So a while back I started a thread about building a raised bed garden for the first time, guess it's been archived cause I can't find it.
Anyway. I built my bed filled it with 3 yards of topsoil, and compost, and started planting. I started my spinach from seed, and it's doing so so.
It survived 2 freezes with ice. I planted onion sets the same time, and they are doing great. I also did broccoli, and it died in the freeze, so
no broccoli. Anyway right now I have onions, tomatoes, peppers, squash, spinach, cantaloupe, parsley, okra, cilantro, carrots, and basil.

Some is still underground in seed form, but it's starting to sprout. I also decided to get some more chickens after taking a few years off from
raising them. out of 7 chicks bought I ended up with 1 rooster which will have to go in a couple more months. My daughter doesn't want me
to get rid of him yet, so I told her we could keep him until the hens start laying.

I also planted a peach tree yesterday. Hopefully it will grow, and produce well. I still have plans on expanding the garden, but I'm going to wait until
next year. I don't have the time or money to do anymore this year. So with that all said enjoy the pics. Thanks for all the advice in the previous thread.



















After this season is over I do believe I'm going to buy a small greenhouse, and put a pump in my well. I paid about $60.00 for plants this year, and I know I
can grow them from seeds a lot cheaper, just don't have anywhere in the house to do it.

Very well laid out.  

TRG

looks very practical and very clean.  i love it.

do what you can, with what you got.

Red Haven

Looking good, and organized.



Looking forward to see how it goes this year.

Nice set up. Very manageable and well thought out.

Nice job.  Size isn't as important as the fact that you are getting the experience.  Until people have had animals and a garden, they'll never know what works and what doesn't.

Thanks for the compliments. I just hope I can keep everything alive in the garden this year. That Texas heat is a killer for the veggies
around here. Not to mention we are in a drought. Sometimes it doesn't matter when and how I water it's so dry and hot the plants just
wilt or dry up and die, but that was always planting in the ground. Hopefully the raised bed will remedy that.

Pretty cool setup.

In my experience, any plants above natural ground level are subject to drought at a rate that is 2-3 times as fast.

I have moved from raised rows to flat beds for my planting.

I did raise my sweet potatoes up on to beds this season to try and get the soil temperatures up.  But, I added in some dikes to help retain water when it does rain.

TRG

If it's drying out too quickly, perhaps you can amend the soil with something that will hold water better.  My wife is the garden expert, so I don't know exactly what would work.  

Good thread here on the subject.  It refers to clay in the soil, but some of the ideas should work for you.

what about cedar mulch. Would that work or is it "Toxic" to some plants? I'm thinking for the peppers, tomatoes, okra, and such.
I don't think I would use it on the onions and herbs.

Nice.  I am jealous of your chickens.

just thought I would add an update.

Mr. Rooster is starting to crow. He's gonna have to go soon.


Here's a shot of the whole thing. Getting full and green.


My 2 cayenne peppers are growing pretty good. They get shade most of the day and I wasn't sure how they would react, but they are growing great.


Spinach is doing awesome. I have harvested from it twice and made 2 meals worth, and it is still growing.


Radishes are growing good, and the carrots have started coming up too.


2 Jalapeno's, and 2 Banana peppers are growing slower than I expected, but they are green and alive.


Squash is doing good. Growing fast. No blooms yet, but it's healthy.


4 better boy tomato, and 1 yummy bell mini bell pepper.


1 Solar fire tomato, 1 better boy, 1 roma, and 1 cherry. Growing like weeds.


Here's one of the first tomatoes. It's on the large better boy.


A couple cherry tomatoes coming out.


Not sure what happened to the onions. They all fell over. I know onions fall over on their own, but it's way to early I thought. No bulbs bigger than a pingpong ball
Not sure if I'm gonna get onions this year or not.


Not sure what this is some herb, just can't remember what I planted there.


Okra coming up.


Not sure what this is either. Some kind of herb again. Need to start labeling these things.


Cantaloupe is growing pretty fast as well.  


Some more radishes growing in my little pallet garden.


Got a couple peaches growing as well.

Very nice! My cantaloupe is growing ok but it's nowhere near keeping pace with my Charleston Grey watermelons. I have 2 in the ground and they are running all over. My cukes and lemon cucumbers are doing pretty well too.

