Raised Garden Bed Walk Through

Today I thought I would take you on a raised garden bed walkthrough. Be gentle... this is my first video ever.

Disclaimers: don’t mind all the junk in the background. It’s not always like that. We moved a shed (right now it’s behind the little greenhouse before it arrives at its new spot) and have taken out all the stuff that was in it, alongside it and leaning up against it. And yes… most of it is junk.

I’ll start off with the video of the walkthrough and then put more detailed information below it about some of the beds. The video is about 7:30 minutes long, so I didn’t want to extend it further.

The first bed I go to is the modified hugelkultur that we built this year. Here is the link if you want to read more about it.

It is actually growing really well and didn’t have any slug problems. Looks like there is a volunteer squash by the radishes as well. I guess I’ll have to wait to see what appears.

The next bed is the traditional bed with the squash (festival acorn squash), corn and scarlet runner beans. I said that the corn was getting silk on it, but that’s not correct. They are called the tassels. Learn something new every day.

The corn isn’t looking very tall and hasn’t any signs of cobs yet, so I’m not sure how well it will produce. It also has an earwig problem.

The beds with straw on them are from the winter rye crop I planted last winter and I ended up making hay. They not only keep moisture in and act as a mulch, but they also harbour slugs until I got them under control. Hence having to replant the scarlet runner beans.

The herb garden is looking a little bare as I’ve already harvested most of the herbs and dried them.

The bed with the parsnips in it also has some turnips right in front of the snap peas. They were a little slow in getting going and they seem to be a favourite of the slugs as well.

I’ve always grown the vine peas not the bush like I did this year. Next year I’ll go back to the ones I have to trellis up high. The bush ones weren’t as nice.

Loving the shelling peas. Most of them got eaten right off the vine. Next year will plant a much longer row of them.

In the bed with the nasturtiums in the middle has bush beans on the one side and delicata squash on the other with a couple of pole beans going up the teepee. I had used old seeds for the pole beans so only 3 came up altogether.

Rob just put up the trellis for the squash to grow on rather than letting them trail on the ground.

In front of the potato bed, is my favourite garden stool. Couldn’t live without it. I can sit and pick the beans, plant or weed without hurting the back. Everyone needs one.

The bed with the kale, swiss chard and spinach in it has at least 2/3 of it replanted. Everything from the corn at the end up to the swiss chard was redone. Earlier was planted collard, kohlrabi, and pac choi. Got a few collards off for eating but noticed that the plants weren’t doing very well.

This was one of the beds that had root-knot last year, so I dreaded the worst. Pulled up a plant and there it was.

I could have cried. All the time and effort that I put into trying to get rid of it was to no avail. But I’ll write another post on that.

Suffices to say, that without totally replacing the dirt, I added more compost and steer manure and planted seedlings like lettuce and spinach that aren’t bothered by root-knot and moved on.

Just an aside: any potatoes not in the potato bed are volunteers from other years and if I don’t get them pulled up right away, I just let them grow and harvest them.

Had a great garlic harvest and I’ll write about that as well, but once harvested I replanted the area with corn. The corn is from some seeds that I had saved from Joiner’s early sweet corn from Chilliwack. It is probably too late for planting, but hey… you never know.

As I go through the garden you will see different areas where there are sticks across the beds and/or wire or netting. This is to keep the quail from having dust baths in the newly exposed dirt.

The bed in front of the rain barrel had root-knot as well and the broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts did not grow. So again… hauled them out, added more compost and steer manure and had another go at beets. Seems to be working.

I’m thinking of pulling up the cabbages as they aren’t doing anything either and putting in more potatoes for winter use.

The one thing about having a garden is that it’s a work in progress. Always changing, rewarding and eternally learning.

If you are wanting to know what I filmed the garden tour with, it was a little camera similar to a go pro. It’s called an Activeon CX and you can see it on Amazon here.

It’s just a tiny thing and is only 2.5 inches wide and 1.5 inches high. I attached it to my monopod to walk around with, but I might need to get a head strap so I can go hands-free if I do any more videos.

Hope you enjoyed the walkthrough of my garden as much as I enjoyed showing it to you.