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Re: "unconstructed" raised beds?

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Erica Cathers <erica@jersey.net> wrote:
Date: Thursday, January 14, 1999 6:49 PM
Subject: Re: "unconstructed" raised beds?

>Olin,
>This reminds me of an article I saw in Country Living Gardener some time
>back.  Someone in a harsh climate with dry wind built beds that were
>actually below ground level so he could grow perennials that normally
>wouldn't make it there.  I can't remember more details than that, and I
>don't still have the magazine it was in.  But it looked kind of cool, as
>well as being useful.  I'm trying to find the date of the article and if
I'm
>successful I'll post the info.  (I'd kind of like to read the article
again,
>myself.)
>
>Erica
>

I actually tried sunken sqft beds once but drainage was too poor in our
desert clay soil.  But ground level beds worked okay for me.  One of the
better sqft posts on raised  (or not raised) sqft beds is archived at
http://www.mallorn.com/lists/sqft/jan97/msg00088.html reads in part as
follows:

"Quote"
Subject: Re: Raised beds
From: John Orwick <oldjohn@JUNO.COM>
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 14:46:00 EST
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

Richard, I was pleased to see you inquire about raised beds. With all of
the continuing talk about raised beds, I was beginning to think that I
was seeing the SQFT world through different glasses. I don't recall
seeing raised beds in Mel's garden, in the videos or the photographs in
the book.

I do SQFT gardening without raised beds and it works great. SQFT
gardening is a great concept, but the point that I have tried to make
before is that it must be adapted to your individual geographical
location and soil conditions. There is no "one style fits all" SQFT
garden. I happen to be lucky and have soil which grows good crops even if
I do nothing to it. My good friend only 3 miles from me had to used
raised beds and took soil from my garden because his soil would not even
grow weeds.

The soil which I removed and gave to my friend was replaced with compost
and dug into my remaining soil. This improved my soil but left it about 2
inches below grade. After I flood it with water, there is no water
standing after 5 minutes. Will this work for everyone? ..........NO WAY
!!! .........

oldjohn@juno.com
John Orwick
El Monte, CA
"End Quote"


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