Making a Raised Covered Garden
I decided to make a raised covered garden in part of the vegetable garden so that I could continue to grow leafy vegetables in the fall and winter. I chose to make it in one of the smaller partitions (8ft. X 4ft.). I first dug out the soil to about a foot that was there and set it to the side. (This took me to the hardpan clay layer that is beneath the garden.)
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Next I filled the hole with water and let it seep down overnight. The next step was to use the garden fork and to break up the clay layer one fork deep. I then watered that in well.
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The next step was to cover that layer with part of a bale of straw (about 6 in.)
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Then I covered the straw with a layer of horse manure (about 8 in.).
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I replaced the soil that was first dug out of the hole and watered it well.
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I drove six 2 ft. pieces of rebar into the ground to hold the frame allowing about 6-7 in. to be out of the ground to secure the pipes. Then I made a frame out of four pieces of 1/2 in. PVC pipe (3 - 7 ft. long and a center pole 8 ft long). This made my cold frame stand 3 ft. high at the center. I covered it with bird netting and will later cover it with medium weight N-SULATE permeable fabric frost protection blanket before the first frost. (The bird netting was necessary because the birds were digging up the seeds that I planted.)
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I put the fabric cover over the raised bed before the first frost.
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By the end of November the temperature under the cloth covering had gone from 92 degrees to 28 degrees without any apparent damage to the plants!
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For spring and summer I cut the bottom of the cover and attached it to the plastic poles with clamps. I left the bird netting on the frame. Then I scatter-planted a mixture of many different kinds of greens seeds in mid-March.