Hi all - the other threads about raised bed gardening motivated me to start my own here.  I have been growing veggies in raised beds for 4 years now.  It started off with a crappy little Home Depot kit the first year and has grown into what I have today.  Here is a little background on my system;  With the exception of the new, taller carrot bed I have used redwood to make all of my beds.  The carrot bed is new this year and I made it out of fir.  I did not treat the wood in any way and really only used fir as an experiment to see how long it will last.  I have enclosed most of the garden area to keep the dang doves out.  We live in an older neighborhood and almost every house in the area, ours included, has pecan trees.  The doves love to live in the trees and eat the pecans.  This means they also love to eat out of my garden.  I learned this the hard way year one.  

Last years version of my garden area was enclosed with a PVC pipe frame.  It was destroyed by a heavy snow load over the winter so I was forced to tear it all down and rebuild.  I decided to also use redwood for the frame.  I started rebuilding at the end of January and finished in early March.  Because of this I did not start anything inside this year.  All the veggies you see, with the exception of the onions, garlic, carrots, and potatoes are store bought starter plants.  We live in the desert Southwest so peppers and onions do very well here.  I usually grow a ton of bells, jalapenos, onions, etc.  Tomatoes do well here early and late in the season.  This year I added a shade cloth to the tomato area to see if I can keep them producing throughout the season.  

I am sure there is a ton of info I am missing and I will add to thread as I think of things.  Here are few pictures I took last night.  (This is what everybody really wants to see anyways)

Front of the garden looking in.  As you can see I eft a few things outside.



Outside onion bed.  I let the kids plant them this year, that may have been a mistake.  :)



Tomato bed - the plan is to "train" the vines to grow up against the chicken wire.  Hopefully it works. Notice the shade cloth behind the bed.



Inside view - bell peppers, lettuce, a bit of kale, garlic, and onions

Here are a few more pics:

Cucumbers on the right



Carrots and radishes



Jalapenos and other "hot" peppers



A few hanging planters with herbs on the outside

Carrots could use more soil unless you like them short.

While I do like them short I also agree.  This is a new bed and the soil settled a bit more than I anticipated.  Once I harvest them I will make sure to top the bed off with more compost and peat.  

Also, I still consider myself to be very much a beginner when it comes to vegetable gardening so any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

That is an awesome looking setup!

Thanks, it's been a lot of fun putting it together so far.

Nice setup!  Subscribed.  

Installing the drip system was easier than I thought it would be.  I am still working on getting the run times right but I think I am close. I plan on staking the tomatoes this weekend. I have already tied them to the chicken wire. I really hope that plan works. I have always used mulch in my yard but I have never used it in my raised beds. It's something I will give a shot. I'm not quite in AZ so I don't have quite the heat you do but it will be in the high 90's to low 100's all summer long here. Maybe the mulch/straw or whatever will not only harbor beneficial spiders but maybe help retain moisture.

Thanks, your thread is one of the ones that inspired me to start this one.

I am envious of you who can start growing already. We are calling for historic lows and rain/snow mix this weekend . I'm over it!

Nice work!  

Every year I am excited to get into the fall and winter.  That lasts about 1 month and then I am ready for the spring.  

Thanks for the kind words and the tag.  It was a fair amount of work but I enjoyed it.  

Thanks

I gambled and direct seeded a bunch of spring greens a couple of weeks ago.  Got great germination, and then we just had a hard freeze and I might as well have just fed those seeds to the chickens.  Calling for at least 1 more hard freeze and another potential frost next week.  

Nice looking garden OP. It's snowing at the moment here in PA. I'm hoping in another week I can start my lettuces.

Nice garden Op. Here is my humble contribution!

Double Tap

Looks good.

I did corn the same way last year. I only got 10 ears, and lost the rest, as I was out of town for a week!

Looks very nice. I'm jealous of your caged setup, as I'll have to battle some aggressive squirrels this year. I'm trying corn for the first time (two rows in two beds, experimental, interspaced with a couple types of sunflowers). Other than that the veggie beds have a focus on zucchini, chilies, tomatoes, and basil with a few other things.

Nice Garden leelaw

A bunch of nice setups in this thread!

Looks great!!  I tried corn last year and had mixed success.  Decided it wasn't worth the space it takes up in my little area so I passed on it this year.  I hope to find the space to try again next year.

I really like your setup and the tall beds.  Thanks for posting.  For whatever reason I have yet to get good results with zucchini.  I am hoping this year I do better.

Thanks for the comments and interest so far.  I will get some progress shots uploaded this week.  I started harvesting radishes this weekend and will go ahead and take the rest of them this coming week.  Over the last two weeks I have been thinning the carrots.  I decided I would try to "transplant" the bigger ones I thinned into spots in the bed where there was room for them.  I used a pencil to make a deep hole and then placed the carrot into the hole and back-filled with soil as best I could.  So far it looks like I am having about a 50% success rate.  I am not sure it they will be viable long term but figured it was worth a shot.  

