Anybody developed any useful tools for raised bed SFG?

[sleuth]

Planning for next years garden, wanting to expand it while not expanding the amount of work.

What kind of tools do you use?
I'm thinking I'd like to get something useful for breaking the soil up. Since the beds drain so well, it'd be great to have something that is good at breaking up dry hard soil with weeds and/or dead vegetation.

I'd also like to know of a good seeder if there is one. I've seen the row seeders and Earthway makes a pretty good one for under $100. But I'm wondering if there's something useful for SFG in raised beds.

I'd also like to know what DIY tools you may have come across. I was wondering about a 1 foot square board with some bolts put thru it in 16-hole, 9 hole, 4 hole, and 2 hole patterns. I'm envisioning pressing it into the soil to create holes in a uniform pattern for my seed, but at the same time I'm wondering if it will adversely compact the soil under each seed.

Also wondering if there's an easier way to plant transplants with such tight spacing.

All ideas welcome! Let's brainstorm!

 

[bubba1358]

The absolute BEST thing we did for our garden was to layer the top with about 3" of wood chips. I found a place on craigslist that sold untreated pine chips for $3 a 55-gallon bag - not bad! The wood chips absorb sunlight and keep it from penetrating to the soil, keeping the underlying soil moist and soft. to plant, just brush the chips to the side, stick a seed right on top of some compost, and cover back with the wood chips. Give it a really good watering right after planting, and leave it alone.

We haven't had to water at all this year, and our yield has been awesome.

We have a dug out 20x40 section, but we sectioned off 8 SFG "beds" inside of it. We took branches to build the beds, layered in donkey compost on top of the soil, then covered in wood chips. AMAZING results.

So, not really a "tool," per se, but a technique that worked really well. The concept for this is sort of a cross between traditional SFG and this: http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/

BTW, I do love the idea a push-in peg board for planting holes. I may get crafty this winter and make a few!

 

[~gd]

How about a small short handled hoe and a sharpened stick? We losen up the crust on the bed with the hoe and use the stick to poke holes for seeds and transplants then backfill with the hoe. BTW tHE WOOD CHIPS will tend to steal nitrogen from your bed untill they break down.

 

[Hinotori]

This is my first year with raised beds so I don't have much input, but I love the idea of a planting board.

 

[moolie]

The only tools I use in my modified SFG are a small trowel for transplants and a small hand rake with 4 tines that I use to gently break up the surface if it is crusty, and also to make seed holes--its tines are perfectly spaced to either use each one or every second one for most of the seeds I plant. It looks kinda like this (it's red and black though and not quite so posh):

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

Thick mulch, 6-8 inches of mowed grass or weeds, leaves, organic matter will keep the soil from crusting, break down and improve the soil. Building "lasagna" layers of organic matter works extremely well, with a thick, top layer of leaf/grass mulch.

Be careful about bark chips, and while they will help hold water in the soil, they absorb water as well, and that water will have nitrogen in it, (which is what it takes to break wood down) so when you think you are feeding your plants, it's really not getting down far enough....yet. And Bubba's soil must have been amended from previous years, and that's why it's performing so well. But the second year with pine chips starting to break down will be different. They have pitch in them, which has growth inhibitors that will have to break down before they will help improve soil, and that could take years.

Adding extra nitrogen under the bark chips will help, but I've found seeds won't start at all in soil that has pieces of wood chips that are still recognizable. Seeds are the most vulnerable, and it has led me to believe my seeds were old or bad, but it was actually the soil.

Other bark chips with growth inhibitors are red cedar and redwood. All wood chips eventually break down and help improve soil, but it takes so long it's better to put them in a compost pile with high amount of nitrogen dissolved in water, get them broken down until they are unrecognizable.

Lasagna layering is great in raised beds and regular gardens...started in the fall so it can "cook" all winter, a layer of newspaper, a 3" layer of manure, a layer of mowed grass, weeds, leaves, some rock powders, and then start layering again.

I've tried cardboard, which they talk about using instead of newspaper, but where I am it doesn't rain in the summer, and the cardboard doesn't get wet enough, even with drippers and thick mulch over the top, the edges lift up and air gets underneath, sometimes wind, drying out the composting process, and drying out the cardboard even more. If it rains a lot, maybe cardboard would work, but where I am, it takes way too much water. The paper is not the important part anyway, it's really the mowed stuff and the manure, rock powders.

I didn't notice if you mentioned it, but hopefully you aren't using treated wood for your raised beds, as you don't want that stuff in your food. An easy and permanent raised bed edge is cinder blocks that can be arranged in any shape you want, even if you change your mind. You can add to them with little effort. You can fill them with 3/4" rock to help them heat up and hold the heat for early and late plantings. And if you put the longest side facing south, you will collect the most heat. You can plant in the holes in the blocks on the north side for some extra planting space., they look great with flowers in the edges. Check out YouTube for cinder block raised beds

I have two hoes, one large and one small, with fiberglass handles, that I keep really sharp, and that's all I need. I don't till anymore because I use 12" of mulch over everything. That brings the worms up, and they do the tilling/improving.