Raised Bed 201 | Page 2 | Food Production and Preservation | Forums

I started out by picking up some garlic and onion sets for this years planting

garlic can't be any easier, just grab some bulbs

break them up into the individual sections

and them plant them flat end down and pointed side up

onions just set and cover

I had sketched out a basic layout for the garden

and placed the seed packets according to my sketch (there are websites out there that you can use to do the layout with)

To get the seedlings started for the other beds I left a corner of one of the hoop houses unplanted and threw some 10-10-10 into the soil

I mixed it in well incorporating the two together

I grabbed a packet of seeds and some of my pvc pipes

I lightly packed in some of the fertilized soil into the pipe and a couple of seeds

I lightly covered the seeds and labeled the pipes so I knew what was what

after I had a bunch set up I set them in the corner of the bed and covered them with a light top coat

and covered all the beds for the night

A couple of weeks later as the weather outside was getting better I stuck a thermometer in one of the hoop houses and was shocked to see it was 110 degrees in there, I had to run down to johnny's seeds later that day to see if they had any horseradish sets and I noticed they had some Agribon on sale because the corner of the roll was damaged

Agribon is good stuff, it allows 90 percent of lights through, is breathable and protects the clothe

Provides frost protection down to 28°F/-2°C. Great overwinter protection for strawberries, lettuce, spinach, etc. Use with hoop supports over plants such as peppers whose growing points project against the fabric. 85% light transmission. 0.55 oz./sq.yd.

http://www.johnnysee.....x-500.aspx

I was able to get a 500 foot roll for 45 dollars.

I also picked up some bags of shade cloth clips, they snap over the cloth onto the cpvc pipes holding the cloth down, the only down side is they actual size for 1/2 inch conduit not 1/2 inch cpvc which has a slightly smaller exterior diameter, so I ended up cutting little pieces of cloth and doubled it up under the clips so they held tight

I removed the plastic from the hoop houses

And rolled out the Agribon to cut the proper length

I draped the Agribon over the hoops

and reset the firewood and spring clips to hold down the base

the seedlings were starting to sprout so I spread them out a little before I covered the bed

Since I had so much Agribon I made the new beds into hoop houses as well, so I could get the planted as well

the next day I planted and covered the beds, it was may 3rd, almost a full month before normal planting time for our zone