What tools will I need?
- How much time will it take?
- What tools will I need?
- When should I plant?
- What should I plant?
- How should I arrange my grow-boxes?
- What size should I make my grow-boxes?
- Where should I locate my garden?
You will need the following tools for your soil-bed garden:
- A round-headed shovel with a long handle. The shovel is used to turn, help level and prepare the site, and to mix the custom-soil.
- A garden rake (a 12" rake is easier to use than a 14" or 16" rake). A rake is used to level the custom-soil.
- A straight-blade hoe (sometimes called a scuffle-hoe) not a curved chopping hoe. Use the straight-edged hoe just under the soil surface to eliminate annual weeds by cutting their crowns.
Tips
Never use a dull tool. Use a file to sharpen your tools. Keep your tools in good condition.
- Two 2-gallon buckets for fertilizer compounds.
- A garden hose with the end securely wrapped with an 18-inch cloth extended past the end of the hose. Do not tie the end of the extended cloth. Leave it open. The rag around the hose will prevent the water from digging a hole in the soil, and it allows you to turn the water on full volume to water your garden rapidly.
- Home-made fertilizing tool for distributing fertilizer to plants growing in the grow-boxes. With this tool, you won't have to bend down or strain your back, and you can quickly fertilize as you walk along the grow-boxes.
To make this tool, nail an empty 16-ounce can (open at one end) to the top end of a 1" x 2" x 6' (or longer) strip of wood.
The wood handle will be horizontal to the ground. The can will be perpendicular to the handle with the open end facing the sky.
You should also use markers to provide proper spacing for plants. Different markers are used for different purposes: To mark seed flats To press holes uniformly deep To space plants in soil-beds or grow-boxes
You will learn about making markers in a future section.
Garden Genius
Complete the following checklist for your garden plan. Which tools do you need to get?
- Round-headed shovel
- 12" garden rake
- Straight-edge hoe (push-hoe)
- Two two-gallon buckets
- Garden Hose
- 18" cloth for end of hose
- Home-made fertilizing tool
Use the list in the Tools and Materials List in the Garden Genius. Make sure you print it out before exiting this site.
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Tip of the Day
It's Fall and time to prepare your soil for winter! For those of you in the Northern hemisphere who have winters, October, November, and and early December are the time you need to be cleaning up your garden and preparing it for next spring's planting. You can even plant hardy garlic, which will overvegetable crops such as radishes, peas, cabbage and broccoli.
The freeze/tha-winter and get an early spring start. Before snow covers your garden mae sure all old materials are either removed from the garden, or if they are clean of weed seeds and disease, till them into your soil-beds. Also, when it's not too muddy, go in and give everything a good weeding with the 2-way hoe (see Tools). Weeding thoroughly in the Fall helps keep the weeds from getting a big head start on you before you can get into the garden in the spring, and is very important.
If you grew a Mittleider garden this year, your beds will benefit from tilling or digging. You can apply Pre-Plant and Weekly Feed to the bed area now, then till them in, or wait until early spring. Either way after tilling place strings on your stakes, and re-make the beds.
Be sure to re-check the level of each bed accurately, since they may have changed a little. Do not be satisfied with anything more than 1" fall in a 30'-long soil-bed. Good Gardening!
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