A New Raised Bed

A New Raised Bed

This raised bed started with a brick walkway to get from the greenhouse to the garage. It was a self defense effort to stop my wife from killing me over the mud. I realized that if I was carrying things too close past the green house, I might break a window. The raised bed seemed like the perfect solution.

I tilled the area, then dug the dirt out and put it on plastic trash bags. The bottom was filled with several inches of half finished compost. This was topped with rock phosphate and about 4” of dirt bringing things back up to ground level. A frame with old 2” X 8” lumber from the deck I am tearing down went on top of this. It is 2’ wide and 12’ long. That was filled to the brim with another layer of compost and the rest of the dirt from the hole.

Today the bed will be planted with beets, carrots, radishes, oak leaf lettuce, chives and thyme. The root crops and the lettuce should all be harvested by the end of May leaving Chives and Thyme as a permanent crop.


David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.