Looking for a garden buddy.....

14 years ago

Hello, my name is Amy. I'm new to this section of the forum.

I'll be relocating to Michigan in 2-3 days. The part of Michigan I'll be living in is the Northern part of the lower

peninsula, and the city I'll be living in is called Boyne City.

I'm looking for somebody who is willing to help me with gardening who lives in Boyne City or close to Boyne City.

I've managed to find somebody who can help me with planning the dimensions of a garden, but they cannot help me with the actual construction of the raised beds themselves (which if I can do, is what I want to do). The reason for this is because they have physical limitations that prevent them from doing so, so it's not feasible for them to help me with the actual construction of the raised beds.

I plan to start a garden when I arrive in Michigan. The garden will be a vegetable garden. The type of garden I would like to do most is a 3 x 6 raised bed. If doing a raised bed isn't feasible, then I'll do either one or two

3 x 6 square foot garden boxes. The reasons I don't know if I'm going to do raised bed, are these; a. I don't know if I can afford to do a raised bed garden and

b.I don't know how much space will be available to me to garden, so I don't know if I'll have enough room to do a raised bed garden.

I could use help with doing a vegetable garden simply because I have very little experience in gardening, and what little experiences I've had in the past have ended up

as complete disasters. I'm not implying in any shape or form that because I need help with a garden, that I'm expecting somebody else to do all the work for me, nor am I implying that I want somebody else to do my garden for me. I'm not assuming this is how people on this forum are going to react, however I have encountered this type of attitude in the past.

What I need help with regarding the garden is are these things:

1.Basically construction of the raised beds themselves. I've never built anything in my life, and could use help with this part of it.

2.Figuring out the quantity of soil and fertilizer that needs to go into a 3 x 6 raised bed garden, and in what ratios.

3.Help finding decent soil that is suitable for gardening

and where to acquire it. I've heard that things such as vermiculite and soil suitable for gardening shouldn't be hard to locate and that I should be able to acquire these things (soil, peat moss, vermiculite, etc.) easily.

However I don't know where to find them and many times although they're available, I haven't been able to find them.

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Comments (3)

zuni
14 years ago
Hi Amy,

I am in Ontario but I think I can assist you online with some of your questions. I recently built a raised bed garden for my daughter in Seattle, and I have NO carpentry skills whatsoever. (I got my husband to build my own vegetable beds.)

First, Home Depot and Lowe's will cut the wood to size for you. The wood can be gotten cheaper elsewhere, but your sources may be limited in Boyne City. Anyway, I bought a 12-foot piece of UNtreated lumber and asked them to cut it into 4 3-foot pieces; this allowed me to build a 3x3 foot bed with no wasted lumber. I used lumber that was 8-inches wide. You can get by with 6", but 10" is even better. I used 2-inch thick wood, but you can get by with 1-inch.

You can butt the corners together with screws to save money, but it makes a slighly smaller bed. Or you can buy corner brackets or L-brackets. Both will work, so buy whatever is cheapest. Buy a screw-bit for your drill, too (I hope you have one). They are cheap and will save your wrists a lot of wear and tear.

One big mistake I made was filling the beds without doing a soil test on the fill. BIG mistake. I bought soil and compost in bags, thinking it would be fine; but the pH turned out to be 8.0 which is way too high. If you want more info, let me know and I'll give you details on filling your bed with the right stuff.

Cheers!
Lady Zuni
zuni
14 years ago
Ok, I thought I'd just bombard you with some more info. Once you determine the size of your bed (so that no lumber is wasted!), just get out a calculator. Width x length x depth = quantity of fill. So if you have a bed that is 3' x 6' x 6 inches (1/2 foot) deep you have 3x6 x .5 = 9 cubic feet.

So it is just a matter of adding up the total amendments. I would suggest you buy a $3 soil test kit when you get the fill!

Everything can be purchased at Home Depot or Lowe's (do I sound like a commercial?) There are lots of recipes, but you should strive for a very workable mix that retains water and nutrients but still drains well. The quick expensive way is to fill it with triple mix. Or mix your own with equal parts of garden soil (sterile bagged stuff), well-rotted manure or sterile compost, and peat moss or coir (cocoanut husks). I hate to recommend peat because it is not sustainable, but the fact is it adds acidity which is often needed. You can add some vermiculite or perlite to improve texture if needed. Mix it all up, and be sure to do a pH test at this point!

If the pH is between 6.5 and 7.5 you should be ok. Otherwise you'll need to amend the soil.

Enough info for now. Did I mention I used to live in Michigan too? Happy Gardening.
johnnyrazbrix
13 years ago
I live in Marysville , Mich and I am familiar with the Boyne Highlands area. Very beautiful.
I hope i am not too late to be of help.Raised beds are an excellent way to take control. I am on clay which is spring wet and summer dry .If it were not for RB i would not have much of a garden. The info you gained from the others was excellent. I would add this. Use soft rock phosphate and bone meal along with blood meal , composted manure ( i prefer rabbit ) and compost. you can use commercial ferts but it wont do much for your soil. I also add soybean meal , alfalpha pellets , wood ashes , There are many other vegetative items I use . Many farm stores carry them and they are not expensive for what you can get in return. I also always plant a winter cover crop of field plow down rye. In a typical 4 by 8 foot bed you would only need a pound or 2. I pay .45 a pound. If you can it would not hurt to leave 1 bed a season fallow and plant buckwheat for summer then rye for winter. There is an Amish owned feed store on Kittle road just outside Mio that carrys feeds etc. And Im sure there are places even closer to you. It just depends on how active you want to be in the garden.Initially it will be considerable work then it will be much easier.It you would like more input please feel free to E- mail me. I am going to be retiring in January.My wife is a nurse and i do qa work . I LOVE GARDENING !!!! I will tell you about the BRIX. Not trying to sell anything , just something i learned recently about brix levels . e-mail is...lifesgud@comcast.net Good gardening all Johnny