Here are two Fortune stories on CNN about digital music that show what's wrong with the music labels' expectations, and the only way to survive under the labels' regime.
The first is about Napster's problems as a digital music pure-play trying to survive on the razor-thin margins it makes on music. Napster has never been profitable.
The second is about Amazon's MP3 store and its (and Apple's) successful big box store strategy of using music as a loss leader to get customers through the door, hopefully encouraging shoppers to attach other, higher margin, items to their purchases.
Apple doesn't care that they're not making money on music purchases. They're making tons of money on their iPods, and some more on iPod users who are switching from Microsoft to Apple PCs. Yet, the labels continue to allow Apple to define the market prices for music downloads.
The major music labels insist their content has intrinsic value. Unfortunately, the digital market disagrees - and the customer is always right.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Growing Up
When I first started growing vegetables four seasons ago, I set out to experiment with vertical gardening: growing stuff up things. Here's what I have learned so far.
I purchased two trellised arches from a local nursery and a 25-foot roll of four-foot tall wire fencing from a home store. The arches were fairly expensive, but the fencing was moderately priced. I set the ends of the arches as sturdily into the ground as I could and anchored the wire cages with a reinforcing rod (rebar). I used tin snips to cut two sections of fencing about 6 feet long and rolled each into a cylinder about 23 inches in diameter to create a planting cage. I attached the remaining section to a wooden fence with southern exposure at my house. Then I scoured seed catalogs for twining or vining vegetables.
The first year, pole beans were an obvious place to start. I also found Alderman shelling peas, sugar snap peas, and Marketmore 97 cucumber vines that grew six to eight feet long. I densely sowed the peas directly in the ground at the base of the arches. I started the beans and cucumbers in pots, then planted the beans in a circle around the wire cages and the cukes along the bottom of my fence. The pole beans were of course a success, though disentangling the vines from the cages at the end of the season was a challenge. The peas also produced well, but I should have added support as they grew by occasionally tying the whole mass to the arches. Our high southerly winds blew the whole mass off the arches into my garden path. What a tangle of peas I had to deal with! I used twist ties to attach the cucumber vines to the wire fencing as they grew, and ended up with far more than I could ever eat.
The second year, I decided to get a little adventurous and try winter squash. I started Waltham butternut and delicata squash in pots, then transplanted them to the base of my arches. I had great success with the butternut, but not the delicata. I had to frequently weave the butternut vine tips into the trellis as they grew. If I waited too long, weaving the hollow vines caused them to kink and drastically reduced their vigor. The delicata vines were simply too stiff to weave without severe damage and the connection between the developing fruits and the vine was so delicate that the slightest nudge caused the unripe fruit to fall off within a day. A co-gardener also successfully grows summer squash up structures right along with her pole beans. I also decided to try the same pea varieties on my cages rather than on the arches. I direct sowed the peas around the outside perimeter of the cages. Again winds blew the entire pea mass to the ground.
Last year a co-gardener gave me some Marion berry starts. I decided to dedicate my arches to this long trailing bramble. By the end of the first season, the thorny stems had grown over the top and were trailing down the other side of the arches. I also decided to give up on my vertical peas. I purchased shorter varieties and supported them with a half-unrolled wire cylinder laid low to the ground. What a disaster! Though the peas didn't blow over, rats made a fine meal of the low hanging pods.
This year the Marion berries continue their takeover of my arches, and I decided to try peas vertically one more time. I filled a round area of ground the same diameter as my wire cages with pea seeds then installed the cages. Success! This year the vines mostly grew up the inside the cylinders and out over the top. Though I did start calling the masses my "pea monsters," the winds were not able to tumble the vines to the ground as in previous years.
There are more vertical growing techniques I want to try. A south-facing wall or fence can double the square footage of growing area, leaving level ground free for low growing plants. Tomatoes can be grown upside down from a hanging pot by pushing a seedling through the bottom hole before filling the pot with soil. A flat trellis supported horizontally a few feet above the ground can be a platform for trailing squash or melons while growing shade-loving plants like lettuce below. Exploring these and other space-saving possibilities will keep me growing up for years to come!
Copyright © 2007, Brian Ballard. All rights reserved.
Growing Up by Brian Ballard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at composteasy.blogspot.com.
I purchased two trellised arches from a local nursery and a 25-foot roll of four-foot tall wire fencing from a home store. The arches were fairly expensive, but the fencing was moderately priced. I set the ends of the arches as sturdily into the ground as I could and anchored the wire cages with a reinforcing rod (rebar). I used tin snips to cut two sections of fencing about 6 feet long and rolled each into a cylinder about 23 inches in diameter to create a planting cage. I attached the remaining section to a wooden fence with southern exposure at my house. Then I scoured seed catalogs for twining or vining vegetables.
