Thursday, February 02, 2006

Hope Springs Eternal

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coll
ard
lings

















This is my entire vegetable garden at the moment...a nine pack of collard babies. I wish I had more out there. I was supposed to be eating lettuce by now, but the seeds are still in the pack. It's hard to get off duty long enough to get hands in the dirt lately.

That's a raised bed surrounded by 4" PVC perforated drain pipe instead of PT wood. I like my plants to absorb polyvinyl chlorides instead of those pesky arsenic compounds in PT.

The dirty, pinkish rectangle in the bed is some old carpet acting as weed smotherer, courtesy of the remodeling upstairs.

Gotta go grade papers...

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Explain to me the point of a raised bed. It doesn't seem to be raised high enuf to keep the bunnies from chowing. I dunno. What is gained by raising the bed?

Rurality said...

I started to say that the chemicals probably wouldn't pose a problem unless the pipe got really hot... then I remembered what state you are in LOL.

Actually it looks very nice, except for the fact that it's icky icky collards. :)

Deb said...

We here in the northern climes are very, very envious that you have anything started at all. Of course it has been a warm winter, we may have hope for an early spring.

pablo-raised beds are done basically so you don't have to dig down into the soil; you just pile compost and more fertile soil on top of what is there. The bunnies still find their way, hence electric fence or whatever other line of defense one might have.

robin andrea said...

The collards look very healthy. A very nice start.

Thunder said...

Mmmm Collard greens! You know that they go good with cured pork!

Don't worry too much about the PVC. Unless you're using a food grade garden hose your already adding plenty of polyvinyl compounds every time you water!

Anonymous said...

FC, that's a handsome raised bed, and I wouldn't want to betray any confidences but TF23 sneers at raised beds. OK, I betrayed them.

Here in red Georgia clay, so difficult to dig down into as is also the case with you for different reasons we KNOW how important raised beds are to successful gardening in the South. Lord help those naysayers. They will surely see the light.

:-)

I'm still working on a good crop - I marvel at DPR and RD's successes - but I'll get there yet.

-wmahfo- which is what I'm doing right now!

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

We're still having winter up here in Ky., so our garden is not out yet. If you mail me those lettuce seeds I'll plant them for you...they won't do you any good in the pack.

Your raised bed looks nice...and if we have to worry about every chemical, we would probably starve.

R.Powers said...

Pablo,
Deb answered your question. I would just add that it's done for reasons of drainage in heavy soils or low gardens as well as the sheet composting Deb describes.
Mine are not raised much because my soil is essentially Eocene beach sand. It drains too well. I actually employ lowered beds to retain water for lettuce, etc.

Rurality,
I used to think that about collards too so I understand.

Deb,
I could have been growing much earlier, but just didn't get out there.

Thunder,
Exactly. The water in the house sits in PVC pipes so if I were going to worry, I'd worry about that.

Thing,
I'm putting out tomatoes and peppers at the end of Feb, you could probably do that now.

Wayne,
My sand dries so quickly that I keep my "raised" beds pretty low. Are you trying to get TF23 fired up again? I witnessed y'all's caterpillar combat.

DPR,
...And Gus is a fine greenhouse.


Abandoned,
Give me another week to see if I can get them in ...



mssavmsh = what JarJar says when as he disappeared

Anonymous said...

hahhaha! We ARE similar! I've got a collard growing outside too! just one, and 3 other vegetables to boot. I'm afraid a cold snap will come in and shut them down for good.

R.Powers said...

Laura,
Definitely a parallel universe :)

Juli said...

I posted pics of our garden, too! It's our first attempt at gardening and we're just tickled to see such growth! Leaf lettuce, anyone??

R.Powers said...

xariklea,
I grow them because they are easy...tomatoes make me work.

doubleknot said...

Collards - yummy. I too used to use old carpet inbetween my raised beds - matter of fact I used anything I could get my hands on including newspaper - after the paper assured me there was nothing harmful in the black print - with a sprinkle of fir needles on top to hold it down or wood mulch if I was lucky enough to catch the tree trimmers - they were always glad to dump a load close to where they were trimming.

R.Powers said...

Girl,
I posted a comment here, but it must have vanished. I went to your site to see your garden and it is great!


doubleknot,
I've had the tree trimmers do the same thing. It saves them a trip to the landfill.