The Raised Garden Bed and Fall Clean Up

All the gardeners are expected to tidy up their garden plots and the usual things that they may do to "Tuck their gardens in for the winter".

So, the Fall Clean Up Event is the end of season time to tidy up the common area gardens before winter sets in, and to finish up the last of the projects in the community garden.

The big project that I wanted to finish this year, was the raised garden bed. Things fell into place for this project to finally be completed. I was able to get the wood, and one of the gardeners donated over 20 2'X2' patio tiles, so we could have a pathway between the regular garden plots and the raised bed. As well, Parks, forestry, and Recreation dropped off two loads of compost and two loads of limestone screening.

The day before our Fall Clean Up event, Indra's husband, Adalino, came and we measured and staked out the area for the garden bed. We also marked out where we wanted to have the patio tiles.

One of the first gardeners to arrive was Javed, he worked on clearing out the area where we wanted to have the pathway. It needed to be dug deep enough for 4 or 5 inches of the limestone screening.

Shortly afterward, Meg and her partner arrived. With their strong hands and backs, they moved the tiles into place.

The weather was really nice (actually nicer then October) and as the day continued, more gardeners came to help out. Even Nello, who had surgery during the summer came with his wife to help out.

On the left - Nello And Silvan, Above Javed, Meg, and friend.

They gathered up nasturtium seeds from the herb garden. There were other tasks that also needed to be done, and as more gardeners arrived more details were taken care of, like removing the water from the garden hoses, and bringing them into the garden shed,

Below:

Shirley and her friend Patel, and Kipp and Daniela

Next: Nao Talia and Malissa

About Raised Garden Beds

This bed, that we are making will be forty feet long and about four and a half feet wide. It will be divided into two separate garden plots. We will have a pathway all around to make it accessible for those that have difficulty bending. The walls will be about eighteen inches high.

There are other advantages to having a raised bed as well. It greatly reduced soil compaction. Plant roots need air. In an ordinary garden, you can’t avoid stepping in the garden bed occasionally when doing your everyday gardening. A properly designed raised bed garden allows you to do all your gardening from the garden path.

As well, plants can be spaced a little closer together in a raised bed because you don’t need places to step. This increases productivity per square foot of bed and reduces weeding when the plants begin to mature.

Soil conditions and types can be controlled more efficiently in a raised bed and they can be varied easily from bed to bed. Water, fertilizer, compost, mulch, etc. can be applied more carefully because they only need to be applied to the garden beds. And raised garden beds can produce one and half to two times more vegetables and flowers per square foot then ordinary beds.

I hope that our raised beds will also bring a pleasing geometry to our garden.

By the end of the day Adalino had the first section built. through out the rest of the week, he came every evening to continue working on it. By the following weekend, when we had the second Fall Clean Up Day the first side (forty feet part), and the two ends were completed. More gardeners came and we had another nice day of weather. Even the teachers, and a student from the Perth Public School came to work on their plot.

By the end of November, the raised bed was was virtually finished. It was lined with good quality landscape fabric and we had enough wood left over to make a flat edge along the top edge of the walls. now we can sit on the edge of the wall and do our gardening!