The first year, pole beans were an obvious place to start. I also found Alderman shelling peas, sugar snap peas, and Marketmore 97 cucumber vines that grew six to eight feet long. I densely sowed the peas directly in the ground at the base of the arches. I started the beans and cucumbers in pots, then planted the beans in a circle around the wire cages and the cukes along the bottom of my fence. The pole beans were of course a success, though disentangling the vines from the cages at the end of the season was a challenge. The peas also produced well, but I should have added support as they grew by occasionally tying the whole mass to the arches. Our high southerly winds blew the whole mass off the arches into my garden path. What a tangle of peas I had to deal with! I used twist ties to attach the cucumber vines to the wire fencing as they grew, and ended up with far more than I could ever eat.
The second year, I decided to get a little adventurous and try winter squash. I started Waltham butternut and delicata squash in pots, then transplanted them to the base of my arches. I had great success with the butternut, but not the delicata. I had to frequently weave the butternut vine tips into the trellis as they grew. If I waited too long, weaving the hollow vines caused them to kink and drastically reduced their vigor. The delicata vines were simply too stiff to weave without severe damage and the connection between the developing fruits and the vine was so delicate that the slightest nudge caused the unripe fruit to fall off within a day. A co-gardener also successfully grows summer squash up structures right along with her pole beans. I also decided to try the same pea varieties on my cages rather than on the arches. I direct sowed the peas around the outside perimeter of the cages. Again winds blew the entire pea mass to the ground.
Last year a co-gardener gave me some Marion berry starts. I decided to dedicate my arches to this long trailing bramble. By the end of the first season, the thorny stems had grown over the top and were trailing down the other side of the arches. I also decided to give up on my vertical peas. I purchased shorter varieties and supported them with a half-unrolled wire cylinder laid low to the ground. What a disaster! Though the peas didn't blow over, rats made a fine meal of the low hanging pods.
This year the Marion berries continue their takeover of my arches, and I decided to try peas vertically one more time. I filled a round area of ground the same diameter as my wire cages with pea seeds then installed the cages. Success! This year the vines mostly grew up the inside the cylinders and out over the top. Though I did start calling the masses my "pea monsters," the winds were not able to tumble the vines to the ground as in previous years.
There are more vertical growing techniques I want to try. A south-facing wall or fence can double the square footage of growing area, leaving level ground free for low growing plants. Tomatoes can be grown upside down from a hanging pot by pushing a seedling through the bottom hole before filling the pot with soil. A flat trellis supported horizontally a few feet above the ground can be a platform for trailing squash or melons while growing shade-loving plants like lettuce below. Exploring these and other space-saving possibilities will keep me growing up for years to come!
Growing Up by Brian Ballard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at composteasy.blogspot.com.
This Coffee Tastes Like Dirt! It Was Ground This Morning.
Seattle loves its coffee, ensuring there are tons of used coffee grounds and stacks of burlap bags available all around town. Gardeners are the main beneficiaries of this surplus waste!
Used coffee grounds are a great source of nitrogen for your leafy plants and compost. You may notice that organic fertilizers include seed meal, which is nothing more than ground up seeds. Coffee is brewed from the seeds of coffee plants – making it seed meal too!
For a balanced compost, add some grounds to other nitrogen-rich “greens” (like fresh pulled weeds and grass clippings from lawns where pesticides or herbicides aren’t used), and carbon-rich “browns” (like fall leaves, ripped up newspaper and a little sawdust from non-pressure treated wood). There’s no exact recipe for compost, but about half greens and half browns by weight is the general rule. Compost materials should also have a good variety of textures to encourage air flow, so don’t just use fine materials like coffee grounds and sawdust. Mix them with other ingredients.
Many gardeners claim a light coffee mulch discourages slugs and other bugs from attacking their plants. The residual caffeine is repellent to some species, but apparently not earthworms. Gardeners also report that adding coffee grounds to soil feeds a profusion of earthworms. Your worm bin will benefit from occasional sprinklings of cooled moist grounds too, but don’t smother your workers with grounds! Keep a balanced bedding with other food sources.
If you mulch with grounds, remember they’re full of nitrogen – something fungus loves too. To prevent a fungal bloom, apply your coffee mulch thinly and not where it will remain soggy. A too-thick layer will also tend to shed water when the grounds dry out.
