Building a SFG Raised Bed

Okay, so here's the deal. You may have read the beginning posts of the blog, or you may not have. So if you did, this may be a little trip down memory lane, or something new. How did the Overnight Gardeners decide to build a garden? Overnight, really. We met some friends for dinner and they were talking of their in-the-ground garden and planting corn, tomatoes, etc. (a spring garden), and we decided to come home and start looking up back yard gardening on the net. Lo and behold we came across the concept of square foot gardening.

What is square foot gardening (SFG)? Well, the short of it is using the least amount of space to get the most of your crop. The creator of the method is Mel Bartholomew and he has written a couple books on the topic. (Most of which can be borrowed from one's local public library.) The basic concept is that different crops need a different amount of growing space (whether below-ground or above-ground, i.e., roots or shoots) and that is how one determines how many plants of each species goes in one square foot. Mel's ideal SFG raised bed is a 4' x 4' square.

Our first two SFG raised beds were 4' x 8' (we excitedly thought, if 4' x4' was good, then twice as big would be better!--not necessarily). The bed was 8" deep. Below are detailed instructions on building a 4' x 8' x 8" raised bed. This information can, of course, be adapted to whatever size and depth bed you want.

List of tools and supplies:

1. measuring tape
2. pencil
3. drill with drill bits
4. two (2) 2' x 12' x 8" untreated boards
   
5. a tub of decking screws
6. one (1) 4 x 4 x whatever length board (not a necessary component)
   

The first beds we built, I brought the boards home and cut them to size myself using my miter saw. However, in successive beds, I have just had the people at big box store cut the boards to size for me. Essentially, I would have them cut 4' off each of the 12' boards. These 4' boards will be used to made our "width" of our bed. The remainder of the boards would make the 8' "length". **Note: this instructions will go along with how we built the first set of SFG beds; we were kind of particular and measured out holes, etc.. Since then, we just eyeball it.

Step 1: Measure holes for placement of wood screws.


Step 2: Pre-drill holes through the 2" x 4' x 8" boards to make it easier to get through all the wood.

Step 3: Secure the 2" x 4' x 8" boards to the 4" x 4" corner supports with decking screws.


Step 4: Pre-drill the 2" x 8' x 8" boards and secure them to the portion of the bed you've already made and voila!


The next post will detail placing the raised bed frame, prepping the ground and soil for your SFG.

A tale of two greens

Prior to a month ago, if someone told me they were making a pot of greens, mustard, collard, and turnip greens instantly came to mind. But since we planted our fall/winter garden, my view of greens has expanded dramatically. When we made our pilgrimage to our local garden store to purchase our transplants for the fall garden, we came upon broccoli raab. We bought a set of four and off we went. Upon planting, they took off! They produce more leaves than one could even imagine! (The broccoli raab plants can be seen below. They are the largest plants in the bed.)

10.9.2011-------------------------------------------10.20.11

11.6.11----------------------------------------------Leaves harvested 11.6.11

The other plants surrounding the broccoli raab are all cool weather plants, but they did not take off nearly as fast as the broccoli raab. When we saw these leaves growing like crazy, we did a little research and found that you can actually cook them up as though they were other "greens. So we started harvesting them and Ell started putting them in with the mustard greens. Paired with the mustard greens has proven to be delicious and full of nutrients. And the broccoli raab just keep on keeping on.

The Mighty Corn Earworm

Lately, I've been biologically controlling and physically controlling the cabbageworm populations on our broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and collard greens. About once a day, I head out to the garden to see if there are any new holes on the leaves of the cole crop plants, and when I spot some, I turn the leaf over to (most of the time) find a little teensy baby caterpillar munching away. Sometimes the worms are so young, they don't even have their green coloring yet (which I can partly assume comes from the chlorophyll they're injesting), but sometimes they can be about 1 inch long and about half the diameter of a No. 2 pencil. This worm I'm familiar with, however the worm below was a new one for me.

After a little research, I believe I have correctly identified this caterpillar as a corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea). I did kill the worm at the time, and I am glad I did. They can wreak havoc on cabbage plants, lettuce, really all kinds of crops. I am glad I spotted him while we were out in the garden harvesting mustard greens before he got a chance to enjoy them himself. Until next time...

A little story...

