Build or Expand your Backyard Garden

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Carol Bennett
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Build or Expand your Backyard Garden Building your own backyard garden is a great way to bring good food into your home!

Read on to find out what type of garden might best suit your needs! No matter what your income level or building experience, you can create a space to garden!

Double dug beds are a great choice for gardeners on a budget. They can be built with little to no cost, and can be dug in any configuration.

1 Build or Expand your Backyard Garden Building your own backyard garden is a great way to bring good food into your home! With a few resources and some elbow grease, your garden can set up in a matter of hours. In this packet, you will find instructions and resources to build raised bed gardens and double dug gardens. Read on to find out what type of garden might best suit your needs! No matter what your income level or building experience, you can create a space to garden! Raised bed gardens are an excellent way to create a healthy bed for your vegetables. They provide a handsome habitat for your plants, and will last for a good amount of time. Double dug beds are a great choice for gardeners on a budget. They can be built with little to no cost, and can be dug in any configuration. Sheet mulching in the fall on top of the garden will result in a fantastic bed of soil. A garden can provide more than just fresh produce it increases outdoor activity, builds community and food security, and empowers families and individuals. Good luck with all your future gardening adventures! Share your skills with others by volunteering to build gardens with GRuB spread knowledge throughout your community!

Double Digging and Sheet Mulching 101 A double dug bed allows a backyard gardener to create a garden space that fits their space and material limitations.

It is recommended that a soil test for lead and arsenic is done before a bed is dug. This can be done inexpensively at a number of local labs.

2 Double Digging and Sheet Mulching 101 A double dug bed allows a backyard gardener to create a garden space that fits their space and material limitations. By digging a bed straight into the soil, you can create a bed that is the size and shape that you want that uses materials commonly found at the home. It is recommended that a soil test for lead and arsenic is done before a bed is dug. This can be done inexpensively at a number of local labs. Gather your materials and bunch of friends and start digging! Double-Digging loosens and aerates the soil to allow plant roots to tap deeply into the soil and to avoid the overcrowding of vegetables. Double digs -Shovels/forked spades -Compost (1 cubic foot per 8 x4 bed) -Lime and glacial rock dust (1.5 lbs per 8 x4 bed) -Bone meal (1 cup per 8 x4 bed) 1) Outline your garden bed. 2) Remove the sod, saving it for later. 3) Spread 1 bag or.5-1 inch of compost over the bed. 4) Remove a trench of soil one shovel-length deep and one shovel width wide. Place the soil on the side or in a plastic tub. 5) When the trench is about 1 foot deep, use a forked spade to loosen the soil an additional foot. 6) Dig a second trench of soil, moving this soil into the trench you just dug. Sheet mulching adds nutrients and organic matter into the soil. Sheet Mulch -Cardboard -Compost -Straw -Manure -Water 1) Cover the bed with newspaper or cardboard. 2) Water down this layer thoroughly. 3) Add a layer (2-4 ) of manure or compost. 4) Water thoroughly. 5) Add a layer of straw, leaves, newspaper, etc. 6) Water thoroughly. 7) Add a layer of compost or compost.. 8) Water thoroughly. 9) Add a final layer of straw. 10) Water thoroughly. Bone Meal: adds Phosphorus which enhances root growth and disease resistance. Lime: Adds calcium and increases ph Compost: Increases Microbiotic life, humus, nutrients, enhances soil structure and texture, aerates soil, and helps with holding and releasing moisture in the soil. Manure: Nitrogen, assorted nutrients, enhances soil structure Straw: Aerates soil, protects soil from erosion, and suppresses weeds Cardboard: suppresses weeds 7) When the second trench is about 1 foot deep, loosen the soil an additional foot. 8) Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the entire bed is dug and loosened. 9) Fill the last trench with the soil from the first trench. Sheet Mulch Cross-Section Final Layer of Straw Compost/Manure Straw, newspaper, dry leaves Compost/Organic Mater 10) Sprinkle the lime, glacial rock dust, and bone meal evenly over the bed. Cardboard Compost/manure Bone Meal, Lime, Glacial Rock Dust Soil

Raised Beds 101 -Lumber -Wheelbarrows (GRuB uses 8 x4 x8 and 4 x4 x8 boards to create 8 x4 gardens) -Hammers, shovels, rakes -5 and 3 nails -Measuring tape, contractor s square, twine -2 yards of

