Kasey - If the beds were filled ONLY with fresh compost, you may have significantly unbalanced soil - too much of anything, even compost, is not good. Have you done a soil test to see what the nutrient make-up is? Soil tests are generally available from your local Cooperative Extension office for a nominal fee, and the results usually come with advice on any modifications that may be necessary.
Sarah Sarah Bailey Master Gardener Program Coordinator Pesticide Safety Educator Cooperative Extension Service 1800 Asylum Avenue West Hartford, CT 06117 Ph: 860-570-9023 Fax: 860-570-9008 Email: sarah.bai...@uconn.edu An Equal Opportunity Employer and Program Provider. -----Original Message----- From: community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org [mailto:community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of Kasey Henneman Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 4:19 PM To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org Subject: [Community_garden] Trouble shooting wheelchair accesible beds Hello Everyone, Here in Dayton Ohio we have a one year old accessible garden at the local Access Center. We have 4 roll-under beds and 2 raised beds. The garden did pretty well for its first year but we have had trouble keeping the roll-under beds watered. The beds were purchased kits and the bottom of the bed is just lattice, landscape cloth, and plastic mesh. The depth of the beds is only about 6-7 inches deep. This depth Is important for the bed to be tall enough to roll under and low enough to reach over. We have done some heavy mulching and installed some slow watering milk-jugs to encourage water absorption. We did this late in the season can't say yet if this will be enough to keep water in the beds just yet. I have the feeling we might need to rebuild the bottom of the beds but would like to avoid doing this if possible. We have also had issue with growing anything in the beds. The beds were filled with fresh compost and we only attempted to grow shallow rooted things like lettuce and annual herbs. The crops were not successful the first time (most likely) due to lack of water, however, most recently they were planted with mustard, lettuce, and maybe peas and watered often and still did not produce. Any ideas?! Thanks! Kasey Kasey Henneman Grow With Your Neighbors Program Assistant Five Rivers MetroParks 1375 E. Siebenthaler Ave. Dayton, OH 45414 O // 937-277-6545 x1617 F // 937-277-6546 kasey.henne...@metroparks.org [cid:image001.jpg@01C884F1.7AFDB050] Visit http://www.metroparks.org and get out for an adventure in your parks! P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail ________________________________ This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Five Rivers MetroParks. Five Rivers MetroParks accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20111019/31801982/attachment.html> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/x-citrix-jpeg Size: 1866 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20111019/31801982/attachment.jpg> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org