Construction Slides from the Vertical Gardening Seminar
OSU/Master GardenerMini-College
2012
Raised Bed Construction
Sizing – 4’ max width Materials – spit face block – 4” best (no PT) Foundation - choices Drain vents – fabric + ¼ minus Hardware cloth – ½” galvanized – tight fit Trellis PVC – “U” bolts
• Enables vertical trellising• Enables Hooping you beds – to extend season
Garden structure: Raised Beds & Vertical Gardening
Use ½” EMT ( Electrical Metal Tubing) – about $2.00 per 10’ length – Lowes / Home Depot etc
Bend corners of trellis with tubing bender or use a 90 degree “L”fitting
Join sides together with ½” EMT coupler (screws together) Use pre-tied STRONG nylon netting with a minimum of 6”
openings (I prefer 7”)- I use Park Seed trellis netting – recommend you get the 5’ x 60’ roll ($25) as the 5’ x 15’ costs $15
Use black (UV protected) tie wraps to secure netting to frame
Maximum trellis width is about 55” – 60” My trellises still look new after 5 years
Trellis Construction
Trellis Construction
Trellis Construction
Trellis Construction
Install trellises in PVC holders inside raised beds
You can install trellises anywhere by using ½” rebar – 3’ long, driven 18” into the ground … then slide the trellis over the rebar. You can pull the rebar out and put your trellis in a new location at will.
Trellis Installation
Hooping your Raised Beds
Hooping your Raised Beds
Hooping your Raised Beds
In a Raised Bed you have complete control of the soil that will grow your plants. It’s also a reasonably small volume of soil compared to Horizontal Gardens, so costs are more reasonable to create a superb growing medium.
I recommend you fill your beds with:
50-50 or 60-40 compost / sandy loam mix (I use Highway Fuel)
Do a soil analysis and amend as prescribed to make it perfect
I do soil analysis every other year – sometimes yearly – using small samples from all the beds for an average.
Soil
Please contact me at
or
503-315-8313
If you have any questions or comments…