Nature Festival
I stopped in to check out the 1st Annual Milam County Nature Festival this morning. I was early so not everybody was set up — I did get to see the snakes (one rat snake and one copperhead). I stopped and talked to the organic gardening folks and picked up a couple of fliers for local beef producers. Hubby and I haven’t been finding the meat we want most in local grocery stores, so maybe this will be a viable alternative.
But what really caught my personal interest was the Raise-A-Garden guy. I was introduced to the concept of raised bed gardening at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo back in February. Touted as great for wheelchair-bound folks, I seized on the idea as a great way to “save the knees.” I figured we could easily build some raised beds from treated 2X6s. As I discovered this morning, that would be a bad idea — those chemicals that treat the wood could leach into my garden produce and produce some not so good health effects.
The Raise-A-Garden guy is local — great for delivery, but he designs his beds for easy shipment and assembly for non-local folks. He’s been working the idea for a year and selling for three months. His patent is pending as is his website, so I photographed the fliers he had available today and have uploaded them here into the following gallery. Click the image for an enlarged view. They are a little dim, but I believe they are readable.
They look great except for being only 6″ deep. Most flower pots are deeper than that, and you can buy a lot of large pots for what he’s charging. It’s a great idea, though. The irrigation system built into the trellis is brilliant.
Those are just the metal pot holders (well-constructed). You’re on your own for finding pots.
Is the 6″ depth a problem? That would be a bummer. I was hoping to be able to get one of these. I just caught his reference to using them for raising worms! Pretty cool (but not really on my list of things to do).
Oh, and where the stick on label is? He’s getting a brand made, so his logo will be burned into the wood. Nice touch.
EJ’s right, the six inch depth is a problem for a lot of things. Not everything requires deeper, of course, but it is a limiting factor. Nothing where you eat the roots, like carrots, potatoes, beets, etc. Nothing with very deep roots, like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, or brassicas.
Things that would probably work in 6″ are lettuce and other salad greens, peas, beans, strawberries. You might get away with radishes. I’m sure there are other things that haven’t come to mind!
And yeah, you don’t want treated wood. That negates any organic benefits.
Hmm. He doesn’t use treated wood, so that’s fine. That was the thing I liked. Hubby doesn’t like most root vegetables, so that wouldn’t be a problem. Tomatoes and peppers do hold some interest for me, but I suppose I could deal with them differently. While talking to him, he indicated potatoes probably wouldn’t go well, but he seemed to think tomatoes would be fine — note the lattice rack option (of course, that might work well for beans or peas — they climb, don’t they?). Although, I see he has more of the greens in the pictures, and the pepper plant is in a pot rack.
So, if I want one of these, I’d want to focus on growing lettuce and other salad greens, peas, beans, and strawberries? Hubby doesn’t do strawberries, but I like them. Herbs would work well, I would think. Anything else would either need another solution or go in a large pot in a pot rack?
Just out of curiosity, would 8″ be ok? (I’m thinking 2×8 vice 2×6 boards, or would we need to go to 2×12 if we were to build our own.)
Thanks. I appreciate the feedback — I’d like to manage expectations, and this is helping. I figure I’d get a small unit for starters. See how that goes, then maybe get a few accessories. If I do well and needed to add a unit, I’d jump to the large, but in between, I think I’d add a few pot holders (the would address a pepper and a tomato plant).