There is a lot of confusion among gardeners and chemistry dilettantes about the pH or acidity of coffee grounds. Though a cup of coffee is acidic, the used grounds are much less acidic, and certainly no more acidic than common peat moss soil amendments. If you have a small amount of cooled grounds from your morning coffee, you can safely spread them around without worrying about throwing off your soil’s pH. If you pick up a few bags of used grounds from Starbucks or another coffee shop, spread it around thinly or mix it well with plenty of compost material or soil. If you regularly apply lots of grounds to your garden, occasionally mix in a cup or so of garden lime or wood ashes from the fireplace. Coffee grounds are not recommended for house plants as trace salts may build up after repeated applications.
The best recommendation for using coffee grounds in your garden is to remember your mother’s admonition for moderation in everything. Don’t go crazy with coffee grounds, but as an amendment with compost and soil, you won’t go wrong recycling coffee grounds into dirt.
Copyright © 2007, Brian Ballard. All rights reserved.
Used coffee grounds are a great source of nitrogen for your leafy plants and compost. You may notice that organic fertilizers include seed meal, which is nothing more than ground up seeds. Coffee is brewed from the seeds of coffee plants – making it seed meal too!
For a balanced compost, add some grounds to other nitrogen-rich “greens” (like fresh pulled weeds and grass clippings from lawns where pesticides or herbicides aren’t used), and carbon-rich “browns” (like fall leaves, ripped up newspaper and a little sawdust from non-pressure treated wood). There’s no exact recipe for compost, but about half greens and half browns by weight is the general rule. Compost materials should also have a good variety of textures to encourage air flow, so don’t just use fine materials like coffee grounds and sawdust. Mix them with other ingredients.
Many gardeners claim a light coffee mulch discourages slugs and other bugs from attacking their plants. The residual caffeine is repellent to some species, but apparently not earthworms. Gardeners also report that adding coffee grounds to soil feeds a profusion of earthworms. Your worm bin will benefit from occasional sprinklings of cooled moist grounds too, but don’t smother your workers with grounds! Keep a balanced bedding with other food sources.
If you mulch with grounds, remember they’re full of nitrogen – something fungus loves too. To prevent a fungal bloom, apply your coffee mulch thinly and not where it will remain soggy. A too-thick layer will also tend to shed water when the grounds dry out.
There is a lot of confusion among gardeners and chemistry dilettantes about the pH or acidity of coffee grounds. Though a cup of coffee is acidic, the used grounds are much less acidic, and certainly no more acidic than common peat moss soil amendments. If you have a small amount of cooled grounds from your morning coffee, you can safely spread them around without worrying about throwing off your soil’s pH. If you pick up a few bags of used grounds from Starbucks or another coffee shop, spread it around thinly or mix it well with plenty of compost material or soil. If you regularly apply lots of grounds to your garden, occasionally mix in a cup or so of garden lime or wood ashes from the fireplace. Coffee grounds are not recommended for house plants as trace salts may build up after repeated applications.
The best recommendation for using coffee grounds in your garden is to remember your mother’s admonition for moderation in everything. Don’t go crazy with coffee grounds, but as an amendment with compost and soil, you won’t go wrong recycling coffee grounds into dirt.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Interbay Mulch
When you put your garden to bed for the winter, that doesn't mean nothing happens during the dark, cold, or snowy months. Left bare and exposed to the elements, important nutrients will wash away, and soil organisms will go dormant or even freeze to death.
There are many ways to over-winter your garden while at the same time improving the soil for a head start next spring. One way to invest in your beds was invented at Seattle's Interbay P-Patch: Interbay Mulch.
While similar to sheet composting or Lasagna gardening, Interbay Mulch attempts to bring critters responsible for decomposition all the way to the top layer of organic matter. The full distribution of organisms makes this composting method somewhat faster than sheet composting.
Making Your Mulch
Once your beds are cleared of this season's crops, create a mix of equal parts greens (grass clippings, coffee grounds, fresh chopped plants, composted manure) and browns (fall leaves, non-pressure treated sawdust, dry plant material, etc.) just like you would for a hot compost pile. Though it's tempting to use mostly browns, thinking there's plenty of time for them to break down, be sure you add enough greens for a balanced decomposition process.
Spread your mix in a good foot-thick layer (or more if you have the stamina) on your planting beds. Water the mixture well to wet it down, then cover it all with a layer or two of burlap bags. Wet down the burlap too (or soak the bags in water before placing them). The burlap keeps the mulch dark, damp and insulated so organisms can work all the way to the top of your batch.
That's all there is to it! During the winter, check your mulch every few weeks to be sure it's still slightly damp. You might also turn your mulch at least once during the winter.