In addition to the garden I also have a green house.  This is the 3rd year I have had it.  It is the Harbor Freight 10'X12' greenhouse and I used many of the ideas from the now famous write-up on Blogspot.  Here is the link to the write-up:  http://hfgh10x12.blogspot.com/  

I keep several different kinds of citrus trees, avocado trees, and a few other things in the greenhouse.  It has worked very well and I get fruit pretty much all year long.  

Here is a teaser pic.  I will post some as I have time.  

Where in Texas? That style rock wall in your yard reminds me of El Paso.

The covering is a 60% shade cloth. I put it on when Spring kicks into high gear. It, along with the exhaust fan, and another fan that isn't in there yet keep the temps in the 90's during the day. I find I have to water in there every other day during the summer. I also mist all of the citrus and avocados at the same time. It helps to keep the humidity up a bit.

The greenhouse uses polycarbonate panels. I taped all the edges, that was quite the chore, to keep the dust, moisture, and insects out. So far it seems to be working as the panels have not yellowed.  

Very observant of you.

I keep the doors open all summer so it pulls air from the front. I also have a fan I put in to help circulate cooler air. I will probably dust it off and put it in this weekend.

Not much to report this week as I have not had much time to spend outside.  I was able to sneak out there just before dark last night and harvest some radishes, kale, and spinach.  Also grabbed some strawberries but most of them did not make it into the house.

Sounds like me with the strawberries as well OP

I am considering enclosing my beds as well after seeing your setup. If you look again at the pic I posted on page 1, my dogs run is just to the left. I was thinking of attaching to those posts and setting a new set of posts on the other side of the garden. Then enclosing with wire. I have been getting some smaller sized rodents in the garden this year. I put out small cups of fox urine every week or so, and that seemed to work in years past. Maybe they caught on to what I was doing this year.

I have a question for everyone on here. If I am enclosing the garden, what if I used a finer screen instead of chicken wire? Would it be too much shade? Will it retain too much heat here in FL? I am still a newbie at this.

ETA: I wanted to mention to anyone who is considering building raised beds, I coated the interiors of all cedar boards (and the posts below ground level) with Titebond III glue. It is waterproof, and has almost no VOC's. It is not cheap, but neither is building beds out of cedar or redwood. I just bought a 5 gallon pail and rolled two coats on everything before assembly. I was told by a longtime raised bed guy that it would double the life of my beds. YMMV

The only reason I am even able to harvest anything is because of the enclosed garden.  Dang doves are already into my apple and pear trees.  

I will look into Titebond, thanks for the lead.  I did not seal any of the beds but it is something I wanted to do because yes, redwood get's expensive.  I did use Thompson's on the redwood structure surrounding the garden.  

I took a few pictures and will update the thread this afternoon.  I also finally got the pressure regulator installed on the drip system.  It was easy enough to do once I got the right fittings but it doesn't seem like it had the desired effect as I have not noticed any reduction in the drip rate from the emitters.  I may have to get a different one and install it on the mainline instead of just on the drip system.  

I have a couple of potted avocado trees that are doing fairly well.  They stay in the greenhouse year round.  In the summer I keep them in there so I can keep the humidity up and I keep them there in the winter to keep them from freezing to death.  I will continue to thin the fruit as they develop so I don't tax the tree's too much.  I bet I have culled 25 or so avocados off of each tree already.  



Meyers Lemon Tree - This guy has done OK but it is struggling a bit right now.  I may end up pulling all the lemons off it if it doesn't show improvement soon.  



Cherry tomatoes are coming along nicely

Finally getting grapes from this three year old vine.  I have three others that have not done as well.



Mixed bed



Mostly Hot peppers bed - These were the last plants to go in.  They are doing OK so far.  I am currently doing battle with leafminers so I have had to pull several leaves off of these plants.

Well, it's been a couple weeks and things are finally starting to grow.. a little..

The broccolini from last year went to bolt. I cut it back and it looks like it might send up the first usable heads I've been able to get. The corn is starting to come in, and the tomatoes are just getting their growth spurt started. Decent start, though it always feels slower than it should to me.

Not a ton to report here.  Almost everything is coming along nicely.  I have been pulling carrots and peppers for the last couple of weeks.  Yesterday I harvested the last of the lettuce and pulled out the first batch of red onions.  I have them hanging on the back porch to dry.  I had to pull my broccoli because of the amount of aphids and worms on them.  I tried everything but could not get them under control.  Pretty disappointing.  This year I purchased them as starter plants from Bonnie's.  I don't think I will be doing that again.  


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