The first one is simple and easy to build. It consists of four planks, 12 inch (30 cm) wide, that can be held together with metal angles on the inside. The planks are untreated. You can also use screws to fit the wood together, from the top of one plank into the end the next plank.

The entire bed is a classic 4 by 8 feet (1.2 by 2.4 m).

This is a smaller version of the first one. Remember to level out the whole raised bed so that the soil will be evenly distributed at all times.

A more solid version, but also held together by metal angles on the inside. Both round and rectangular poles can be used. The thicker the wood is, the longer it will last if untreated. Decide if you want to use pressure treated wood or not.

You can make the raised bed as high as you want it, the higher the better, until it reaches your waist. Your root vegetables will love the deep loose soil, and grow long and big.

The raised bed in the picture shows some nice details in the way the planks have been fitted together.

A plastic mesh keeps cats from digging.

A nice detail on the top edge of the wooden bed makes it easy on the eyes.

If you want to grow climbing plants in your beds it’s easy to add a trellis, since the sides of the bed will keep the trellis in place. This is the natural choice for runner beans.

Painting the planks will make them last much longer, but make sure you don’t get unwanted chemicals into your vegetable soil.

Tomatoes would love a raised bed like this. Strings for support and a roof to protect against heavy rain and hail. The plastic roof can be painted to protect against sun burn.

Different types of trellises and protection can easily be mounted on the wooden frames, for beans, peas or tomatoes. Vulnerable plants will be safe under fleece held up by plastic hoops mounted on the frame.

The conditions in a green house can be imitated by placing old windows in top of a raised bed, mounted on the wooden frame.

This one of the more beautiful ways that you can build a raised bed. It’s not wooden but built from flat stones, and fits perfectly into the natural environment.

And last, a raised bed made from old bricks. Very beautiful, but would be more useful if the bricks were held together by cement.

The message here being – use what you got, and have fun!

1. Chives

Photo by Misserion.

2. Coriander

Photo by Joi.

3. Cumin

Photo by Gusjer.

4. Dill

Photo by Saucy Salad.

5. Marjoram

Photo by Sandy Austin.

6. Oregano

Photo by Joi.

7. Parsley

Photo by Joylitas.

8. Rosemary

Photo by OliBac.

9. Rucola

Photo by sabotrax.

10. Sweet basil

Photo by antigone78.

So you like onions huh? Well me too.

In the YouTube video I showed you in a recent post Scott McGuire talks about the use of the word pest. He deals with pests by growing more produce and accepts the loss cause by so called pests. No doubt that when we experience some kind of pest it’s due to an unbalance in natures harmony. It’s not a slug problem, it’s a duck problem. There are too few ducks living in modern urban areas, actually close to none. And that’s fair enough. Most people want to control their garden down to each grass leave. If I were living out in the country side I would gladly encourage ducks to come live with me. So that would be a solution to the slug problem. But I’m getting a bit stubborn here, I’m not ready to give up my urban vegetable garden yet. I’m aware of and have tried most of the recommend slug fighting tactics just to wake up and find slugs partying between my onions… (nooo, that’s really gross, stay focused here ) Something about the way that Scott McGuire handles pests gives me new hope. So, what do slugs eat? In particular, what does Arion lusitanicus eat? And then I felt really dumb when I came across the document “The palatability of 78 wildflower strip plants to the slug Arion lusitanicus” from 1998 by Briner T. and Frank T.: It’s well known what the slugs love to eat – why the hell didn’t I provide those plants then? Let’s feed the poor bastards. Them hungry! Why eat sour onions and beets when you can have something like:

• Rapeseed (Brassica napus)
• Corn Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)
• Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)
• Red Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum)

Yum!

Wildflower slug fence, coming up!

(palatability. really?… come on guys )

In the video you’ll find:

• Experimenting with growing wheat and amaranth
• Growing a medicine border
• Growing sun flower seeds
• Greenhouse for starting plants from seeds
• Drying herbs in greenhouse
• Dog kennel as chicken house
• Growing food for your animals
• Crimson clover as nitrogen fixer

and some other small but interesting things:

Last time I wrote about building a good bean trellis I only posted a drawing. Now I took the time to actually build it as you can see in these pictures.

Each bean plant has its own bamboo stick to climb. Hopefully the beans will hang down on the outside of the construction because the sticks are mounted in an angle.

It’s now possible to stand beside the bed and pick the beans without reaching into the middle of the bean wilderness.

Okay, I’ll admit that it looks nice with the sharp edge between the raised beds and the lawn. It’s soft on the knees when you sow or weed, but I’m beginning to realize that there are some rather annoying disadvantages by alternating between lawn and beds like this.

First, this is what always happens near the edges of the raised bed, when the grass has been allowed to grow for some days. Water meant for the soil spills over onto the lawn part and the grass at the edges thrives big time. So go fetch a grass trimmer or a pair of scissors, because the lawnmower won’t go that close to the edge.

If there’s no wood and raised bed you’re doomed. It takes a lot of energy to keep the grass out of the soil meant for vegetables:

And these bastards (slugs) are having a great time hiding in the moist grass waiting to attack your vegetables at night:

Then there’s the water issue; as much as half of the water lands on grass making it grow like crazy, extracting nutrients from the soil. So that’s why I’m planning on starting from scratch with a part of my lawn / vegetable garden and buying a truckload of concrete slabs to lay out like this:

Yellow = house, grey = concrete slabs, brown = vegetable soil, green = hedge.

Several advantages comes to mind:

• Easier to fight the killer slugs, and they don’t like dry concrete
• The lawnmower goes on eBay
• The grass trimmer goes on eBay
• Only vegetables are provided with water
• Much easier to walk on the paths in all kinds of weather

Each concrete slab will be 50 x 50 cm (20 x 20 inch), making each bed 1 m (3.3 feet) across and making it easy to reach the middle.

Now make sure you follow up on this because this is going to be hard work and I might get lazy But this would be so good for the food production.

The picture above shows a field of Sea Buckthorn shrubs (Hippophae L.) growing near the west coast of Denmark. If you look closely you’ll be able to see patches of yellow berries. Sea buckthorn is special because it tolerates the salty and dry climate around here. The shrubs need full sun and can be up to 6 m (20 feet) high. Most of the sea buckthorn in the world grows in China (90%) but it has also spread across Europe.

The berries are interesting because you can make sea buckthorn juice from them. What you get then is juice that is full of antioxidants, caroteniods, vitamin E, amino acids and most importantly, vitamin C. In fact the vitamin C content is 12 times higher than in oranges! All of this puts sea buckthorn in the category of superfoods.

Here’s a tool specially made for making sea buckthorn juice while you walk around in the field and collect the berries. It was used by one of my relatives during a trip to the coast:

Sea buckthorn juice is collected in the small container while working in the field and later poured into glass pitchers in the kitchen back home:

But you need to stir the pitcher now and then or the juice will seperate into three layers, which look really gross; orange cream on top, saturated and polyunsaturated fats in the middle and sediment and juice in the bottom.

Mix the raw sea buckthorn juice with water, 1 part raw juice and 6 parts water.

Here’s a recipe including sea buckthorn made by Pille from Estonia: Sea-Buckthorn Jelly with Kama & Mascarpone Mousse