After having the sun burn the garden to cinders last year, John & I decided that raised bed gardening was the way to go. We’ve brought the garden a bit closer to the house which will allow us a couple of additional advantages:
- Closer to water supply – either from the tap or rain barrel
- The garden will actually be in shade during the hottest part of the afternoon
I drew out the garden plans and John modified them to accommodate a water line from a future solar hot water system. This will allow us to heat the beds and extend the growing season into the fall as well as get an earlier spring start.
As you can see in this picture, we have a bed next to the garage which is where we will have rhubarb, horseradish, asparagus, and salad greens.
There are 3 4-foot X 8-foot beds in front of the garage bed. In the image on the right, you can see 4 conduit holders. This is where we will mount poles for the green beans and cucumbers. The bed in the foreground will have a permanent strawberry patch on the left side. Not sure what we will end up with on the right.
At the base of each bed we have wire mesh. We will tie the PEX tubing to the mesh and feed it through pre-drilled holes in each bed. From there, the loop will go into the garage and into the solar hot water system.