Room and Board
Gardeners have experienced a few problems with Interbay Mulch. During the chilly winter months, mice or rats sometimes set up house in the mulch as it retains a bit of warmth under the burlap blankets. If you've incorporated kitchen scraps into the mulch, rodents may not even have to go far for food! You can minimize this problem by excluding food waste from your mulch, and checking under the burlap for rodents every few weeks.
Moist burlap also provides the kind of environment slugs just love! During your occasional winter bed checks, pick out any slugs and kill them.
After a few years of experience, several gardeners at Interbay have noticed that too much organic material can cause their beds to shed water in the dry months. Interbay Mulch may not be appropriate to use every winter. Next winter, plant a cover crop where you had mulch this year. Then rotate back to mulch the year after that.
In the Spring
By the time spring rolls around, your Interbay Mulch will be finished. A few weeks before you're ready to start planting, remove the burlap and turn the beautifully decomposed mulch into the soil. You'll notice a better response from your vegetables and flowers next year as your investment this winter pays off!
More Reading
Here are two great articles about Interbay Mulch on the web. Read them for a more detailed history and additional recipes.
Interbay Mulch at GardenWeb
How to bake a batch of compost at The Christian Science Monitor
Copyright © 2003 Brian Ballard. All rights reserved.
There are many ways to over-winter your garden while at the same time improving the soil for a head start next spring. One way to invest in your beds was invented at Seattle's Interbay P-Patch: Interbay Mulch.
While similar to sheet composting or Lasagna gardening, Interbay Mulch attempts to bring critters responsible for decomposition all the way to the top layer of organic matter. The full distribution of organisms makes this composting method somewhat faster than sheet composting.
Making Your Mulch
Once your beds are cleared of this season's crops, create a mix of equal parts greens (grass clippings, coffee grounds, fresh chopped plants, composted manure) and browns (fall leaves, non-pressure treated sawdust, dry plant material, etc.) just like you would for a hot compost pile. Though it's tempting to use mostly browns, thinking there's plenty of time for them to break down, be sure you add enough greens for a balanced decomposition process.
Spread your mix in a good foot-thick layer (or more if you have the stamina) on your planting beds. Water the mixture well to wet it down, then cover it all with a layer or two of burlap bags. Wet down the burlap too (or soak the bags in water before placing them). The burlap keeps the mulch dark, damp and insulated so organisms can work all the way to the top of your batch.
That's all there is to it! During the winter, check your mulch every few weeks to be sure it's still slightly damp. You might also turn your mulch at least once during the winter.
Room and Board
Gardeners have experienced a few problems with Interbay Mulch. During the chilly winter months, mice or rats sometimes set up house in the mulch as it retains a bit of warmth under the burlap blankets. If you've incorporated kitchen scraps into the mulch, rodents may not even have to go far for food! You can minimize this problem by excluding food waste from your mulch, and checking under the burlap for rodents every few weeks.
Moist burlap also provides the kind of environment slugs just love! During your occasional winter bed checks, pick out any slugs and kill them.
After a few years of experience, several gardeners at Interbay have noticed that too much organic material can cause their beds to shed water in the dry months. Interbay Mulch may not be appropriate to use every winter. Next winter, plant a cover crop where you had mulch this year. Then rotate back to mulch the year after that.
In the Spring
By the time spring rolls around, your Interbay Mulch will be finished. A few weeks before you're ready to start planting, remove the burlap and turn the beautifully decomposed mulch into the soil. You'll notice a better response from your vegetables and flowers next year as your investment this winter pays off!
More Reading
Here are two great articles about Interbay Mulch on the web. Read them for a more detailed history and additional recipes.
Interbay Mulch at GardenWeb
How to bake a batch of compost at The Christian Science Monitor
Designing and Building Raised Beds
As spring approaches, we wait in excited anticipation for delivery of our first seed catalog order, or impatiently mark off the days to our first sowing. New gardeners wonder how to best lay out their gardens to squeeze in all the vegetables from their recipes, impulse buys at the seed rack, or favorite flowers. Veteran gardeners want to manage planting schedules or crop rotation better, provide easier access, and even squeeze in a few more plants than last year. Raised beds are a great way to help organize your garden plot and improve yield.
Benefits of Raised Beds
Gardening in raised beds offers several advantages over growing in flat earth, or even mounded rows. The soil in raised beds not only drains better, preventing rot, but actually warms up sooner in the spring and stays warmer later into the fall, extending your growing season. Soil in raised beds doesn't get walked on, so it stays less compacted, improving oxygen and water flow that creates a healthier underground environment for roots and organisms.