This blog will be a throw-back blog - it will contain information from (virtually) the beginning of our garden. I guess it would have started when the cucurbit plants first started flourishing and the male and female flowers started arriving... We started seeing these little triangle bugs on our cantaloupe and watermelon vines (at first). Then, we started seeing them on our cucumber vines. When i started googling them, I was using the search terms, "triangle bug on vines", "bug spitting water out its behind", well, you get the picture. I kept seeing them day after day and started noticing the liquid they were expelling out of their behinds was causing whitish spots on fruit (tomatoes - at right, watermelons, etc.) and also on the tops of leaves. Come to find out, the white substance they expel is called honeydew and they are better described as wedge shaped.

I decided I was going to get serious and determine what these little buggers were. After successfully killing them several times and witnessing how they move (they move to the side when you startle them, if they don't hop), I finally found out what they were: leafhoppers. Every time we went in the garden, we were killing them left and right. I was afraid they were stealing nutrients from our developing watermelon and cantaloupe (they seem to prefer these two plants the most). And I kept wondering and researching how one could get rid of these pesky things (they are "bad bugs", they bring disease and can adversely affect the plants). I think I read somewhere parasitic wasps parasitize them and maybe something about beneficial nematodes doing something to control young populations. In recent days, I have noticed a decline in the number of leafhoppers and have attributed it to the fact that we have a whole bunch of wasps (beneficial and cicada wasp killing wasps) in our courtyard out back. I was convinced they were doing their part to control the leafhopper population. And, perhaps they were/are. But, today, as I lifted some cantaloupe to place them in a sling, I was enamored as I saw what appeared to be the beginning stages of an assassin bug taking hold of a leafhopper. I had my phone out there so I hurried to grab a photo and then ran inside (okay, hobbled inside) to get my EOS. You can see the sling placed around the cantaloupes in the photo - I tried so hard not to disturb the assassin bug as he enjoyed his feast.

Tomato-eating fools!

You might think I am talking about me and my family. But, alas, I am not. The morning our second batch of beef steak tomatoes were ripe for the picking, someone else had the same idea I did, and they not only got to the tomatoes first once, but twice. You see, before leaving the house in the afternoon, I checked on the garden - there were 3 ripening tomatoes almost at their prime. Since the morning, one had been picked at/pecked at and had been lost. So I picked it off the vine, brought it in the house and put it in a baggie to show my better half.
Then I went on my merry way and left the house. When I came back no more than two hours later, I went to the garden to find the critters (squirrels or birds, what's your vote?) had gotten our remaining ripening tomatoes. I was heartbroken. Here is Ell with the two found later in the day:

Well, fool me once, fool me twice - but fool me a third time? I came back with guns a blazing (well, okay, nylon guns a blazing), but nonetheless. Here is my first attempt at sparing our newly-ripening beefsteaks: old black nylons tied up to protect them. I'll let you know how it goes.

Assassin Bugs (Wheel Bugs)

Here's a garden lesson I learned the "hard way". I saw these little nymphs all close together on a cantaloupe vine in the garden. What was my first instinct? To kill the little buggers...

Because I felt like they look like they all hatched at the same time and they looked like they were on a mission. Little did I know they were on a good mission... as I would come to learn.

We went to our favorite local hardware store/garden center (Naylor's) and I quizzed our contacts there. I told Butch about it and he walked me over to a photograph hanging on the wall -- lo and behold, the little buggers were beneficial insects.


Here's another photo of an assassin bug on our little brown-turkey fig tree (it's not terribly clear, but still). Want to learn more about them and see what the adult wheel bug looks like?
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/category/true-bugs/assassin-bugs/

Lady bug?

Today's garden adventure involved our first sighting of a squash beetle in our garden. Ell spotted a lady bug-looking beetle on the underside of a zucchini leaf this evening while we were watering and tending to the garden. I told her I'd take a photo and we'd come back inside and check it out and go from there. She said, "are you sure that's a lady bug? I thought when we were researching things, there was something that said it looked like a lady bug"... Well, the photos weren't that great (I didn't get that close because let's face it, I don't really like bugs) but I googled "orangish lady bug" and lo and behold - photos of a type of squash beetle came up. So I told Ell I think I'd found the culprit, after comparing the photos online to the photos I had and doing some patterning and counting. I grabbed my bug jar (a re-used Ragu spaghetti sauce jar) and and hobbled out to the garden to have a peek. Thankfully, the bug hadn't moved to another leaf, and I was able to quickly knock him into my bug jar. As he plunked down to the bottom, I saw the distinctive 14 black spots on the back of the beetle. At the moment I did that, I then saw the distinctive pattern they "cut" or "chew" out of the leaf. As I walked back to the house, beetle in hand, I was looking at him and got a good view-- it is in fact a squash beetle. Lesson? Collect the bug first, then research him, because if he's gone when you come back, you may never find him!