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Newbee, help with my garden
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Posted by littleluey (My Page) on Tue, Nov 3, 09 at 11:52
I am trying to decide what kind of garden to have and I saw the raised gardens where you put the soil inside a wooden box and plant your plants in it.
I like to know what your experiences have been with that kind of gardens here in Az. I read that they get dried faster than in-ground gardens and that they get hotter since they lack the ground insulation. Is this a problem in this area?
I have also seen the self watering containers, the ones with a water compartment on the bottom. How well do those work? anyone has any experience with them?
Also, for location of my garden, my back yard forms a "U" around the house, the two sides are about 8-10ft wide, and they are east to west. When we first moved in there we had a landscaper come over to design the front yard and I mentioned I wanted a garden. She said the west side of the house would be ideal for it.
My concern is that the area is in between the house and the 6' brick fence, I am not sure how much sun it gets, but it would be convinient since I have a water hook up there and it would be out of the way and can put a fence so my dogs don't dig my garden. But I realize all this does'nt mean a thing if I can get the plants to grow and be fruitfull.
What do you guys think?
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Newbee, help with my garden
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| I have raised beds, and given the choice to do it all over again, I would have doe sunken beds instead. I did raised beds because I didn't want to have to dig down into the caliche. I did some anyway -- about 6 inches. So my beds are "double dug". But I found that the soil did get too hot, and drain too quickly. I think there's a lot more work up-front for sunken beds, but will probably have better results. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Some sunken garden pics on the Native Seeds site
RE: Newbee, help with my garden
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my original idea was to do a double sunk garden like you mentioned, the one thing that is keeping me from that right now is the fact that I am not sure about the spot yet, so I figure containers/raised bed are easier to move around if I don't get good results on the area I pick.
I guess I will see how much sun we get on that area I was told it was the best.
I had a tomato plant this past summer and it looked to me like it dried up fast, I wanted to give my garden a little bit of shade if I do it during the summer. Thanks for commenting. |
RE: Newbee, help with my garden
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| Most of my yard gets standing water during the monsoon season so its raised beds for me. Pots in direct sunlight here need to be insulated from the sun or the roots can overheat. I tried some of the pots with reservoirs and when the water got hot it killed the plants. Below are what I believe to be the two best videos on the web for gardening in a desert environment. There are others on growing fruit trees too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wZes0AnFKA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYAO5R9_Lsw&feature=channel |
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