Raised beds are more accessible to people who have a hard time bending over or squatting down to ground level. Edges of raised beds built at 15 to 19 inches high provide comfortable seating while working in the garden.
Some P-Patch locations do not allow framed raised beds, but those who are allowed to build them may enjoy their benefits.
Lengths
Beds can be any length, but standard lumber dimensions and the size of your garden plot will help you decide how long to make your beds. Most P-Patch plots are 10 feet by 20 feet. You must remember to accommodate narrow paths between your plot and your neighbor's – so you don't really get to build out to the full 10-foot or 20-foot dimensions.
Lumber is sold in a few standard lengths: 8, 10, and 12 feet are the most common. Designing your beds based on standard lengths will help reduce the number of saw cuts you must make (or pay for). Though I've built beds longer than 14 feet, transporting the lumber is challenging, and butting shorter boards end to end creates wobbly joints. I prefer to build 8-foot long beds since that doesn't require cutting down standard lumber and leaves room for paths within a 10-foot plot dimension.
Widths
Optimal raised beds are anywhere from 2 to 4 feet across. If you can only access one side, a 2-foot wide bed makes sense. That's about as wide as your kitchen counters at home. Typically you have access to all sides, where widths of 3 or 4 feet give ample access.
Four-foot wide beds only require one cut of an 8-foot board, however more than a few 4-foot wide beds don't fit nicely into a standard P-Patch plot. Some 3-foot wide beds are inevitably required, though that means two cuts of an 8-foot board. If you don't have a power saw (and don't want to spend hours with a hand saw), you can usually get a home store or lumber yard to make one cut for free, but you may end up paying for other cuts.
(For those of you paying too close attention: Yes, if you follow the construction diagram below, the outside dimension of the beds will be 3 inches wider than the short board (two 2-by widths). That doesn't really affect the general layout options at the end of this article.)
Heights
Here's where standard lumber sizes get tricky! The end measurement of a 2x8 is really 1 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches. A 2x10 is really 1 1/2 inches by 9 1/2 inches. A bed made with one 2x8 or 2x10 high is adequate, but doesn't provide comfortable seating. 2x10s also get quite heavy. I prefer walls made of two 2x8s high, which means I'll have a low seat at 15 inches.
The long sides of your bed will require some vertical bracing. Many folks use rebar, but pounding rebar into the ground can damage water or drainage pipes, and become obstacles that attack your knees and shins! Use one short piece of 2x4 (cut as long as your walls are high) for every 4 feet of bed length. Also use short 2x4 sections to strengthen the corners of your beds rather than just attaching the edge of one board to the end of another. You will have to make six cuts to get six 15 inch sections from a standard 2x4x8' (with a little scrap left over).
To prevent the sides from bowing out after the beds are filled with soil, you can set the beds a few inches into the ground, or nail a length of plumber's tape (that anodized metal strapping with holes) from side to side across the bottom of your bed.
Use three-inch anodized nails or deck screws to join the lumber. Use two per board at each of the positions shown below. If you use screws, pre-drill holes in the 2x8s (but don't pre-drill the 2x4s). The drill should be slightly larger than the bore of the screw you're using. I like to pre-fabricate the short sides at home since it makes the work at the garden easier.
Materials
The best lumber to build your raised beds from is Douglas fir, which will last from four to six years in the garden. Cedar is very brittle, tends to splinter easily, and doesn't stand up to garden tools well. Commonly available cedar fence boards are not strong enough to contain the weight of soil. Treated lumber contains a variety of harmful chemicals including cyanide and should never be used to build garden beds.
You will need three or six 2x8x8' boards (three for single height beds, six for double height beds) and one 2x4x8' for each individual bed you build. You will need 56 nails or screws per bed (plus a few extras to make up for those you bend or lose in the dirt.) Nails and deck screws are typically sold by the pound. A store employee can estimate how many screws or nails you'll get in a pound.
If you don't have a vehicle suitable for transporting lumber, most lumber yards offer delivery for a fee, or even free for large orders.
Sample Layouts
Here are some example plot layouts that fit a few standard raised beds into a typical 10-foot by 20-foot P-Patch plot with room left over for paths. Line your paths with a layer of compost material, wood chips, or even pavers.
Fill your newly built raised beds to a few inches from the top with soil from your garden, or mound up compost materials as high as you reasonably can to create next season's soil. No matter which direction you orient your planting beds, the old rule of planting rows in a north-south direction will still expose your plants to the maximum amount of light as the sun moves overhead.
