Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Hey garden peeps- due to a new wall constructed in our backyard (it's more like a bloody fortress) my garden gets almost no sun. enough for chard and parsley, but not even enough for kale. the part of our yard that is sunny is tiled, and this house is rented, so there was no permanent bed installation in my future.
A friend sent me some really cool heirloom seeds and i decided to take some action. i saw some cool pix online of raised beds on wheels, and decided to do it myself on the cheap. we paid maybe $50 in lumber costs, and I paid about $50 for enough good dirt (5 45kg bags plus two wheelbarrows full of crepe dirt to go on the bottom). and like the best modifications to a rental house, when we leave we can just set it on fire (just kidding, although it is sort of a plus....)

so now i have a place to plant my dwarf blue corn (special for containers), tomatillos, cherry toms, eggplants, and ancho chiles.

Sorry for the crepe pix but i had to send a photo to my friend who sent the seeds, and figured while i was dicking about with the camera, i would post here too.

That is such a great idea for renting! Did you follow a plan you found online or did you design it for your own needs?
I'm really interested in this dwarf blue corn. Post pics of the growth progress.

i wanted something like a very basic simple raised bed
(cf http://www.urbangardensolutions.com/Roo ... ec2-rt.htm )
but it needs to be up high as my one dog loves to eat the eggplants and peppers.... so Mr T and I sat down and sketched. Super easy, but has to be really strong as there is 300+kg of dirt in there.... now it's been raining for a week, i can only imagine it's closer to 400.

the blue corn was a gift from a seedsavers buddy, and i can't wait to see how it turns out!!

That looks really awesome, Torquie!

That is excellent and similar to what I have only we didn't think to put wheels on ours.

i should specify- we didn't get farther than thinking about it!! we couldn't find wheels that could support the weight without incurring serious costs. and the patio is actually on a slope, so that was extra reason to not bother.

What about a raised bed without wheels on the feet?

You made a fantastic point here. Got some nice info regarding beds.. I reckon that if more people thought about it this way, they’d have a better time. Also the links which you had given contains really wonderful details.
Thanks for sharing.

Since my thread keeps getting spammed, might as well update- the blue corn is what looks to be about a meter tall, is super healthy (only one has not thrived) and has just set its pollen things and today some pre-ears appeared. They are planted really, really closely since they are so small and i wasn't sure about pollination- it looks more like a forest of corn than rows. i will try to get a picture on here when i am fooling around with photos tomorrow.
also the bed is now full- tomatillos are huge now, the shiso is sort of on hold, and the eggplant/peppers/watermelon are taking their sweet old time (it is JUST now warming up, so they have an excuse for being lazy).