Should I use soil-beds or grow-boxes?
When planning a Mittleider Garden, you must first decide if you want to use soil-beds or grow-boxes.
Soil-Beds (sometimes called grow-beds)
Soil-beds are narrow strips of ground prepared for high-yield vegetable production. Soil-beds are usually 18 inches wide and 30 feet long. Their length can vary depending on the size of your garden. The width of the soil-beds should always be 18 inches.
Grow-Boxes are bottomless frames used
Grow-boxes enclose small plots of soil. They are usually made of wood or cement and are leveled in place. Grow-boxes can be any length or width, but most people use either "mini" grow-boxes, 18 inches wide, or "standard" grow-boxes 4 feet wide.
Grow-Boxes are filled with "custom-made soil," a mixture of sawdust and sand, or other inert and organic combinations together with a balance of fertilizers. The custom-made soil in the frames is used year after year. It is never changed nor discarded.
Both options, soil-beds and grow-boxes, will yield very successful results using the Mittleider Method. You can choose to use either or both methods in your garden.
Here are the relative advantages of each method:
Soil-Beds
- require less up-front work.
- mean less initial expense.
- are easier for beginners.
- can be used with any kind of soil.
Grow-Boxes
- can be built almost anywhere.
- keep the hard subsoil damp and soft, allowing roots to penetrate subsoil.
- are not dependent on condition of local soils (less need to know about nutrient deficiencies or methods for improving problem soils).
- provide perfect drainage and aeration for roots and balanced feeding of plants.
- extend growing season, since artificial soils warm up quickly in springtime, boosting growth.
- act as a temperature regulator, since artificial soils keep roots cool in the summer.
- take up less space than regular soil.
- greatly reduce or eliminate weeds.
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Tip of the Day
It's Fall and time to prepare your soil for winter! For those of you in the Northern hemisphere who have winters, October, November, and and early December are the time you need to be cleaning up your garden and preparing it for next spring's planting. You can even plant hardy garlic, which will overvegetable crops such as radishes, peas, cabbage and broccoli.
The freeze/tha-winter and get an early spring start. Before snow covers your garden mae sure all old materials are either removed from the garden, or if they are clean of weed seeds and disease, till them into your soil-beds. Also, when it's not too muddy, go in and give everything a good weeding with the 2-way hoe (see Tools). Weeding thoroughly in the Fall helps keep the weeds from getting a big head start on you before you can get into the garden in the spring, and is very important.
If you grew a Mittleider garden this year, your beds will benefit from tilling or digging. You can apply Pre-Plant and Weekly Feed to the bed area now, then till them in, or wait until early spring. Either way after tilling place strings on your stakes, and re-make the beds.
Be sure to re-check the level of each bed accurately, since they may have changed a little. Do not be satisfied with anything more than 1" fall in a 30'-long soil-bed. Good Gardening!
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