Just moving to our new homestead in SW Virginia we are trying to decide which types of rows to use in our garden. This got me wondering what the type of rows do the rest of you use (traditional long rows, wide rows, raised beds, etc.) and why???

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001

Answers

I prefer raised wide beds, it is just easier in the long run, to work the beds that are not walked on than to till etc, the whole area each year, and the beds can be customized for the seasons crop rotations with out harming the other growth.

-- Thumper (slrldr@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.

Karen -- If you don't have it already, get a book called Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. Great book, great tips, and a great way to get more out of your garden.

-- Tracy (trimmer31@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.

We went with the traditional long row gardens. We have only been at our homestead for two years, the soil is good, and since we have a large family (and lots of mouths to feed) we were in a hurry to get some garden started. I see no reason to change at this point. This method does take up more space than others, but we have plenty of garden space. We did though, try the cabbages, etc. and green beans in wider rows and it did work fine.

-- Jane in Wisconsin (autumnwindfarm@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.

I prefer traditional. We tried raised beds but our soil is sandy silt so it doesn't hold moisture and we had to water every day. So we do traditional with a nice Honda tiller and till about once a week.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), November 01, 2001.

I have used the long rows for several years, but am tired of tilling the entire garden each year. My soil is good, so I am either going to raised beds or square foot gardening next year. I have 6-4'X l2' raised beds around the greenhouse and they are great. Can use the small tiller each year to work compost in. If I were doing it again, though, I would make the beds 3 or 3 l/2 feet wide.

-- Duffy (hazelm@tenforward.com), November 01, 2001.

Raised beds are best for a small garden because you get the most food out of the least space, and because more of the garden soil remains soft and uncompacted. But they must be hand weeded. If you use permanent beds with framing, they will also have to be hand-dug. A row garden is best if you need to mechanically cultivate/weed, or if you can't water your garden (use extra-wide spacing if you can't water, as it helps drought-proof your garden). We use both. We have a small (for us!) raised bed garden, and a larger patch with rows of corn, pumpkins, etc. You just have to figure out your needs and what works best in your situation.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 01, 2001.

We have about an acre garden and "strip" row it. We left the grassy paths alone and only tilled the rows. This fall we are just mulching the rows with newspaper and mulch so hopefully we're done with tilling all together. We have an outside and center walking path so the rows only go about half way across the garden, stop for the path and then start again to the other side. The paths are wide enough to run the lawn tractor through which keeps the paths from getting over grown and makes it easy to harvest.

-- Stacey (stacey@lakesideinternet.com), November 01, 2001.

Karen, you will soon find that everything on your homestead is dependant on you. Yes long rows are great, with a tiller, or lots of kid power to weed the rows! Yes long rows are great if you have good soil! I like raised beds, not only just built up but in beds with sides. I fill them with the manure from the dairy barn and the compost pile. Gardens are alot of work, it is very depressing to see your first garden being taken over by weeds. Don't get to big to fast, if you have to garden without a tiller or raised beds, then make sure your garden is only big enough to hoe the weeds out of, really just airating the soil daily. Spend time having trellis's, not letting your plants sprawling all over the ground, impossible to weed in, neat and tidy and mulch! Start saving all those sacks of leaves now! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.

Just an added note. We are real open at this point. We have a rear end tiller and a front end tiller, lots of weeding help, garden space up the ying yang, pretty good soil (we are composting and have a winter rye cover crop on now), and 7 mouths to feed! Thanks for all the info so far!

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.

I have raised beds and use the square foot gardening way. I do it this way because our land where we garden is so rocky and by using this method you also cut down on a lot of labor and equipment.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), November 01, 2001.

Hi Karen! I use raised beds for most of my crops (except corn and melons), and plan on building some with solid sides over the winter around the greenhouse (it's in progress too - 12 x 20) for the herbs, lettuce, cabbage, etc. Most of the time my beds are between 3 and 4 feet wide, and max out around 20 feet long.

I like the raised beds because it helps me with drainage during spring rains, the raised beds warm faster in the spring helping germination and stay warmer in the fall extending my season slightly becuase the sides catch more sunlight, plus the kids aren't as likely to step on the seedlings. And I find it easier to rotate crops if I knew what was where the previous year too.

I like the beds too, because I can add organic material to the rows in between the beds and let it compost, which also helps keep weeds under control.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.

Karen, we use the traditional -long rows. We have a two tractors, seed planter and plows. It makes it easier for us to control weeds and planting time is a breeze! (My husband grew up on the farm and knows all the 'tricks of the trade') :) I just hoe out between the plants and DH handles the rest on the tractor. We used landscaping cloth on our tomatoe rows and it worked like a charm--no weeds--great tomatoes.

You'll find what's best for YOU--trial& error are how most of figured it out..

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), November 01, 2001.

We have 4 slightly raised beds. They are 4' x 16' with just enough space between them to run the mower. The width is just enough that anything can be reached from one side or the other and we never have to step on the garden beds and compress them. We don't plant anything in rows. I have looked through the Square Foot Gardening book and that's the closest way to how we plant.

-- Cindy in NY (cjpopeck@worldnet.att.net), November 01, 2001.

