The following link takes you to a 10-minute TH-cam video that explains the elements of my Minibed Gardening system (and shows some of the results): th-cam.com/video/F5ovc8XwGTI/w-d-xo.html
Your minibeds system is fantastic. I've done a similar thing but with long raised beds on top of landscaping fabric on my allotment, which got some looks from the old school gardeners! I'm about to get another plot and I'm going to do this on mine. I think I'd use 6×2's instead of 4x2s. and give each bed a top dressing of 2 inches of compost each year to increase fertility. also a sloping cold frame top can be make with 6x2s and plastic sheeting and can be slid onto any minibed. love your work, keep up the experimentation.
cover the plastic with grass clippings just a light layer... will allow for a UV break. plastic rake it off at the end of the season to add to the beds...
Wow these Multiple mini beds could work in west Texas, just need more mulch, and water! I can scatter my squash plants mini beds out to different areas of the garden-and maybe the squash bugs will not find them all at the same time! I could interplant squash beds with garlic and marigolds in corners to maybe throw them off the scent of my squash??🤪. You can grow corn this way just put in four post at corners and wrap twine around the corn bed, add more higher as the corn grows. ( this will assist corn to stand straight with strong winds, we get 40 to 50 gust out here in the land of flat west Texas, if the wind catches it it I’ll spring your door on your truck, when you open it,) and plant 4 mini beds in same area they will be close enough to pollinate!
My garden is actually on a slope, though slight. I think it would be best on any kind of slope to not have a real large expanse of minibeds-on-plastic. Instead, something like strips of minibeds (maybe 3 wide by any length) separated by 3ft wide swaths of mowed grass between would be better. This would provide a vegetative break to absorb heavy rains that would flow off the plastic.
very interested in your system, but I have a question about keeping animals out of the garden. I saw your cat covers and will employ those because my car loves to dig up anything I plant, but I also battle with rabbits and deer. The 8 foot fence helps with the deer, but the rabbits dig thru and get in my beds. Do you find that the plastic deters them any? Do youhave large fences and hardware cloth to keep them out? I am wondering if I put a layer of hardware cloth around the perimeter on the tarping, if that would deter them, maybe they dont like walking on it? What do you do?
I adopted your idea of the black plastic mulching at least for 1/3 of my 1000m2 garden. But I made rows, not rectangles. How would you grow sufficient patatoes or beans, or cabagges from those little rectangles ?
Thanks for the comment. High culture in small beds can be surprisingly productive. This way of gardening is not suited to growing a year's supply of food, but it can grow all the fresh food a couple could ever need through the growing season and provide an abundance of some crops for canning, freezing and drying. For example, I harvested 18 pounds of carrots from one minibed last year, and 23 pounds of storage onions from another. I harvested 30 melons from two minibeds. Seven tomato plants in 7 minibeds gave us enough tomatoes for fresh eating and my wife canned 59 quarts of stewed tomatoes, 23 pints of tomato sauce and 15 pints of salsa. Two minibeds with four broccoli plants each gave us all the broccoli we needed all season long. Potatoes for fresh eating can be grown in minibeds very nicely. I got 5 pounds from one bed last year. You aren't going to grow a winter's supply, but for fresh eating, it works, and there is the opportunity to experiment with different varieties in small quantities. Four cabbage to a minibed gives lots for fresh eating. Bush beans can be planted in 3 or 4 rows in the bed. It is the equivalent of 7 to 10 ft of single row. Small beds surrounded by the expanse of plastic have continual access to a reservoir of captured subsoil moisture for the plants in the beds to draw from. Little to no artificial watering is needed. And the beds have ample root space available all around. High-culture in small, manageable beds does not translate to little harvests. Check out Highlights of the Minibed Gardening system at this link: minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2018/02/highlights-of-minibed-gardening-system.html
Oh Wow. It appears that I neglected to explain that very well. Yes, the plastic is cut out of the minibeds. I show this being done in Episode 32. Here is a link to that episode: th-cam.com/video/nL6BryWvlvY/w-d-xo.html Thanks for the question.
