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So you want a vegetable Garden, but don't have a large lot to
till up for the project? A good way to compensate for such lack of space is by
Gardening in raised beds. Doing so helps you overcome other
problems, such as less-than-perfect soil and Colorado's short
growing season.
A raised bed for vegetables can be as simple as raking the
soil into flat-topped mounds a little higher than paths. Or, you
can box the mounds with landscape timbers.
A convenient size for raised beds is about four feet wide and
as long as space allows. Paths of 15 to 20 inches between the beds
can be mulched to keep down weeds and allow a dry surface for
walking. Pea-sized gravel, used carpeting, boards, grass clippings
or straw make a good path.
Raised beds warm up earlier in the spring and dry out quicker.
This allows the soil to be worked and planted earlier, extending
the season a week or more. The wide edges of landscape timbers are
handy to sit on while weeding or harvesting. Because the permanent
paths need no water, fertilizer, soil amendments or tilling, costs
and labor are reduced. Well-defined beds, such as those boxed with
timbers, are less likely to be stepped on, so the soil stays loose
and porous much longer and is easier to work each year.
Because the soil is improved and there is no need to walk
between plants, vegetables can be spaced more closely. This
increases the yield per square foot. Within wide beds, seed can be
scattered randomly or sown in shallow furrows two or three inches
apart. Thin plants enough to allow growing room. This works well
for lettuce, spinach and root Crops.
Beds three or four feet wide have space enough for two rows of
large plants such as corn, bush beans or peppers. Tomatoes can be
spaced two and one-half to three feet apart with the rows
staggered.
Gardeners can borrow the idea of vertical space from
skyscrapers. Sprawling plants, such as cucumber vines, can grow
vertically on a frame or trellis. Pole beans, snap peas and small
varieties of squash can climb a chain link fence or an A-frame from
which fruits hang for easy picking. Tomato towers, purchased or
homemade, are convenient for all climbing vegetables. An eighteen-inch diameter ring made from
hog wire or reinforcing wire can cage
a tomato or provide support for ten cucumber vines planted about
six inches apart. Snap peas can be planted every four inches. Allow
a foot or two between the cages.
Interplanting and succession planting increases the yield from
a small plot. A common method of interplanting is to mix carrot and
radish seeds in the same row or plot. As the early-maturing
radishes are harvested, the row is thinned enough to allow carrots
space to grow. Head lettuce or butter-head types can be sown
thickly, then used as leaf lettuce until thinned enough to allow
head formation.
Succession planting means using the same area to grow
successive Crops. For example, spinach is planted in early spring.
When the weather and soil are warm enough for beans, squash or
peppers, the spinach will be about to seed, so the warm crop can
take over the plot.
Homegrown flavor and the fun of watching things grow can be
even easier and more productive in raised beds.
For more information on Gardening, contact your
local Colorado State University Extension office.
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