3 Raised Beds 101 -Lumber -Wheelbarrows (GRuB uses 8 x4 x8 and 4 x4 x8 boards to create 8 x4 gardens) -Hammers, shovels, rakes -5 and 3 nails -Measuring tape, contractor s square, twine -2 yards of soil -4 pieces of 2 x2 x8 lumber for trellis Build the Beds Find a flat, level surface that you can lay the boards on as you nail them together to make the frames for the garden beds. Sometimes this type of surface isn't always at hand, so you can use whatever you might have lying around to prop up the boards so they are level with each other. You could use a spare piece of wood, a rock, a glove, or even a friend to hold it in place. Nail the boards together so that the corners alternate. For example, start by nailing the shorter board onto the end of the long one, so that the end of the long board is covered by the shorter board. The other end of the short board should be covered by the end of the long board. When the bed is complete, each of the four boards should have one end exposed and the other end covered by the board that is nailed perpendicular to it. It's best to put at least three nails into each corner. Complete this step until all your beds are built. Get a friend to help you place the frames of the beds in the spots you want them. Make sure that they are in a spot in your yard that gets a lot of sunlight. You'll probably want to place them about 2 ft. apart from each other, leaving enough room so that you can comfortably fit between them as you tend to your plants, and also enough room so that a lawnmower or weed-whacker can fit through. Some folks (particularly older folks) prefer to have their garden beds stacked on top of each other, two, or sometimes even three beds tall. This makes the surface of the soil higher off the ground so that folks don't have to bend down so far to tend to their garden, also making it accessible to wheelchairs and people who want to sit down as they tend their garden. Fill the Beds Before you start moving the soil into your beds, lay down the cardboard or landscaping cloth material to prevent the existing grass and/or weeds from growing up through the soil. Make sure to cover the entire area of the bed. You can even lay down a couple layers if you wish. Once your cardboard or covering is down, you can start moving the soil into the beds. If the space you're building the gardens permits it, you can just back your truck full of soil right up to the beds and shovel it in from there. However, much of the time, gardens are not accessible by truck, and the soil must be shoveled into a wheelbarrow, rolled over to the garden beds, and dumped in. If you're building more than one bed, you will probably first want to fill all the beds with dirt as high as the top of your frames. Fill them to this height at first just to make sure that all beds will have an ample amount of soil. Hopefully, after you've done this you will have soil left over. Once you know you have enough soil to fill all the beds to this point, distribute the rest of the soil evenly among your beds.

4 The ideal bed would be filled with soil that it heaps up above the frames, somewhere around 4 to 6 inches above the frame. There will still be many air pockets in the soil immediately after you fill your beds, and over the next several days the soil will settle quite a bit, especially if it rains. Take your rake, or your hands if necessary, and break up the big chunks of soil so that your plants don't have to try and grow around and/or through them. You should let the soil sit for about a week before you plant anything, allowing the soil both to settle, and also to cool. Compost is quite warm relative to the temperature of the ground, and allowing the topsoil/compost blend to cool before planting anything is very important - if it s still too hot it could burn the seeds or the roots of your transplanted starts. Build the Trellis Now you need to decide - if you haven't already - which bed you want to attach the trellis to. Its best if the trellis doesn't cast a shadow on your garden beds, allowing for the maximum amount of sunlight to reach your plants. If your garden beds are running east-to-west lengthwise, the best place to put the trellis is on the north side of your northern-most bed. If your beds run north-to-south lengthwise, try to figure out which side of your garden will get the most sun. For example, if you have a tree to the east of your garden beds, and nothing significant that will block the sun to the west of your beds, you should put the trellis on the east side, allowing it to get the afternoon sun from the west. Likewise, if something that will cast a shadow on your beds stands to the west, you should put your trellis on the west side so it can catch the morning sun from the east. Lay your trellis out on the ground. Lat the two six foot pieces parallel to each other and perpendicular to the two 8 foot pieces to make a square. The two foot pieces are used to support the frames, as shown. Pick one corner and start there. Using your carpenter square measure six inches in on both 8 foot and the 6 foot 2x2s, the nail goes there. It is easiest to put one of the 2x2s on top of the other and measure the six inches on each with the square making the corner. Put the nail in the overlap where the arrow above is pointing. Then repeat on the other 3 corners. Now you can nail the 2 foot supports in. Using the square put them on the same 8 foot side bracing it to the two six footers. The supports go over on one side and under on the other. (If you have questions you can check out the trellis at the GRuB farm before you head out to your build.) Now you can string the twine around both the horizontal pieces. Take the role of twine and tie the end of the strand onto the end of the bottom horizontal piece. Once it is tied, unroll the twine and wrap it around the horizontal pieces, going up and down and moving down the length of the trellis, spacing them about 4 to 8 inches apart, to your preference. Try to leave as little slack in the twine as you can, making it as tight as possible, but without putting too much stress on the structure. When you get to the end of the trellis, cut the twine so that you'll have enough excess that you can tie a knot around the horizontal piece you end up at. Once the knot is tied, cut off the excess twine. Nail your trellis to the side of the bed you ve chosen. The bottom 8 foot 2x2 rests on the side of the bed. Nail four nails to hold it in place there. The 6 foot 2x2s are nailed into the bed on the out side using smaller nails. Your trellis -- and your garden -- are finished!