I was quite inspired by this video and now all the others. I am going to try it! I would like to purchase the Minibeds-on-Plastic report but I don't use charge cards. Is there anyway you can tell me how to order that and the irrigation kits directly? One way I thought of is to offer them on amazon.com. I can get everything on amazon because I allow my customers to pay me with a gift card.
Hi Marilyn, Well, four months after your posted this question I realized it was filtered out by TH-cam for my approval. So I've just approved it and I'm regrettably late in replying. :-( I'll have to look into selling on Amazon. I guess everyone is doing it, right? Except me.... so far. You can send me a check for payment. Some people still do that and it still works just fine. Contact me by e-mail and I can give you details: herrick@planetwhizbang.com Be sure to check out my newest Minibed Gardening video and pdf information: The following link takes you to a 10-minute TH-cam video that explains the elements of my Minibed Gardening system (and shows some of the results): th-cam.com/video/F5ovc8XwGTI/w-d-xo.html Thank you for the comment, Herrick Kimball
get the book Square foot gardening by mel Bartholomew , he has been doing this type of gardening for 30 + years, it will give you insight on plant soacing and other things
Elizabeth L. Johnson said, Herrick tells us in this video that 78% of his garden soil is covered with plastic mulch, and that 22% is the minibeds themselves where the plants grow into the soil: yes, the plastic within the minibeds is absent. Well, Herrick, you can explain better than me.
Elizabeth L. Johnson said, Your tomato plants by seed have done as my jalapeno and bell peppers did from seed...not well. Mine, still only an inch tall after 2 mths. Didn't you have corn planted inside the peas? I didn't see them. I planted tomato plants next to snow peas plants . The tomatoes have been quite inhibited. Never again.
The following link takes you to a 10-minute TH-cam video that explains the elements of my Minibed Gardening system (and shows some of the results): th-cam.com/video/F5ovc8XwGTI/w-d-xo.html
Your minibeds system is fantastic. I've done a similar thing but with long raised beds on top of landscaping fabric on my allotment, which got some looks from the old school gardeners! I'm about to get another plot and I'm going to do this on mine. I think I'd use 6×2's instead of 4x2s. and give each bed a top dressing of 2 inches of compost each year to increase fertility. also a sloping cold frame top can be make with 6x2s and plastic sheeting and can be slid onto any minibed. love your work, keep up the experimentation.
Herrick Kimball, I love your garden and the experimental idea. that's what i really like about gardening. I get to experiment.
Aside from my main garden. I have a 20 x 40 foot piece of land on the north west side of my home i will be trying this with :) great channel
cover the plastic with grass clippings just a light layer... will allow for a UV break. plastic rake it off at the end of the season to add to the beds...
impressive garden
Wow these Multiple mini beds could work in west Texas, just need more mulch, and water! I can scatter my squash plants mini beds out to different areas of the garden-and maybe the squash bugs will not find them all at the same time! I could interplant squash beds with garlic and marigolds in corners to maybe throw them off the scent of my squash??🤪.
You can grow corn this way just put in four post at corners and wrap twine around the corn bed, add more higher as the corn grows. ( this will assist corn to stand straight with strong winds, we get 40 to 50 gust out here in the land of flat west Texas, if the wind catches it
it I’ll spring your door on your truck, when you open it,) and plant 4 mini beds in same area they will be close enough to pollinate!
can i do this on a slope that is not too sloped but it is not level like your space..thanks and I love the videos!!!
My garden is actually on a slope, though slight. I think it would be best on any kind of slope to not have a real large expanse of minibeds-on-plastic. Instead, something like strips of minibeds (maybe 3 wide by any length) separated by 3ft wide swaths of mowed grass between would be better. This would provide a vegetative break to absorb heavy rains that would flow off the plastic.
thank you for the quick reply I will try this on my spring garden next year..
very interested in your system, but I have a question about keeping animals out of the garden. I saw your cat covers and will employ those because my car loves to dig up anything I plant, but I also battle with rabbits and deer. The 8 foot fence helps with the deer, but the rabbits dig thru and get in my beds. Do you find that the plastic deters them any? Do youhave large fences and hardware cloth to keep them out? I am wondering if I put a layer of hardware cloth around the perimeter on the tarping, if that would deter them, maybe they dont like walking on it? What do you do?
