedlings had shot, he liberally mulched to help protect the soil from the heat from the sun and to reduce water evaporation. We do this here in Aus as a mattor of course now. What he did that was so different was that he had supported chicken wire about 4 feet over the time of his garden beds on which he put hessian bags that he kept wet. This kept the soil cool and moist constantly and he grew the best lettuce and tomatoes I had ever seen in county that a lizard nearly has to bring a cut lunch and a water bag just to survive.

Mulching is a very good thing. it not only conserves precious water, it also helps to control weeds and as the mulch breaks down, it enriches the soil. nearly all of my gardens are "No Dig" gardens in that I lay old news paper on the ground and cover liberally with mulch and keep it damp. As the mulch breaks down, i had more mulch and so on for about a year and then it is ready tyo plant. Too easy. :mrgreen:

 

[Wannabe]

Mick,
Would a hussian bag be like a burlap bag?
Bob

 

[hairymick01]

Mate,

I wasn't familiar with the Term "Burlap" but I found this in Wikipedia

Hessian ( /ˈhɛsi.ən/), or burlap in the US,[1] is a woven fabric usually made from skin of the jute plant[2][3][4] or sisal fibres,[5] or may be combined with other vegetable fibres to make rope, nets, and similar products. Gunny cloth is similar.

Hessian, a dense woven fabric, has been historically produced as a coarse fabric, but more recently it is being used in a refined state known simply as jute as an ecofriendly material for bags, rugs, and other products.

The name "burlap" appears to be of unknown origin.[6][7] The name "hessian" is attributed to the use of the fabric, initially, as part of the uniform of soldiers from the German state of Hessen[6] who were called "Hessians."

[edit] History
Hessian was first exported from India in the early 19th century.[3] It was traditionally used as backing for linoleum, rugs and carpet.[3]

[edit] Uses
[edit] Shipping and construction
Hessian is often used to make sacks and bags to ship goods like coffee beans; these can be described as gunny sacks. It is breathable and thus resists condensation and associated spoilage of the contents. It is also durable enough to withstand rough handling in transit; these properties have also led to its use for temporary protection as wet covering to prevent rapid moisture loss in setting of cement and concrete by the construction industry. Hessian is also commonly used for making sandbags, empty hessian sacks that, when filled with sand, are used for flood mitigation when building temporary embankments against floodwaters or field fortifications.

[edit] Landscaping and Agriculture
Hessian is used to wrap the exposed roots of trees and shrubs when transplanting, and also for erosion control on steep slopes.

[edit] Apparel
Due to its coarse texture, it is not commonly used in modern apparel. However, this roughness gave it a use in a religious context for mortification of the flesh, where individuals may wear an abrasive shirt called a cilice or "hairshirt" and in the wearing of "sackcloth" on Ash Wednesday.

Owing to its durability, open weave, naturally non-shiny refraction, and fuzzy texture, Ghillie suits for 3D camouflage are often made of hessian. It was also a popular material for camouflage scrim on combat helmets of World War II. Until the advent of the plastic "leafy" multi-color net system following the Vietnam War, burlap scrim was also woven onto shrimp and fish netting to create large-scale military camouflage netting.

[edit] In art
As hessian, it has been used by fine artists as an alternative to canvas as a stretched painting surface.[dubious – discuss]

[edit] Emergency Flood Response
Hessian bags are often deployed as sandbags as a temporary response to flooding. Because of their material they can either be reused or can be composted after use. Agencies like the State Emergency Service in Australia, and Technisches Hilfswerk in Germany often deploy the use of sandbags and are often found in the majority of their emergency response vehicles. Plastic bags have been used as a substitute but SES units have found hessian bags to be more versatile as they can be used in a variety of rescue applications, mainly as an edge protector for rope rescue operations, or to use as padding on slings used in Animal Rescue

Often potatoes are packed and transported in these bags here.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Bob, that's Aussie for "yes". :wink:
Dang, Mick, you went to town on that one.

 

[Wannabe]

Mick,
Yep! That would be a burlap tow sack. Haul potatoes, cow feed, chicken feed, corn, oats, speltz, and about anything esle that needs hauling. Tie it around chains and cable, soak with insecticides for cows to rub on, tie a wet tow sack on the end of a shovel to beat out grass fires. The uses are too many to list.
Bob

 

[Kayak Jack]

<SNIP> The uses are too many to list.

Some guys hafta take'em on dates I've heard.

 

[Wannabe]

<SNIP> The uses are too many to list.

Some guys hafta take'em on dates I've heard.

I ain't touching that one Jack. :lol:
Bob

 

[Kayak Jack]

I dunno, Bob. It's what the Louisiana guys told me about when they dated Texas gals. :wink:

 

[hairymick01]

They work real good for keeping fish cool too. Just dunk em in the water occassionally.

"tow sacks" eh? God you 'Mericans got a way with words.

 

[hairymick01]

Oh yeah, we used to call em "sugar bags" but ya can't buy suger in em anymore. That might apply to the... nah, not gonna go there.