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JodieLyn
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Joined: Sept 06 2006
Location: Oregon
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| Posted: June 17 2009 at 1:11am | IP Logged
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I'm getting excited.. we have a late planting season anyway.. and weren't sure at all if things were going to happen this year.. and so we don't even have the garden prepped yet.. this isn't too horribly late if we plant seedlings and not seeds though..
And I was just GIVEN.. TWENTY-EIGHT TOMATO PLANTS 
Well.. we just have to have a garden now 
There's 16 roma, 6 early girl, 3 plum and 3 beefsteak.. that's just a few more than we had last year.. though last year we did 18 roma and 6 cherry tomato..
So I made up my list of what other plants we need.. and then we talked about doing raised beds.. we took out a small deck and have a pile of 2x6 (or so) lumber to use.. we'll get some bundles of steaks and hold them in place that way.. till up the garden first and put down the boards.. add manure to just the beds and then toss more dirt in to fill them up..
I've been looking at spacing for raised beds and companion planting to be sure we don't get things together that won't work well.. I'm in luck.. everything we want to plant are nice and friendly veggies .. everything can go next to everything else.
So now I'm looking at making the most out of the beds.. things like the tomatoes are tall enough that cucumbers could go next to them and help keep down weeds.. and the taller squash like pumpkin and zucchini could have the tall sunflowers or peas (with a trellis) next to them.. and little things like lettuce and carrots and radishes can go around the edges.
I need to sit down and figure it out with pencil and paper first.. but this sounds so fun.. a mixed up garden  but like we'll have beds that end at a fence so we may put peas across the end with a squash in front of them and then tomatoes and cukes at the other end... some of it will just depend on the numbers we have of different things.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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stefoodie
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Joined: Feb 17 2005
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: June 17 2009 at 6:29am | IP Logged
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basil! basil! basil!
you lucky person you. 28!!! I'm so envious.
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stef
mom to five
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Mackfam
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Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
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| Posted: June 17 2009 at 6:47am | IP Logged
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Jodie - I don't know if this site would be useful as you plan, but I found it to be soooooo fun! Lots of help for me, but it may all be redundant for you....
Gardener's Supply Company - Design your own garden
It helps you plan and design a 3 x 6 raised garden. It's kinda cool, so I thought I'd drop the link in here for you or anybody else who might want to plan a garden.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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JodieLyn
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Location: Oregon
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| Posted: June 17 2009 at 5:00pm | IP Logged
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 just guessing at some sizes of beds last night for fun.. I got just pretty much everything I wanted in about 260sq ft of beds.. not that I was sure all of it would work.. BUT we went out and measured the garden... because of having to take out space for a tree in the corner.. and another square for a bit of lawn and the gates from the front to the back.. it's like two rectangles that overlap on their long sides..
one is 15ft X 38ft and one is 14ft X 38ft even if I do generous 3 ft pathways.. I have room for that 260 sq ft of raised beds in HALF of my garden 
I need to find out how much lumber we have.. maybe only do some raised beds and put the spreaders like the pumpkins and maybe cucumbers not in a bed. The thing was that I was really hoping to get some major weed reduction without spending way to much time weeding.. that way if we do get the house on the market to sell.. it'll stay looking nice. 
oh my..
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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mooreboyz
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Joined: March 16 2008
Location: Wisconsin
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| Posted: June 18 2009 at 12:20pm | IP Logged
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We LOVE our raised beds!!! The last 2 years we lived in the city and were able to grow quite a bit of veggies in our little yard thanks to them. You can grow so much in such a little space. This year we moved out to the country on 20 acres and have plenty of space. We started out doing the traditional gardening in rows, but have added lots of raised beds because they keep the soil warmer for earlier germination which we need here in northern WI. Things also grow so much better in the awesome loose soil of the beds. One idea for you is Mulch, mulch, mulch. We simply use lots of grass clippings. This will keep your soil moist for less watering since the beds tend to dry out quickly and keep the weeds down. Have fun!
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Jackie
7 boys - 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17 years
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JennGM
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Location: Virginia
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| Posted: June 18 2009 at 12:33pm | IP Logged
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We do the Square Foot Gardening, 4x4 boxes, and Mel says one tomato plant per square foot.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: raised beds and companion plants