5 Material Resources We encourage you to think local when creating your garden. What materials already exist on site? What local businesses can you partner with? At GRuB, we have experienced the power of building strong relationships with local businesses. While supplies might cost less at a big box store, local stores are much more likely to discount their goods and support your efforts over the long-haul. And, of course, your support of them contributes to a vibrant local economy. Raised bed frames: if you are going to build raised beds, we suggest using non-treated lumber so that chemicals are not leaching into your soil. For GRuB s backyard gardens, we build with fir 2x6 s. Fir will last 5-7 years. Cedar lasts longer and is more expensive. We encourage folks to use what is most available. Cinder blocks, bricks, or straw bales can all make great garden beds too. Soil: GRuB uses garden mix (a mixture of top soil and mushroom compost) from Great Western Supply (see appendix), a local garden & landscape supply company. This soil has enough nutrients for two years of gardening. Gardens should be amended each year after installation with aged compost or manure to improve its fertility and increase its organic matter content. Path materials: Wood chips are perhaps the least expensive option for pathways and can usually be garnered free from local tree pruning companies. Grass works well if gardeners are willing to mow and clip grass from around beds. Hazelnut shells, straw, or burlap are other options. Fencing Good fencing is essential, particularly if there is the potential for animal damage. One option is to use 12 foot tall round 4 8 inch posts, set 4 feet in the ground. Six foot deer fencing can be stapled to the posts, with four strands of 14 gauge wire set above the wire at six inch intervals. The wire can be inexpensively electrified with a solar powered unit that costs under $50. Fertilizers & pest repellents: There are many organic gardening resources in the library and on-line. Locally, Black Lake Organic makes and sells great organic fertilizer mixes in bulk. Seeds and plant starts: Look for seeds from regional organic seed companies at local nurseries or order directly through catalogs. Locally, the Olympia Seed Exchange (see appendix) facilitates the saving and exchange of seeds among local gardeners. - - Black Lake Organic in Olympia Gary Kline Del s Farm Supply in Tumwater Bayview Lumber in Olympia Olympia Supply in Olympis Wright Brothers Soils in Shelton Alpaca Happy in Chehalis Penny Holbrook

6 Garden Resources Local -GRuB s Kitchen Garden Project connects low-income people to the resources & support they need to grow fresh food kgp@goodgrub.org -WSU Master Gardeners provide professional, unbiased, research-based home gardening and horticulture information to the public. In Thurston County, Master Gardeners provide educational workshops as well as consulting at the Olympia Farmer s Market. thurston.wsu.edu/ MasterGardener -Sustainable South Sound The Urban Agriculture Program of Sustainable South Sound seeks to increase the amount of food grown on private property and public space by advocating for changes to public policy, providing information and resources, and building a vibrant network of urban farmers. SSS provides educational workshops, an active listserve, and fiscal sponsorship and liability support for emerging community gardens. -Kiwanis Food Bank Garden in addition to growing lots of food for the Thurston County Food Bank this group has also started providing technical support to backyard & community gardens willing to grow food for the food bank. Contact: Don Leaf ( ), Derek Valley ( ) -Terra Commons is an Olympia non-profit that builds edible food forests Thurston Geodata Center finding land and landowners in Thurston County. -Black Lake Organic soil tests, high quality organic fertilizer & vegetable starts or -Great Western Supply compost, garden mix, topsoil. greatwesternsupply.net or Libby Environmental provides soil testing services for backyard gardeners Book resources For raised beds... Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew For double dug beds... How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits by John Jeavons

step 4 Soil Prep & Planting

step 4 Soil Prep & Planting The Dirt On Colorado Soil Good soil is the basis of any successful water-wise landscape but here in Colorado, most of it is sandy or full of clay. Luckily you can whip your