I didn't do cucumber this year. Not enough room. I'm doing to build another raised bed or 2 next year, and I'll do a lot more. I eat the heck out of cucumbers
I should have planted at least one this year. Oh well.

Couple things...

Tomatoes.  Stop letting them bloom this early.  "Roots not froots".  Pick those blooms, remove those tomatoes.  Force them to continue to develop root structure and leaves.  

Onions.  You're late.  You're in Texas.  Plant them as early as possible.  I think mine were in the ground in January.  They should not be tipping over.  I suspect you have soil that is too loose, or, you are over-watering.  Feed them a pellet fertilizer 13-13-13 every two weeks.  Yours are too thready for early May.

Spinach.  Stop wasting space.  All that area between your rows should be solid spinach.  It's a 'green' and you should be harvesting it with a 12-14" knife and literally slicing out a swatch of it each week.  Double down and be aggressive.  You could be eating it with almost every meal in that amount of space.

Peppers.  Don;t plant them next to your tomatoes.  They require different feeding and treatment.  Tomatoes are heavy feeders and produce fruit as a result.  Peppers do not produce well when fed.  Instead, they produce leaves, stems and more leaves and stems.  Abuse your peppers.  Feed your tomatoes.  When they are planted close together (as in your case) you can't feed them separately.

Okra.  It's a 'hot weather' crop.  You should be looking at mid-summer to plant them.  June at the earliest.  They are taking up space that you should be using for cooler weather crops.  They are heavy feeders for late summer.  Yours are also too crowded.  16" apart unless you plan to water them.  They can be 5' tall and 24" in diameter.

Radishes.  Although I really do like your pallet idea, they should be spread all over your garden.  Literally...you can't have too many.  They mature quickly and help aerate your soil.  Plant them willy-nilly around all your plants.  They grow fast and when you harvest they open the soil.  You have a loose soil already, but, go nuts with radishes.  Almost on a weekly basis you should be sprinkling radish seeds...

Turnips... I did not see you growing any, but here in N. Texas you should be growin them instead of carrots.  You can eat the tops (unlike carrots) and they take less time to mature.  Instead of a single thready row of carrots, you should have a 14-18" wide bed of turnips.   You can pick single leaves, or grab a handful for a quickly steamed side dish with butter and garlic powder.  Later, a single turnip can produce more than a pound of produce from a single bulb.  Move away from carrots and in to a more southern happy product.

Mustard green.   Natural green.  Easy to harvest your own seeds.  Quick maturity.  I would advise a trip to home depot and snagging a pack of seed.  Pull up the okra.  Replace it with a bed of mustard greens.  Harvest the seeds.  Eat the leaves.  Later this summer re-visit the okra.


TRG

Last thing...

Your 'mulch' is at what can best be described as 'nuisance' level.  It is not deep enough to prevent light, and heat, from reaching the soil's surface.  It will do nothing to stop weeds and grasses from sprouting.  

It will change your soil's acidity and it will allow weeds to grow.  Neither of these things are probably what you intended.  

It is more of a nuisance, for you, with the way it will unpredictably change your pH and get in the way when you are trying to plant.  

With mulch ... Go Big, or Go home.

I don;t use mulch any more, unless it is just an aesthetic to make the wife happy.

TRG

TRG, do use any weed control or just let nature take it's course?

I still pull some weeds by hand.  

The walkways are tilled to remove/recycle the weeds that grow between rows.

TRG

I have planted both.  

Carrots just don't fight back against weeds.  Thin tops allow too much light to pass between them.    

TRG

as far as weeds go. I don't get too many in the raised bed. I would bet I have pulled 10 weeds since I started it.
Not to say weeds can't grow but I don't worry about them too much. The mulch is more of a water holder. It is
about 3 inches thick, and it does hold the moisture well. As far as all the other suggestions shit that a lot to digest, and
I don't think rearranging the whole thing this year is an option. I will keep that in mind for next year. Although I think
next year I am going to do all my peppers in a seperate box, and keep this one for greens and tomatoes.

Correct.  

Some of the things I posted can be done this year, other things... next 'season'.  Start planning your late-summer and early Fall planting now.  

TRG

You said okra is a warm weather crop. It's supposed to hit 101 here tomorrow is that warm enough

Yup.  Other than being crowded, yours is fine.  I generally wait until June to plant it.  When it gets 'buggy hot' and you don't want to be in the heat, sun, wind and grasshoppers are going nuts ... it's okra time.  Grasshoppers don't eat them.  Low maintenance crop for those times when you are burned out from the season.

