I had to tear out the old, shallow raised beds I had in this spot because I needed to over-winter the portable chiken coop here and the beds were rotting out anyway. So I decided to get serious and build something that would be functional, beautiful, and longer lasting.
I used cedar fence boards to keep the cost down and lined the sides of the bed with heavy duty plastic I already had on hand. I also made 4x4 posts out of cedar 2x4's instead of paying an arm and a leg for cedar 4x4's. The natural oils in cedar will keep it from rotting out for a long time and I coated everything in Boiled Lindseed Oil before construction to give it even more longevity. I also dug a ditch down the length of the bed and filled it with rubble for better drainage.
I added some trim on the corners and side to give it a more finished look.
The kids couldn't wait to play in it with their chickens.
We had one compost bin filled with composted chicken bedding that had been cooking for a whole year and another filled with mostly leaf mold from raking leaves in the fall so I decided to use the "Lasagna" gardening method with this raised bed. If you don't know about Lasagna gardening, the idea is to fill a raised bed with different layers: composted manure, leaves, grass, straw, etc. and just plant your garden straight into it.
After putting in the first two layers (composted manure on bottom, leaf mold on top) I couldn't resist letting the chickens feast on the abundant bugs and worms for a while. It's great for their eggs. By the way, I also built it with the same footprint as our portable "chicken ark" (seen in background) so it can be placed right on top of the garden bed over the winter. This allows the hens to add their fertilized bedding to the mix.
The next layer of the lasagna consisted of a huge bag of leaves we had saved from last fall. I was surprised to find a family of seven mice living in it when I dumped it in, but that's a story for another blog post. I then put a layer of grass clippings I scored from the landscaping guy who just happened to be cutting my neighbor's grass while I was doing this. Later, I threw some top soil that I got from leveling off the area along our fence over all of this. I still need to buy maybe three or four bags of garden soil to top it all off and start planting, but I'm really happy I was able to fill it 4/5ths of the way up with stuff we had laying around. Saved a ton of money that way. Just hope stuff actually grows in this the way people are saying. We'll see.
Update:
After doing the math, I realized I would need about 30 cubic feet of soil to fill the rest of this bed. That's taking into account the fact that a lot of the organic matter I had allready put in will break down as it decomposes and compress. I don't trust "topsoil" in bags because it usually comes from construction projects and who knows how much lead or what may be in it. The best price I could find on bags of organic garden soil was around $8.00 per 1.5 cubic feet. That amounts to about $160.00 just for soil. So, naturally, being as cheap as I am, I have decided to experiment with making my own soil. I'll blog about engineering my own soil later so stay tuned.
Another Update:
Instead of paying $160 for the 20 bags of organic soil, I decided to try and come up with a method for making quick compost myself (Yes! another DIY project). My infinitely patient wife agreed to help me gather leaves from a nearby forest floor for this experiment. We raked up six bags of partally decomposed, wet, oak leaves and dragged them from the forest to the car. Needless to say, this was not an easy job (Thanks Mary!).
At least the kids had fun searching for bugs and collecting worms for their chickens.
Once we got the leaves home, I drilled some holes through a piece of prefforated drain pipe for better air flow.
Next, I made a shallow impression through the middle of the bed and ran the pipe through it.
Then I added the six bags of leaves we gathered from the forest floor.
Finally, I covered it all with black plastic to heat it up and keep the moisture in.
My theory is that the heat from the plastic and the air circulation from the drain pipe will create the correct conditions for quick decomposition. BTW, I also added more chicken manure and greens from the compost pile before putting the plastic on so I'm hoping I got the right ratio of carbon to nitrogen needed for quick decomposition. Again, this is all experimental, so I'll report what I learn. I'll be happy if I can get enough soil in this thing in time to plant a fall garden. We'll see.
Update:
If you want to see how the garden turned out, check out our
Planting a Fall Garden post.
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