Preparing Beds, Hills and Rows - Grown By You (2024)

FAQs

Preparing Beds, Hills and Rows - Grown By You? ›

Planting in Rows, Hills, and Beds

You can either use rocks or extra top soil to build up the ground. Either way, a retaining wall will offer a very secure way to prevent your plants from moving down the slope and will also aid in moisture retention. Use extra top soil from 6 inches to one foot to build a retaining wall.

In raised beds: Make your bed at least 2 feet wide and raised at least 6 inches high. Almost any vegetable benefits from a raised bed, but smaller vegetables and root crops, such as lettuce, beets, carrots, onions, spinach, and radishes, really thrive with this type planting.

In areas where it rains a lot, raised rows will drain better. And in northern climates, the soil will warm faster. Finally, raised rows mean fewer weeds. This method can be done over top of an existing garden bed, over a lawn, or over another patch of earth.

The most low-maintenance plan is to add hardscape elements and let the slope do the work for you. Sectioning off your hillside into terraces makes planting and maintenance easier. Add hardscapes such as brick walls, stone steps, wooden planter boxes, or metal garden beds.

Tomato plants require abundant moisture for best growth, so arrange for easy watering. The area selected should be well drained since poor drainage promotes root loss. Tomatoes grown on heavy or poorly drained soils should be planted in raised beds or mounds four to six inches high.

Spread about 6 to 8″ of soil over the top of each 18″ wide straw planting rows. The goal here is not to make huge mounds – just to cover the straw or leaves. It will just slightly raise the soil in the working beds from your walking rows. Don't worry if you see some straw peeking through – its okay!

More roots means a more vigorous, healthier plant as those tendrils branch out into the soil to eagerly gather up nutrients. I leave about 4″ of the actual plant above soil, so that can mean over half is actually buried in the soil. Finally, mound that soil up around the tomato and create a nice moat around each mound.

Cons. Hugelkultur raised beds take up more space than traditional ones, and the decomposing wood can temporarily tie up nitrogen, a nutrient essential for plant growth. The nitrogen issue can be mitigated by adding high-nitrogen materials like manure or grass clippings to the mound.

What not to fill a raised garden bed with? ›

Raised beds that are small and shallow (under 12 inches deep) are typically only filled with soil. Adding other organic materials to shallow beds usually isn't a good idea. Sticks, twigs, and other materials further reduce the limited soil space and can interfere with plant root growth and water drainage.

Instead of measuring out squares, you'll simply plant your vegetables in evenly spaced rows—just make sure you do so in north and south directions! The other rule of thumb when using this layout plan is to organize your spacing so that your tallest growing vegetables are planted on the north side of your rows.

Always plant the tallest vegetables to the northern side of the garden and the shorter growing vegetables to the southern side of the garden. That said, most recommendations agree that planting north-south is marginally better. The north-south orientation allows the sun to penetrate the garden by shining down the rows.

The mound creates a small-scale raised bed for cultivating plants and seeds. It's especially good for root crops requiring loose soil and space below ground. For those with small gardens, it's a great way to optimize space.

Planting a slope in itself helps it retain water and soil. If you have an irrigation system, you can dig these almost invisible ditches, then run your hosepipe along them. One design solution for planting on a slope is to create a rock garden, planting it with drought-tolerant plants.

To spread the soil, begin at the bottom of the area and dump it in by the wheelbarrow load in a line across the slope, working to build the lowest area up to your desired height. Add additional loads of soil until you have a level area to work with.

There are many effective erosion control solutions to keep soil from washing away on a slope. These include riprap, baffles, barriers, terraces, plants and erosion control wattles.