The sun's appearance over the weekend was like a tonic.I saw so many people out on bikes and in the garden - it was fabulous.It only takes a few sunny days to remind us why we love to garden on the blessedly balmy West Coast.
The itch to grow and plant is upon us and it is the perfect time to start thinking about cool-season vegetable crops and starting a small vegetable garden.
As you have probably heard and seen, raised-bed vegetable gardening is increasingly popular and for good reason. You can basically build a raised bed anywhere. I heard the story of an industrious man in the West End of Vancouver who used his designated parking space to build a raised vegetable bed!
The first rule of thumb when considering where to put your raised bed is that the location chosen must be your sunniest. A minimum of six hours of full sunshine will give you the most preferable growing conditions, but sometimes you have to work with what you have. One of my veggie beds receives only four hours of sun a day, so I plant things like lettuce and other more shade-tolerant selections in that particular bed.
A raised bed is preferred to digging a bed into the ground for a number of reasons. A big plus is that the soil is warmer earlier in the spring, and stays warmer later in the fall, therefore extending your harvest and growth season on either side. Elevated soil also helps improve drainage, which is huge when you want to grow well-formed, healthy vegetables.
You can build a raised bed out of most any material. The goal is just to contain the soil in a frame above the ground. Use your imagination and get creative. You can use wood (please use untreated ), rocks, bricks, recycled plastic, etc.
In terms of how deep to make the beds, the minimum depth would be 12 to 18 inches; 24 inches would be perfect. You also want the sides of the beds to be about 4 inches higher than the depth of the soil as this will protect against soil erosion and some elements. Do not build a raised bed any wider than four feet. Four feet will comfortably allow you to move around the beds on either side and ensure that you're able to weed and improve the soil easily.
Soil compaction problems will be a concern of the past because at four feet wide, you will never have to step foot on the soil or in the bed. Four feet wide and 10 feet long is a nice-sized bed, but there is no hard-and-fast rule. Just use your space efficiently.
Fill your beds with good, rich soil that has been amended with compost or sea soil. You will have to feed the beds (compost or organic matter) twice a year as the vegetables are high yield in a raised bed and the soil needs to be continually improved.
Building raised beds allows you to rotate your crops so you can avoid planting crops from the same family in the same place two years in a row. Crop rotation is a healthy part of your garden regime.
Next week look for suggestions of what to plant now in our Squamish gardens. If you are itching to get started, you can have some fun with peas. A great local resource for seed information and planting is West Coast Seeds, www.westcoastseeds.com/
