PHOTOS BY RACHEL FOSTER
Spring Planting Guide 2006
T
his time last year, gardeners were
obsessed with drought. Now we
are looking at normal rainfall
totals and a comfortable snow pack, and a
wetter winter is probably reminding some
of us why raised beds are a great idea.
Depending on your particular soil and the
lay of the land, wet soil can delay planting
by several weeks. Wet soils are difficult or
impossible to cultivate, and slow to warm
up. The calendar may say it’s time to sow,
but any seeds you do manage to get in
could rot before they germinate.
Raised beds make it easy to maintain a
rich, crumbly soil that drains well and
warms up quickly in spring, allowing an
early start on cultivation. Seeds germinate
and grow faster. Lifting the soil surface
just a few inches above grade is helpful to
get things started, though deeper beds of
loose soil are great for carrots and
parsnips. There is no need to frame raised
beds with rock or lumber. Contained beds
do look tidy and fit well in a controlled
landscape, but uncontained beds are just as
Return of the Wet Winter
Why raised beds are important in local gardening.
BY RACHEL FOSTER
effective and they are cheaper and easier
to build and renovate.
Years back, much of the land at FOOD
for Lane County’s Grassroots Garden
would be under water well into spring.
Using raised beds has made year-round
gardening possible. (In the last five years,
director Mary Bradley and hundreds of
volunteers have effectively doubled the
growing area, which last year produced
40,000 lbs. of organic produce.) The sim-
ple beds in each section are 40 feet long
and about a foot high, spaced to be four
feet wide with 18 inch paths between.
In practice, the width of the path will
vary: The top of the bed might be built
only 2 feet wide for corn or broccoli, and
paths can grow narrower during the season
as soil spills over, but the basic pattern
remains. These paths are wide enough for
wheelbarrows. You can make your own
paths as wide as you find convenient,
remembering that you will need access to
add amendments, to weed and harvest pro-
duce. To avoid compacting the nice loose
soil, the beds should be no wider than you
can tend and harvest without stepping in
them.
In Growing Vegetables West of the
Cascades, Steve Solomon described the
basic method for raising beds: When your
own soil is workable, spread an inch of
compost and any other amendments over
the entire garden area, turn the soil to a
depth of six or seven inches and then shov-
el a few inches of soil into shallow, flat
topped berms with paths between them. If
you have scanty soil or heavy, intractable
clay, bring in a mix of sandy loam and
compost to form the beds. Once built, the
beds rarely need deep cultivation: New
organic material, green or composted, can
be scratched into the top few inches every
year after the beds are neatened up. Mulch
the paths with woodchips, leaves or straw.
One gardener I met years ago swore by
oak leaves because, he said, slugs don’t
like them.
The ideal time to construct a raised bed
garden is perhaps in fall, when soils are
warm and readily workable. You can make
a raised bed any time, however, and now is
not too late. If you complete a bed by April
you can still plant broccoli, peas and many
leaf crops, and you have until late May to
plant tomatoes, peppers, squash and
beans.
ew
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