# Questions about a raised bed garden



## PA. Woodsman (Jun 14, 2020)

I built a nice raised bed garden months ago, filled it with good stuff, dirt/mulch mix from the compost site, and where I planted I put in topsoil, peat moss, composted manure and plant food and so far the tomatoes and peppers are growing like gangbusters. But I noticed even though it had rained heavy a few days ago a few of the tomato leaves looked dry, and I remembered hearing that if you have a raised garden you need to water and feed it more as it'll dry out, looked on Youtube and saw some videos where a guy says to put your index finger about an inch in the soil and if it is dry water it, and read that you should probably water it daily unless it rains, so I have been doing that and it seems to be just fine. Just wondering if this is true, and I plan to feed it with Peters plant food every two weeks or should I increase that? And anything else anyone wants to add please do, but so far this is the best, healthiest looking garden we've ever had!

Thank you


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## U&A (Jun 14, 2020)

Raised beds with good soil may need watered more often. 

You dont want mud
You dont want dusty/dry
You want “moist” 

Think of a sponge that is lightly rung out.

If the soil is wet all the time and your plants are turning yellow then you probably have too much water. Tomatoes will do it quickly. 

We are full sun basically all day. We water once a day on a normal day and if its really hot out we have to water 2x a day. 

You will get it figured out. Just takes time. 

Think of it this way.

The plants need the moisture to drink but still need air too. That nice soil you mixed up will help with this. So to much water and they are in mud and they drowned. To little and its like you walking in a desert with no water. 

Lets see a picture of your garden? 

Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]


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## alleyyooper (Jun 24, 2020)

So it has been 10 days and how is your garden been doing?

I supect that you are adding more unnatural plant foods to the soil and not allowing rthe soil you started with to feed the plants.

I used soil from my woods I screened to get the roots and woods stuff out of and have never bought any type of fertlizer.

This one bed on its third year last summer. It is tomatoes and crook neck squash.

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I made this water system with 1/2 inch PCV pipe and can leave it in th ebed useing rhe valve to turn the water off and on doing other beds . If you keep orginic matter (kitchen scraps) buried in the soil they will hold water too.




Al


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## grizz55chev (Jun 24, 2020)

alleyyooper said:


> So it has been 10 days and how is your garden been doing?
> 
> I supect that you are adding more unnatural plant foods to the soil and not allowing rthe soil you started with to feed the plants.
> 
> ...


Kitchen scraps go in the compost pile, that keeps critters out of the garden. Our raised beds are filled every year with a locally produced mushroom compost top soil, then we add a good fish emulsion fertilizer about once a month, keeps everything fed and happy! Yer garden looks great AO!


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## PA. Woodsman (Jun 24, 2020)

alleyyooper said:


> So it has been 10 days and how is your garden been doing?
> 
> I supect that you are adding more unnatural plant foods to the soil and not allowing rthe soil you started with to feed the plants.
> 
> ...


It's going great, and I have stopped adding food to it as I talked to my neighbor who works for the borough and he said "I don't use anything else but the compost mix you used and topsoil" so I am letting go on that and it is doing very well, best garden we've ever had in our yard so far! The rabbits seem to have lost interest in chewing on the pepper plants so that is also a plus lol!

Yours looks great, thanks for the photos!


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