About 15 years ago I thought I would be a Real Farmer and grow vegetables (I don't call them ''veggies"), in an above-ground planting box. I built a heavy-duty box from 2 x 12 lumber with a perforated drainage floor, and then filled it with planting mix and planted my favorite vegetable: RADISHES! After months of tending to the plants, with regular watering and tending the soil, I produced a crop of stunted radishes. After that disappointment, I deeded the garden over to my Wife, who grows a variety of crops. Now, when I want radishes, I'll do what the smart people do: Go to your supermarket's Produce Section! (The photos show wife's crops) Hal
Lovely...that's exactly what I want.. to save me bending down to the ground , but I had this convo on another thread with @Don Alaska on the correct type of raised beds to use, particularly wooden ones which are coated in chemicals which leach into the soil ... Cedar is best but it's expensive ..cheaper way to do it is to used untreated wood and line with polyethylene
Nice planting bed, though. I have had similar experiences with most things that I have tried to grow here in Maine, although I did much better in California and Texas, given the elongated growing periods. My carrots are tiny, and my onions are sometimes not much bigger than they were when I planted them. Last years beans did pretty well, although we didn't plant enough of them to do anything with. I have done okay with radishes though, given that they require a very short growing season, and I've done alright with potatoes.
We had similar problems, Ken. Much of it was cold soils, thus slow microbiome growth, and infertile soils as well as short, cool growing seasons. Onion sets did okay, but were mostly used as "scallions", but beets and carrots were very slow to mature. I developed my own natural fertilizer based on one formulated by Steve Solomon many years ago; it made a dramatic difference in our yields of carrots and beets, especially. I now start my onions from seed indoors in January, am particular about varieties suited to my latitude, and keep the plants trimmed to 4-5 inches until just before planting outside. Sometimes, much to the chagrin of organic growers, you must use chemical, water-soluble fertilizers (or fake organic ones) to get a good yield of some crops in cool/cold climates.
Here where the sunlight is extremely intense due to very dry and clear air, above-ground containers having soil (and/or plants) in them become very hot; successful growing is near-impossible. Frank
I have found that true here as well. We have a lot of heat in the summer, although not as hot as you would have out there in the high desert, @Frank Sanoica ; but still enough that it is a problem with container gardening. I am trying to put mine where they get more of the morning sun become it gets so hot, and then will be shaded from the blasting afternoon sunshine. I am also using some of the pine straw that we have in abundance and it does make a good mulch cover and helps to hold in the moisture and keep out some of the heat from the dirt.
I once grew in a hot climate (I think I mentioned this before.) but not in an elevated planting box. I mulched heavily and placed a soaker tape underneath the mulch, which ran much of the afternoon. It gave the plants lots of water and cooled the soil. Best crop of bush beans I ever grew! This is similar to what I used : https://www.amazon.com/Dig-ST100AS-...pID=61MxfwIu7KL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch
@Yvonne Smith The sun here is so unforgiving and constant that a box like @Hal Pollner showed will conduct heat in from it's perimeter construction and kill plant roots, most types, anyway. When we lived in Phoenix, which is a bit less relentless for heat, one newsman in summer daily tried to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Sometimes he just about succeeded! BTW, our area isn't high desert, as our elevation is only 550 ft. above sea level. The city of Yuma ius 200 miles to the south, altitude there (at Gulf) is zero ft., so therefore the Colorado River flowing by here drops 550 ft. in 200 miles of distance. That's what keeps it flowing. Downhill all the way, but no caca involved! Sparkling clean. Frank
Just curious - did you eat any of the stunted radishes, @Hal Pollner? and what about the carrots, @Ken Anderson?
Yeah, I ate 'em. They were not as satisfying as good-size radishes, but with salt...they were OK. Hal