Tall man raised garden bed for vegetables

[mdstorrs]

I just finished my "tall man" vege garden box and we will start to plant this weekend. All timber, tools and accessories were bought from either the Keperra or Brendale stores.  It turned out better than I hoped considering I have never worked with large pieces of Timber before only ever small wooden projects. Thanks Bunnings!

[mdstorrs]

Hi @bluemoonskye  and @Jason 

The team of boffins at my work thought hard and long over this. It was hard getting enough material no matter what I used to fill the bottom and only leave 30cm at the top.

The final result was to build a fake bottom and put some drainage grids in. I covered the grids with weed matting so the didn't let too much else through. The weed matting also goes up the walls of the garden. 

It seems to work. The garden drains at a good rate and the soil with plenty of compost seems to hold the moisture well. I feel we have it right.

[mdstorrs]

Hi @Jessa 

I didn't sand back and stain. It looks pretty good as is.  It's god a great colour and texture for the backyard,

[mdstorrs]

It's been 15 months now, so I thought I would upload a few photos from my success.  I won't horrify you with the failures.

13kg of Sweet Potatoes in our first season. Only 5kg in the second because of the drought.

Plenty of Beautiful Pakchoy. We could barely keep up.

Plenty of very healthy pak choy. more than we could cope with.

Look at this specimen. The first season of corn was amazing. Perfect weather. The drought made it hard for the second.

I have since got in water tanks and proper irrigation.

The first season corn was a huge success. This season with all the rain, they were riddled with pests.

This is the pak choy growing, with some failed beans in the foreground.

This is the pak choy growing. With some shallots.

Strawberries were a huge success. About 2  or 3 punnets a week from just two plants

This is the sweet potato growing.

The start of our second season of Sweet potatoes

the latest shot , you can see I have herbs, pak choy, zucchini and a heap of new gardens in the backbround.

the smaller gardens don't need as much attention. 

This is the most recent photo. Zucchini, pakchoy, lots of herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary.

The lettuce was a huge success until the heat came and they all bolted.

we had so many zucchinis, I am still eating them. Just two plants.

We had sooo much zucchini. I am still eating zucchini slice. Thank god I worked out how to freeze it.

I have just planted some broccoli and cauliflower. I hope the insects stay away.

I just added some proper irrigation and you can see it working here with my broccoli and cauliflower

Carrots were fun, but the soil didn't have enough organic material, so the carrots would bend

We had a lot of carrots, but the soil was too hard, so they were all bent.

@Jason   @Jessa   @bluemoonskye  @22Jill 

[Jason]

So good to see your bountiful harvest! Brilliant stuff @mdstorrs. One positive from the current difficulties we are facing has been that more people are becoming interested in growing their own food. I'm sure this post will provide plenty of inspiration!

Well done,

Jason

[bluemoonskye]

Awesome idea!

[Kermit]

Those carrots look pretty straight to me @mdstorrs. When I've tried to grow them I get all sorts of gnarly ones... 

[mdstorrs]

I've really loosened up the soil this time and I've added extra compost. Let's hope I get even straighter ones. @Kermit 

[Rustikman]

Am I able to use Marri instead of Jarrah for  a raised garden bed

[MitchellMc]

Hi @Rustikman. Welcome to the Workshop community.

Let me tag @mdstorrs so they are alerted to your question. I suspect Marri would be fine as it is a hardwood and appears to be suitable for such applications.

Please feel free to post anytime you needed a hand or had a project you wished to share with the community.

Mitchell

[mdstorrs]

Hi @Rustikman 

I didn't use hardwood on mine, as the whole thing weighs over 1500 kg. The treated pine sleepers are quite heavy, so I imagine the hardwood would be even more so. With that said, hardwood may last longer. Not that mine is showing any sign of breaking down any time soon.

As long as the wood is suitable for vege gardens and doesn't leech anything back into the soil, then I say, go for it!