Drought is really starting to take a deep hold here already.  8" under our normal amount from January 1.  

I've been wanting to plant melons and corn.  Too dry.    Turnips are slowing and beginning to stunt from lack of rainfall.

I took some pics though to show you planting ideas.

Here is why I don't like planting carrots.  Note the 'advantage' the single grass plant has compared to the carrot.  Huge surface area on the leaves for light gathering.  It's going to outpace that carrot.



A few feet away, the surface/shading of a single radish.  



Scale:



Greens (mustard).  Have not required any weeding at all since they were planted almost a month ago.  Also, entire plant is edible.  Leaves, flowers, seed pods.  Dried seeds harvested for a new crop or seasoning.  Just all-around awesome plant.  More versatile than spinach, imho:



Turnip row.  Pic taken today.  Note the lack of any weeds at all.  When dense enough they self-shade.  They do compete for food, so if you want them to put on bulbs, you gotta thin them systematically, but, they are food from the time they sprout to the time you pull the bulbs.  They kick carrot's ass.  From greens to mashed/steamed and served like a potato.  Turnips don't mind the heat as much either.



Grassy patch in my lettuce bed.  Demonstrates what the real effect of shading actually means.  No shade...instant weeds/grass.  Shaded, no issues.



Last radish between these tomatoes.  With the shade, and careful watering, there is no way for grass and weeds to get ahead of the tomatoes now.

<a href="http://s671.photobucket.com/user/TheRedGoat/media/garden2013/20140504_112725_zpsa1d19cee.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv71/TheRedGoat/garden2013/20140504_112725_zpsa1d19cee.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20140504_112725_zpsa1d19cee.jpg"/></a>

Pepper plants, because they are slower, tend to have more issues with grasses.  I tried (against my better judgement) to get the carrots to grow between the peppers.  It works, but, the grass keeps getting ahead of the carrots.  



This is what it looks like after some quick work with the sharp hoe.  Took about 15 minutes to work through here and remove the grass.  

<a href="http://s671.photobucket.com/user/TheRedGoat/media/garden2013/20140504_112738_zpsd7137ee0.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv71/TheRedGoat/garden2013/20140504_112738_zpsd7137ee0.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20140504_112738_zpsd7137ee0.jpg"/></a>

Close-up, prior to working the grass.  You can see the bell pepper plant, carrots, and green beans.  Low to the ground is a broadleaf grass.  It's a direct competitor and you can't let it grow without it stunting everything.



Under a minute's work, but it will make a big difference later.  Tomatoes grow so much faster that this weeding is not needed on the tomatoes.



Scale.



The plastic buckets around the base of the plants helps me concentrate fertilizer and calcium.  It keeps the fertilizer from being splashed in to the walkways where it will feed weeds/grass growth.

You can see from the pics that heat and drought are also used here to cut my weeding.  Those walkways get very little water.  I try to avoid splashing any water there when hand watering rows.

Hope all that helps

TRG

I have a couple of places where they are super dense.  We'll see what happens.

I am gardening on the ground level in what was once nothing but native pasture so I am always looking at ways to push the weeds out. This is my fourth year of gardening, so the weeds have won more than I have over the last three years.  

As for turnips and radishes ... I really am not a fan of either plant as a food crop.  The turnip greens are always tough to get 100% sand free.  Turnip bulbs are 'ok' but I never find myself looking forward to them.  

But, as a beneficial plant... excellent secondary benefits.  And for a SHTF food, it's an important one.

Frost proof
Weed shading/control
Edible greens (fresh/raw....cooked...canned)
Low bug impact
Aeration when harvested
Extended growing season
2lb tuber when allowed to mature
Will regrow from their own seeds, but seeds are dirt cheap
Fertilizer when tilled under.

Turnips are one of those plants that I can just turn my back on and expect them to be happy.  

TRG

When you plant, make a sketch on a sheet of paper so you know what you planted and then you'll know how well they did.  For example, I planted several varieties of
garlic last fall and there is no way that I would remember what I planted without writing it down.  Since I space the garlic 6" apart, I will know what variety didn't do well.
This also saves you the trouble of labeling the plants in the garden itself.