Copyright © 2005 Brian Ballard. All rights reserved.
Benefits of Raised Beds
Gardening in raised beds offers several advantages over growing in flat earth, or even mounded rows. The soil in raised beds not only drains better, preventing rot, but actually warms up sooner in the spring and stays warmer later into the fall, extending your growing season. Soil in raised beds doesn't get walked on, so it stays less compacted, improving oxygen and water flow that creates a healthier underground environment for roots and organisms.
Raised beds are more accessible to people who have a hard time bending over or squatting down to ground level. Edges of raised beds built at 15 to 19 inches high provide comfortable seating while working in the garden.
Some P-Patch locations do not allow framed raised beds, but those who are allowed to build them may enjoy their benefits.
Lengths
Beds can be any length, but standard lumber dimensions and the size of your garden plot will help you decide how long to make your beds. Most P-Patch plots are 10 feet by 20 feet. You must remember to accommodate narrow paths between your plot and your neighbor's – so you don't really get to build out to the full 10-foot or 20-foot dimensions.
Lumber is sold in a few standard lengths: 8, 10, and 12 feet are the most common. Designing your beds based on standard lengths will help reduce the number of saw cuts you must make (or pay for). Though I've built beds longer than 14 feet, transporting the lumber is challenging, and butting shorter boards end to end creates wobbly joints. I prefer to build 8-foot long beds since that doesn't require cutting down standard lumber and leaves room for paths within a 10-foot plot dimension.
Widths
Optimal raised beds are anywhere from 2 to 4 feet across. If you can only access one side, a 2-foot wide bed makes sense. That's about as wide as your kitchen counters at home. Typically you have access to all sides, where widths of 3 or 4 feet give ample access.
Four-foot wide beds only require one cut of an 8-foot board, however more than a few 4-foot wide beds don't fit nicely into a standard P-Patch plot. Some 3-foot wide beds are inevitably required, though that means two cuts of an 8-foot board. If you don't have a power saw (and don't want to spend hours with a hand saw), you can usually get a home store or lumber yard to make one cut for free, but you may end up paying for other cuts.
(For those of you paying too close attention: Yes, if you follow the construction diagram below, the outside dimension of the beds will be 3 inches wider than the short board (two 2-by widths). That doesn't really affect the general layout options at the end of this article.)
Heights
Here's where standard lumber sizes get tricky! The end measurement of a 2x8 is really 1 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches. A 2x10 is really 1 1/2 inches by 9 1/2 inches. A bed made with one 2x8 or 2x10 high is adequate, but doesn't provide comfortable seating. 2x10s also get quite heavy. I prefer walls made of two 2x8s high, which means I'll have a low seat at 15 inches.
The long sides of your bed will require some vertical bracing. Many folks use rebar, but pounding rebar into the ground can damage water or drainage pipes, and become obstacles that attack your knees and shins! Use one short piece of 2x4 (cut as long as your walls are high) for every 4 feet of bed length. Also use short 2x4 sections to strengthen the corners of your beds rather than just attaching the edge of one board to the end of another. You will have to make six cuts to get six 15 inch sections from a standard 2x4x8' (with a little scrap left over).
To prevent the sides from bowing out after the beds are filled with soil, you can set the beds a few inches into the ground, or nail a length of plumber's tape (that anodized metal strapping with holes) from side to side across the bottom of your bed.
Use three-inch anodized nails or deck screws to join the lumber. Use two per board at each of the positions shown below. If you use screws, pre-drill holes in the 2x8s (but don't pre-drill the 2x4s). The drill should be slightly larger than the bore of the screw you're using. I like to pre-fabricate the short sides at home since it makes the work at the garden easier.
Materials
The best lumber to build your raised beds from is Douglas fir, which will last from four to six years in the garden. Cedar is very brittle, tends to splinter easily, and doesn't stand up to garden tools well. Commonly available cedar fence boards are not strong enough to contain the weight of soil. Treated lumber contains a variety of harmful chemicals including cyanide and should never be used to build garden beds.
You will need three or six 2x8x8' boards (three for single height beds, six for double height beds) and one 2x4x8' for each individual bed you build. You will need 56 nails or screws per bed (plus a few extras to make up for those you bend or lose in the dirt.) Nails and deck screws are typically sold by the pound. A store employee can estimate how many screws or nails you'll get in a pound.
If you don't have a vehicle suitable for transporting lumber, most lumber yards offer delivery for a fee, or even free for large orders.
Sample Layouts
Here are some example plot layouts that fit a few standard raised beds into a typical 10-foot by 20-foot P-Patch plot with room left over for paths. Line your paths with a layer of compost material, wood chips, or even pavers.
