Concrete Garden: Building

As I mentioned in yesterdays Blog, there were a number of potential problems that I needed to address before I could realistically set about building a Raised Garden Bed on my Concrete Slab. The primary problem I had to solve was of course space. Obviously I wanted to make sure that I had enough room to make a Raised Garden Bed worthwhile and I also wanted to make sure that I was going to be able to work on it from all four sides.

So I set about removing all of the items that were currently sat on the Slab before getting out my trusty measuring tape. As you can see from the picture below, the right-hand side of my Concrete Slab receives the majority of the sunlight, while the left-hand side is normally shaded throughout most of the day. With the sunlight as a guide, I worked out that I could build a Raised Garden Bed and allow myself a narrow walkway within a 48 by 80 inch area.

The next problem I had to grapple with was the type of enclosure that I wanted to use. I had already determined that I didn’t want to use a pre-fabricated enclosure. Not only would doing so restrict me from maximizing my available space, but the cost of buying such an enclosure would stretch my budget without giving me any real benefit for the added cost.

So I took a long look at the cost and strength of various Plastic and Wood Panels compared the various techniques for building an enclosure and got a little discouraged, that is until I hit upon a simple, durable and cost effective solution.

Concrete Blocks.  

Concrete Blocks would blend nicely with the underlying Concrete Slab, are durable, cheap and unlikely to be blown, flooded or moved out of place during some of the more extreme weather that we can get here in Central Florida. They are easy to fit together, don’t require any assembly and the two large holes in each block allowed me the flexibility to plant compact flowers and crops. Finally at 8 inches wide, 8 inches deep and 16 inches long, the blocks fit perfectly into my designated available space.

With my available space assigned and the Concrete Blocks assembled, the final problem I was concerned about was drainage. Unlike a conventional Raised Garden Bed which can rely on excess water draining through it and into the underlying soil, my Raised Garden Bed is going to sit on a non-porous, flat, Concrete Slab. After some research and closer examination of the Concrete Blocks, I realized that if I had a small gap underneath each Concrete Block, I could rely on gravity pushing out any excess water and the plants to drink anything that was left. In the end I decided to line the bottom of my Raised Garden Bed and its Concrete Blocks with a product called Weed Block. This relatively cheap product is in essence a fine mesh that is designed to stop weeds from pushing in to a soil based Raised Garden Bed, while allowing water to seep out. In my case, the Weed Block will lift the Concrete Blocks just enough to allow water to seep out underneath them while stopping soil from escaping and staining my Concrete Slab.  

With my building materials purchased, I measured out the Weed Block and cut it to size. I had purchased the smaller of the two rolls that were available in order to save on cost, so I measured and cut out two 26 by 80 inch strips which allowed for a little overlap when laid next to each other. I placed one strip down, aligned and flattened it out until it was in the place that I had marked out and then started weighing it down with Concrete Blocks as I made final adjustments. Finally I had one whole side assembled.

Important Note:   Each Concrete Block has a small channel on the bottom. Be sure to lay the Block down so that this channel is facing down, this channel will assist with any drainage that is needed.

Once I was happy with the layout and appearance of my initial work, I laid down the other strip of Weed Block and placed the remaining Concrete Blocks down on top of it. I then checked each block to make sure that it was snug against its neighbors and that the Weed Block covered all available space.

Once I was happy that everything was laid out correctly, I checked that the Weed Block was fulfilling its primary role by soaking the entire enclosure with water. As I watched, the water seeped out in the manner that I intended and it became clear that short of a monsoon, drainage would not be a problem.

With everything in place, the final building task for the day was to fill the main growing space and small side growing spaces with soil. While I would normally prefer to use generic soil and control the amount of fertilizer going into the garden, I ended up taking advantage of a special offer and purchased six bags of Miracle Gro which I poured in and racked. I also treated myself to a trellis with the savings and placed it with respect to the normal movement of the sun on the northern end of the garden. 

 

The last step I preformed today was to soak the soil and leave it overnight. While I was sure the Weed Block would do its work and retain the soil, I wanted to be entirely sure before doing any planting, I also wanted to let the soil breath some before planting. 

Talking of planting, check back tomorrow and see what we decide to put in our new Concrete Garden Bed

Concrete Garden Bed: Preview

In my Blog Post this morning, I mentioned that I was going to stop by the plant nursery at my local Home Depot today and see if anything jumped out and inspired me.

When I got there, I idly walked the aisles, checked out some herbs plants with an idea of making a small indoor herb garden and I also picked up this leaflet. When I got home this evening I ideally glanced at the leaflet, remembered why it had caught my eye before taking a closer look.