Good Information
Wow I like this idea no weeds. I'm almost at the point of giving up gardening because of all the weeds
I adopted your idea of the black plastic mulching at least for 1/3 of my 1000m2 garden. But I made rows, not rectangles. How would you grow sufficient patatoes or beans, or cabagges from those little rectangles ?
Thanks for the comment. High culture in small beds can be surprisingly productive. This way of gardening is not suited to growing a year's supply of food, but it can grow all the fresh food a couple could ever need through the growing season and provide an abundance of some crops for canning, freezing and drying. For example, I harvested 18 pounds of carrots from one minibed last year, and 23 pounds of storage onions from another. I harvested 30 melons from two minibeds. Seven tomato plants in 7 minibeds gave us enough tomatoes for fresh eating and my wife canned 59 quarts of stewed tomatoes, 23 pints of tomato sauce and 15 pints of salsa. Two minibeds with four broccoli plants each gave us all the broccoli we needed all season long. Potatoes for fresh eating can be grown in minibeds very nicely. I got 5 pounds from one bed last year. You aren't going to grow a winter's supply, but for fresh eating, it works, and there is the opportunity to experiment with different varieties in small quantities. Four cabbage to a minibed gives lots for fresh eating. Bush beans can be planted in 3 or 4 rows in the bed. It is the equivalent of 7 to 10 ft of single row. Small beds surrounded by the expanse of plastic have continual access to a reservoir of captured subsoil moisture for the plants in the beds to draw from. Little to no artificial watering is needed. And the beds have ample root space available all around. High-culture in small, manageable beds does not translate to little harvests. Check out Highlights of the Minibed Gardening system at this link: minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2018/02/highlights-of-minibed-gardening-system.html
Okay, got it, for fresh eating it makes total sense. Thanks, great explanation.
Why 30x30 and not 36×36 or 48x48? I like the general idea.
Is the black plastic cut out at the bottom of the 30" squares? How can roots go through the plastic, if WEEDS won't grow through it?
Oh Wow. It appears that I neglected to explain that very well. Yes, the plastic is cut out of the minibeds. I show this being done in Episode 32. Here is a link to that episode: th-cam.com/video/nL6BryWvlvY/w-d-xo.html Thanks for the question.
I was quite inspired by this video and now all the others. I am going to try it! I would like to purchase the Minibeds-on-Plastic report but I don't use charge cards. Is there anyway you can tell me how to order that and the irrigation kits directly? One way I thought of is to offer them on amazon.com. I can get everything on amazon because I allow my customers to pay me with a gift card.
Hi Marilyn,
Well, four months after your posted this question I realized it was filtered out by TH-cam for my approval. So I've just approved it and I'm regrettably late in replying. :-(
I'll have to look into selling on Amazon. I guess everyone is doing it, right? Except me.... so far.
You can send me a check for payment. Some people still do that and it still works just fine. Contact me by e-mail and I can give you details: herrick@planetwhizbang.com
Be sure to check out my newest Minibed Gardening video and pdf information: The following link takes you to a 10-minute TH-cam video that explains the elements of my Minibed Gardening system (and shows some of the results): th-cam.com/video/F5ovc8XwGTI/w-d-xo.html
Thank you for the comment,
Herrick Kimball
get the book Square foot gardening by mel Bartholomew , he has been doing this type of gardening for 30 + years, it will give you insight on plant soacing and other things
Elizabeth L. Johnson said,
Herrick tells us in this video that 78% of his garden soil is covered with plastic mulch, and that 22% is the minibeds themselves where the plants grow into the soil: yes, the plastic within the minibeds is absent. Well, Herrick, you can explain better than me.
"parsley" might be cosmos?
Elizabeth L. Johnson said,
Your tomato plants by seed have done as my jalapeno and bell peppers did from seed...not well. Mine, still only an inch tall after 2 mths. Didn't you have corn planted inside the peas? I didn't see them. I planted tomato plants next to snow peas plants . The tomatoes have been quite inhibited. Never again.
The pea vines overwhelmed the corn seedlings. That idea didn't work.