Fill your newly built raised beds to a few inches from the top with soil from your garden, or mound up compost materials as high as you reasonably can to create next season's soil. No matter which direction you orient your planting beds, the old rule of planting rows in a north-south direction will still expose your plants to the maximum amount of light as the sun moves overhead.
Wise Water Usage in the Garden
Here are some tips on how to conserve water while still growing great vegetables and flowers.
When you lay out your planting beds, use the row and trench method: plant seeds in mounded up rows and water in the trenches. This allows water to collect and sink into the soil, rather than running off. Build soil dams at the end of the trenches to prevent water from flowing out the ends. You can also plant in little hills surrounded by a moat. The moat allows water to sink slowly into the soil. If you don’t have a problem with damping off (when seedlings fall over due to rot just above the soil line), you could even try planting in shallow depressions. This again keeps the water near the plant where it will soak in.
I can’t say enough about mulch. Not only does it slow the evaporation of moisture from the soil, it keeps down weeds and prevents dirt from splashing up onto your vegetables. When you plant seeds, sprinkle a thin layer of fresh grass clippings, barely covering the ground, to help even out germination. Once your seedlings are up, or after transplanting, mulch with about an inch of grass clippings. Be sure your clippings come from a lawn where no herbicides, pesticides, or weed-n-feed type fertilizers are used. When your plants are larger, begin mulching with two to three inches of brown leaves if you saved any from last fall. Otherwise, mulch with two or three inches of chopped garden debris or purchase bagged mulch from a garden center.
Mulch also evens out the wet and dry cycles between watering. This helps vegetables develop more evenly, and can prevent fruit from splitting if it gets too much water at once.
Try to water in the morning before 10am. This allows leaves to dry off quickly, preventing mildew. Later in the heat of the day, more water will be lost from evaporation. Try not to water in the evening: that leaves soil and foliage damp for hours, encouraging mold and attracting slugs.
Water slowly and deeply. If you try to put too much water on the ground all at once, much of it will run off. Any water that does soak in will likely stay in the top few inches of soil, causing roots to grow near the surface where they will quickly dry out. Watering slowly soaks the soil more deeply. This encourages roots to grow downward, where they will be less susceptible to drying out.
Be smart about how you apply water to your garden. Don’t water the leaves, water the roots. Spray nozzles are great for washing your car, but are not so great for watering your garden. You end up shooting high pressure holes in the soil, or much of the water simply blows away in a fine mist. The rest of the water ends up on the leaves where it either evaporates or causes mildew. If you use a small sprinkler, don’t leave it unattended. We have all forgotten to turn them off, flooding the garden and wasting water! Water wands (those 2 foot metal watering attachments with what looks like a shower head at the end) or sprinkler cans are the best tools to gently apply a lot of water right where you want it.
The flavor of most fruit and tubers actually improves if you stop watering about two weeks before harvest. Too much water near harvest time may cause tomatoes to split, or potatoes to rot. Allow onions and garlic to dry out before harvesting.
Following these simple tips, you can conserve water and improve the production of your garden at the same time!
Copyright © 2005 Brian Ballard. All rights reserved.
When you lay out your planting beds, use the row and trench method: plant seeds in mounded up rows and water in the trenches. This allows water to collect and sink into the soil, rather than running off. Build soil dams at the end of the trenches to prevent water from flowing out the ends. You can also plant in little hills surrounded by a moat. The moat allows water to sink slowly into the soil. If you don’t have a problem with damping off (when seedlings fall over due to rot just above the soil line), you could even try planting in shallow depressions. This again keeps the water near the plant where it will soak in.
I can’t say enough about mulch. Not only does it slow the evaporation of moisture from the soil, it keeps down weeds and prevents dirt from splashing up onto your vegetables. When you plant seeds, sprinkle a thin layer of fresh grass clippings, barely covering the ground, to help even out germination. Once your seedlings are up, or after transplanting, mulch with about an inch of grass clippings. Be sure your clippings come from a lawn where no herbicides, pesticides, or weed-n-feed type fertilizers are used. When your plants are larger, begin mulching with two to three inches of brown leaves if you saved any from last fall. Otherwise, mulch with two or three inches of chopped garden debris or purchase bagged mulch from a garden center.
Mulch also evens out the wet and dry cycles between watering. This helps vegetables develop more evenly, and can prevent fruit from splitting if it gets too much water at once.