The picture in the leaflet is that of a wooden Raised Garden Bed with some herbs and a tomato plant growing inside it. Now I’ve never used, seen or built a Raised Garden Bed so I was curious. I took to the internet to look at prices and sizes of pre-fabricated enclosures. After some more research I started to get really interested. A Raised Garden Bed would allow me to build a small herb garden as well as add some summer vegetables, all without the need to pot each plant. Of course the big problem I had was the normal one. Where would I put such a Raised Garden Bed without pulling up Concrete slabs or planting outside my property?

I don’t know where the actual idea ultimately came from, but once it occurred, the details slowly formed in my mind until I had a working blueprint.

The question that lead to my idea was ‘What was actually stopping me from building a Raised Garden Bed on my existing Concrete Slab?’

 It was an interesting idea and I tried to think of problems that would need to be addressed if the idea was to work. I made of note of them. Problems such as ‘Did I realistically have the space?’, ‘Would I be able to put soil down on the slab without damaging it?’ and ‘Would I have to use a prefabricated enclosure, or would I need to build something myself?’ were all presented and solved.

So after spending a couple of hours doing research this evening, I think I've come up with a viable, low cost, but efficient way to build a Raised Garden Bed on a Concrete Slab.

Tomorrow, I’m setting out to buy the materials and build it. Check back soon to see my results.

Farewell Tomato's

With the summer heat building here in Central Florida, my tomato plants which until now have been providing us fresh tomato's on an almost daily basis, have been struggling to set fresh fruit. Tomato's love heat, but not too much of it. They generally set fruit best when the temperature holds steady between 70 and 80 degrees which makes them a great Fall and Spring plant, but with temperatures now firmly stuck in the low 90's here in the Orlando area, I think its time to close out my 2011/2012 season.

So with my tomato plants about to meet their demise and the new season at least six months away, it's time to start thinking about what summer crops will work best in my potted plant jungle. I'm due to go to my local Home Depot today, so I think I will swing by and check out the plant nursery and see if I can get a little inspiration.

Introducing the Key Lime Tree

One of the first images that sprang to my mind when I found out I was moving to Central Florida were Citrus trees. More specifically Orange Citrus trees gently swaying in the well tended groves in a gentle breeze.

So it seems natural that one of the first purchases I was determined to make when the gardening bug bit me was a small Citrus Tree, a Key Lime Citrus Tree..

Why a Key Lime Tree you ask? Why not one of the Orange Tree's from your dream image?
The answer was simple, My Wife’s Key Lime Pie.

Like many of my early plants, the tree started off by adorning one of the many display stands at the local Home Depot from down the road. It was a small tree with plenty of leaves, although there was no fruit on it. It looked healthy enough and more importantly at the time, it was small enough to fit in the car. We also purchased a large green fiberglass pot with a removable rubber plug and plenty of soil. The color of the pot was deliberate; one of the challenges of maintain a garden of any kind when living in a townhome (certainly in Florida) is the inevitable HOA (Home Owners Association) and all of the rules they enforce regarding the appearance of the development they rule over. Given that I wanted to put the tree and its container in a nice sunlit spot outside the front of the house, I wanted to do so in a tasteful manner that would allow the tree to blend in.

Thankfully it did blend in and as expected this January the tree started to flower again and before long the tree was covered in little white buds. However misfortune struck, a freak cold front came through unexpectedly in the night and all but a few of my beautiful buds fell to the ground. In the end just one of the few remaining buds left managed to fully flower and produced a fruit. I picked the fruit yesterday, juiced it and in honor of the first fruit of 2012 planted the seeds, I thought it would be interesting to plant the seeds and see if I could grow a tree from scratch.

I took one of my plain, small, pre-soiled plant pots and ensured that the soil was well watered. Then I placed a two seeds in each half of the pot and lightly covered with more soil. Finally I placed the pot in a spot where it is sheltered from any wind and rain but can receive at least six hours sun a day.

Meanwhile I’m glad to say that the parent tree again blossomed again in March and now near the end of May, here we are waiting for the fruit to finish ripening. My taste buds can’t wait…..

An Introduction

'It's hard to appreciate what you have until it's gone.' I'd heard the saying many times, but the lesson only really hit home after I moved from the England in the United Kingdom to the state of Florida in the United States.

From driving on the wrong side of the road, to the change in diet and of course the heat, the endless searing heat, I was bewildered by all of the changes that suddenly occurred, but gradually adapted and even thrived in this strange new environment.

After a couple of years of kicking around apartments, we managed to buy a small townhouse and I looked with some small measure of dismay at the concrete slab in what I would laughingly be calling our garden. Gone I thought was my dream of emulating the rich tillered backyard of my parents vegetable garden back home... At least until now.

Though this blog I will share my thoughts, experiments, failures and successes as I turn my concrete slab into my very own Concrete Vegetable Garden.