kightp's backyard raised bed garden

My sister and I built this 4′×10′ raised bed in 2001, initially filling it with a truckload of garden soil containing well-composted steer and chicken manure and a good deal of rotted mint straw (a favored mulch here in the Willamette Valley, where much of the nation’s mint crop is grown). I’ve been amending it ever since, and it gets a winter cover crop of crimson clover or fava beans to replenish nitrogen. Last year, I seeded it with a quart of earthworms a friend gave me, and I’m happy to report they’re thriving.

We built it with an aging middle-aged gardener (me) in mind. It’s two feet deep and I can sit on an upended pickle bucket to plant and weed. PVC pipe, curved into brackets, can hold a cover of plastic sheeting in the winter and bird netting in the spring (to keep the neighborhood cats from using it as a litter box).

When I built it, the bed got full sun in my north-facing back yard. Alas, the eastern neighbor’s big-leaf maple has grown, and it now winds up shaded by late afternoon – lousy for tomatoes, but the lettuce and lemon cucumbers loved it this year. Another raised bed may be in order next spring.