Try to water in the morning before 10am. This allows leaves to dry off quickly, preventing mildew. Later in the heat of the day, more water will be lost from evaporation. Try not to water in the evening: that leaves soil and foliage damp for hours, encouraging mold and attracting slugs.
Water slowly and deeply. If you try to put too much water on the ground all at once, much of it will run off. Any water that does soak in will likely stay in the top few inches of soil, causing roots to grow near the surface where they will quickly dry out. Watering slowly soaks the soil more deeply. This encourages roots to grow downward, where they will be less susceptible to drying out.
Be smart about how you apply water to your garden. Don’t water the leaves, water the roots. Spray nozzles are great for washing your car, but are not so great for watering your garden. You end up shooting high pressure holes in the soil, or much of the water simply blows away in a fine mist. The rest of the water ends up on the leaves where it either evaporates or causes mildew. If you use a small sprinkler, don’t leave it unattended. We have all forgotten to turn them off, flooding the garden and wasting water! Water wands (those 2 foot metal watering attachments with what looks like a shower head at the end) or sprinkler cans are the best tools to gently apply a lot of water right where you want it.
The flavor of most fruit and tubers actually improves if you stop watering about two weeks before harvest. Too much water near harvest time may cause tomatoes to split, or potatoes to rot. Allow onions and garlic to dry out before harvesting.
Following these simple tips, you can conserve water and improve the production of your garden at the same time!
Pruning Raspberries
Raspberries are a sweet garden delight that always seem to be gone too soon. Here is some information on pruning raspberries to maximize your harvest.
Raspberry roots are perennial, but their canes (or stems) all have two-year lifecycles. Canes of some varieties produce all their fruit in the second year (these are called summer-bearing). Other varieties bear some fruit on the top third of the cane during the fall of the first year, then on the bottom two thirds in the summer of their second year (called everbearing or fall-bearing). Let new canes grow each year, eventually establishing a cycle where some canes are in their first year, and others are in their second year.
Varieties of raspberries come in four basic colors: red, yellow, purple or black. All purple and black raspberries are summer-bearing. Black raspberries are very susceptible to disease, and are not commonly grown.
Red is the most familiar color, and yellow raspberries are actually cultivated mutations of the red variety. Red or yellow raspberries may be summer-bearing or everbearing. Tulameen, Willamette, and Meeker are typical summer bearing reds. Some everbearing reds are Heritage, Autumn Bliss, and Summit. Everbearing yellows include Fall Gold and Golden Summit.
When everbearing canes lose their leaves in the fall of the first year, cut back just the top third where the canes bore fruit. In the fall of their second year, prune everbearing canes all the way to the ground. Remove any weak first-year canes, and thin the remaining first-year canes to about 6-8 inches apart. Many people feel the fall crop is less tasty than the summer crop.
After summer-bearing canes drop their leaves in the fall of their second year, prune them all the way to the ground and thin as described above. Purple and back raspberries should also be topped to about 2-3 feet during their first year to encourage branching.
When you followed every year, these pruning methods will help ensure you get the most enjoyment out of your raspberries.
Copyright © 2005 Brian Ballard. All rights reserved.
Raspberry roots are perennial, but their canes (or stems) all have two-year lifecycles. Canes of some varieties produce all their fruit in the second year (these are called summer-bearing). Other varieties bear some fruit on the top third of the cane during the fall of the first year, then on the bottom two thirds in the summer of their second year (called everbearing or fall-bearing). Let new canes grow each year, eventually establishing a cycle where some canes are in their first year, and others are in their second year.
Varieties of raspberries come in four basic colors: red, yellow, purple or black. All purple and black raspberries are summer-bearing. Black raspberries are very susceptible to disease, and are not commonly grown.
Red is the most familiar color, and yellow raspberries are actually cultivated mutations of the red variety. Red or yellow raspberries may be summer-bearing or everbearing. Tulameen, Willamette, and Meeker are typical summer bearing reds. Some everbearing reds are Heritage, Autumn Bliss, and Summit. Everbearing yellows include Fall Gold and Golden Summit.
When everbearing canes lose their leaves in the fall of the first year, cut back just the top third where the canes bore fruit. In the fall of their second year, prune everbearing canes all the way to the ground. Remove any weak first-year canes, and thin the remaining first-year canes to about 6-8 inches apart. Many people feel the fall crop is less tasty than the summer crop.
After summer-bearing canes drop their leaves in the fall of their second year, prune them all the way to the ground and thin as described above. Purple and back raspberries should also be topped to about 2-3 feet during their first year to encourage branching.
When you followed every year, these pruning methods will help ensure you get the most enjoyment out of your raspberries.
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