Last year my garden drowned so this year I decided to try raised beds. We have plenty of rotten logs and permaculture seems like a good thing. My sister replace the tin roof on the house we were raised in and saved the tin. It must be80 to 100 years old but still useful for raised beds. Byusing the logs I didn’t have to put as much dirt and other filler in. I also had some sawdust that is about the same age as the tin so I layered old sawdust and dirt.

I made four of these beds and they worked out really well this first year. I had a bumper crop of flat Italian beans in one. In another one I planted asparagus which is growing really well. The third one had squash, tomatoes and a few bell peppers. The squash didn’t do much and neither did the tomatoes. I did get a few good zucchini but the yellow squash didn’t happen. The final bed was a mixture of carrots, beets, cabbage and cucumbers. The beets were okay. The carrots were mediocre and the cabbage did nothing. On the other hand, the cucumbers went crazy. The grew 10 feel tall and spread everywhere. We had more than we could eat and give away.

For the first year I am happy. I plan to amend the soil this fall and am convinced that next year will be much better