Lean Times Ahead
Author Steve Solomon Calls for Backyard Agriculture.
By Rachel Foster 3/16/06

This time last year, gardeners were obsessed with drought. Now we are looking at normal rainfall totals and a comfortable snow pack, and a wetter winter is probably reminding some of us why raised beds are a great idea. Depending on your particular soil and the lay of the land, wet soil can delay planting by several weeks. Wet soils are difficult or impossible to cultivate, and slow to warm up. The calendar may say it’s time to sow, but any seeds you do manage to get in
could rot before they germinate. Raised beds make it easy to maintain a rich, crumbly soil that drains well and warms up quickly in spring, allowing an early start on cultivation. Seeds germinate
and grow faster. Lifting the soil surface just a few inches above grade is helpful to get things started, though deeper beds of loose soil are great for carrots and parsnips. There is no need to frame raised beds with rock or lumber. Contained beds do look tidy and fit well in a controlled
landscape, but uncontained beds are just as effective and they are cheaper and easier
to build and renovate.
Years back, much of the land at FOOD for Lane County’s Grassroots Garden would be under water well into spring. Using raised beds has made year-round gardening possible. (In the last five years, director Mary Bradley and hundreds of volunteers have effectively doubled the growing area, which last year produced 40,000 lbs. of organic produce.) The simple beds in each section are 40 feet long and about a foot high, spaced to be four feet wide with 18 inch paths between. In practice, the width of the path will vary: The top of the bed might be built only 2 feet wide for corn or broccoli, and paths can grow narrower during the season as soil spills over, but the basic pattern remains. These paths are wide enough for wheelbarrows. You can make your own paths as wide as you find convenient, remembering that you will need access to add amendments, to weed and harvest produce. To avoid compacting the nice loose soil, the beds should be no wider than you can tend and harvest without stepping in them.
In Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, Steve Solomon described the basic method for raising beds: When your own soil is workable, spread an inch of compost and any other amendments over the entire garden area, turn the soil to a depth of six or seven inches and then shovel a few inches of soil into shallow, flat topped berms with paths between them. If you have scanty soil or heavy, intractable clay, bring in a mix of sandy loam and compost to form the beds. Once built, the beds rarely need deep cultivation: New organic material, green or composted, can
be scratched into the top few inches every year after the beds are neatened up. Mulch the paths with woodchips, leaves or straw. One gardener I met years ago swore by oak leaves because, he said, slugs don’t like them.
The ideal time to construct a raised bed garden is perhaps in fall, when soils are warm and readily workable. You can make a raised bed any time, however, and now is not too late. If you complete a bed by April you can still plant broccoli, peas and many leaf crops, and you have until late May to plant tomatoes, peppers, squash and beans.