Karen, Great question , lots of great answers. Now is surely the time for planning next years garden.We use a modified traditional approach.I plow and fit the garden with our draft horses. We also cultivate and hill potatoes with the horses so most all our rows are planted at 36".Space is not a problem for us either. We actually have two "same size" gardens side by side. One garden is planted with most vegetable seeds and plants, the other space is cover cropped 3x per season with manure or compost added at each plowing. We use cover crops based on our experience from gardening here in northeast Ohio. We use oats in early spring , mow down as the grain reaches the "boot" stage,apply manure and plow, harrow lightly for about 9 days , plant buckwheat , mow just after it blooms. We do that two times then add more manure and plow a second time harrow as before and plant rye or wheat for a winter cover. The cover cropped garden is planted to vegetables the next year and the old garden becomes the cover cropped one.

We plant sweet corn and potatoes in "new ground" following pasture or hay. Our pumpkins and melons are planted on the other side of the corn from the potatoes in rows about 15 feet apart or a long single row with about 8 feet of dirt between the corn and melons and 8 feet of dirt to the edge of the field. We harrow the dirt space at least once a week and spread compost in the space until the pumpkins strt to vine , once the melons start to vine out we plant white dutch clover and rye. We can usually mow the rye crop at least once before the vines are too crazy. As the pumpkins vines grow along the ground , they root here and there feeding on the applied compost. The harrowing and mowing keep the weeds in check.When the potatoes are dug , and the cornstalks are fed to the stock , the pumpkins are harvested, we can harrow the whole piece and plant rye and red clover for a winter cover. The side where the white clover was planted is also harrowed and seeded. This plot can be lightly grazed in early spring.Mowed in early summer, and grazed again pretty hard in the fall. We don't let the horses graze this ..too rich.

Quite a lengthy letter to say we use traditional rows (sorry). We like to plant peas,beans,lettuce, swiss chard etc. in double rows about 5-6" apart , with at least 3 feet between these rows. We get the benefit of "wide row gardening culture" while still using traditional rows for cultivation with the horses or a push cultivator.

I guess the thing to do is experiment. Make gardening fun. Use methods that you know will work for you and try something new each year. After a time you too will probably be using a number of methods... especially while feeding 7 family members.

One other thing I should mention, we run a small CSA ,and sell extra produce as well. Our typical garden is about an acre , with sweet corn ,pumpkins and melons taking up about 2 more acres.

The cover crop garden and duel veggie garden were off shoots from an experiment learned while living in town where our entire garden measured 40' x 80'. We fed half of our neighborhood !

Happy Gardening .... Ralph

-- Ralph Rice (Roadapple@suite224.net), November 01, 2001.

We use the raised beds, and heavy mulch. We combined the French Bio-intensive method and Ruth Stouts no till gardening. Have been using it for over 15 years and would do no other. We have 100 acres so space is no problem this is just easier after we got the paths shoveled out and the beds formed. We have 40 beds, 4X20 feet each and 2 ft walkways between them. The herb garden has 101 raised beds in various sizes. We grow almost all our food and can it to preserve it. We also can our meat supply which we buy because we just don't want to fool with the animals year round. The beds with the mulch are so much less work, the mulch keeps the weeds down and the soil moist, and as it rots its builds the soil. Try it you will like it but don't start too much or you will burn out.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), November 01, 2001.

We, too, use the mulch method but with long rows. We initially had it plowed into a garden spot, and it's been under a heavy mulch ever since. Saves alot of labor and the soil is great, altho very rocky, with lots of worms! We have an old push cultivator, and every time we plant, we just pull back the hay, push the cultivator thru to make a row, drop and cover the seeds in and we're done! Once the plants are up good, we pull the mulch back in around them. If you do this, and use round bales of hay for mulch, you need to either get the mulch in place early winter or try to lay it longways in the direction you'll be making your rows. Otherwise, pulling the hay back can be a pain sometimes. We try to replenish our mulch in early winter and by spring, it seems to be easier to pull back.

-- Leslie in MO (whomestead@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.

We do some of each, depending on the crop. I really love raised beds for crops like lettuce and greens, herbs and other "close together" crops. For peppers and other similar sized crops I like the wide rows, very heavily mulched. Our corn, bush beans and others that really do need more space for various reasons, we use traditional rows. We have wonderful soil, although it has spots of very heavy clay that is difficult to drain.

Our experience with raised beds is that they really require a lot of water as they do dry out rather rapidly, even heavily mulched.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 02, 2001.

We do some of each too! For the corn and beans we use traditional rows. I do plant the beans extra thick so that they choke out the weeds better. Anything that I can plant by putting down newspaper first and then covering it with old straw is done that way. I do that with my tomatoes(also in cages), the peppers, the onions, chard,broccoli, brussel sprouts, all kinds of squash and pumpkins, and also the melons. I just put several thicknesses of newspapers down first and then put the mulch on top of it to keep them from flying away in the Oklahoma wind. Then whatever I plant I cut that size of hole in it and stick it in there. Before I put the newspapers down the ground has already been tilled and it only has to be tilled once a year. The rest of the time I just hoe and till between the rows. If you were really wanting to save work, you could just mow between the rows. The newspapers and mulch keep us from having to weed much between the plants. With a half acre garden that is a lot of newspapers. I start saving up now! My side porch looks like a boyscout's paper drive! :~)! Sure beats having to water a lot though. The newspaper and mulch keep the moisture in very well. I like the newspaper and the mulch because it keeps out more of the grass that seems to find it's way into the garden. I tried the lettuce in the same type of thing, but I went back to planting it and most of the other greens and bulbs in a big rectangle. Each one has their own rectangle. This is more labor intensive on the weeding though. If I could these would all be in raised beds.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), November 02, 2001.