The Importance of Gardening for Homeowners with Vacations
One thing that we're trying to get our new gardening hobbyists into is helping them with gardening, okay? We love the idea of it and we sort of get to this point where we get all our plants and vegetables and we spend all this money at the store. We have a whole family gathering, we plan everything, and we're super excited about it, and then we go on vacation and we come back and everything's dead. Well, summertime is the perfect time to grow vegetables, but it does require water.
The Problem with Vacations
When you're out of school, you'd like to try to go away in your situation, which can be challenging when it comes to gardening. One solution is to start from scratch. This means getting rid of the old raised beds and leveling the soil. The kit that was used before for the raised beds is totally fine, but we want to switch it up a little bit. We're using two by stock of Western Red Cedar, which are naturally rot-resistant and chemical-free. These corner braces are designed to accept all two by pieces and can be secured with screws.
Designing the Raised Beds
The corner braces secure the wood in place, while the irrigation system is attached to one of the four corners. The soaker hose is woven throughout the bed, providing a consistent watering schedule. The game-changer for this setup is the irrigation timer, which allows you to set it for what time you'd like the water to go off and how long you'd like the duration to be. This is an amazing tool that will allow you to come back from vacation and find plants that are alive.
Assembling the Raised Beds
Before screwing in the brackets, pilot holes are drilled into the wood. The brackets are then screwed in, followed by a layer of landscape fabric to keep weeds out. Soil can be added next, as we prefer to use an organic raised garden bed mix. We're planting beef steak tomatoes, oregano, and thyme. Two front corners will be used for strawberries, while Thai basil plants will be placed at the ends.
Setting Up the Irrigation System
The irrigation timer is attached to the spigot on the house, allowing you to set it for specific times of the day. The soaker hose is inserted into the system, followed by a cap that has teeth to secure it in place. A staple is then used to hold the hose in place, and the end of the hose is capped off with another layer of protection.
Using the Irrigation Timer
The timer can be set for whatever duration you'd like, but we recommend starting with 10 or 15 minutes per cycle. This will allow you to adjust as needed. We're setting the timer for once in the morning and once in the evening, so that you can watch how long it takes to get a good soaking period.
Conclusion
This article has covered the basics of designing and assembling raised beds for gardening, including using irrigation timers to provide consistent watering schedules. With these tips, homeowners who are planning to go on vacation can come back to find healthy plants that need only minimal care. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this guide provides valuable information for creating the perfect garden, even with limited time and attention.
Additional Resources
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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe one thing that we're trying to get them into is to start helping them with gardening okay yeah we love the idea of it and we sort of get to this point where we get all our plants and vegetables and we spend all this money at the store we have a whole family gathering we plan everything we're super excited about it and then we go on vacation and we come back and everything's dead well summertime is the perfect time to grow vegetables but it does require water and the problem i think you guys are having is when you're out of school you'd like to try to go away in your situation i'm thinking that we start from scratch sounds like that's great let's get the old raised beds out of the way and level the soil that's here okay so this is what i'm thinking the kit that you had before for your raised beds is totally fine but i want to switch it up a little bit these are two by stock of western red cedar okay they're great they're naturally rot resistant and they're chemical free these are the corner braces and they are designed to accept all two by pieces you secure them with screws on these insides and then you slide it right back over like that and then one of the four corners is going to have irrigation on it you attach the garden hose to here and up here is an attachment for the soaker hose so you screw that in here and then you weave the soaker hose throughout the bed and here's the game changer this is an irrigation timer so what you do is you attach it to the spigot on the house you set it for what time you would like it to go off and the duration of time it's an amazing tool and it's going to allow you to go away on vacation and come back to plants that are alive perfect yes let's drill some pilot holes in the wood before screwing the brackets in nice and these caps finish off the edges looks level to me all right boom this is landscape fabric i just want to create a barrier between the ground to keep all the weeds out now we can add the soil since you're growing vegetables in the garden i prefer to use an organic raised garden bed mix this is a beef steak tomato okay yeah tomato sandwiches what about these two front corners let's do strawberries all right so let's put the basil on the ends okay so we have oregano we have thyme i'm gonna put these two thai basil plants right here all right let's do the tomatoes first and it's okay if it falls apart a little bit because we're gonna stick them right in the ground that looks good some of these have roots that you need to tease up so you just kind of break them up a little bit so they can reach out into the soil instead of growing in the circle like the shape of the pot oh right okay remember here's where the water is going to come out this is the adapter this is where the soaker hose is going to go in so it has teeth right here so we're going to slide the soaker in there okay all the way you can and then gonna tighten this cap just like that that's tightened and then this just go into here and just thread it on right it's nice and tight all right so what we're going to do i'm going to give you the end okay and we're going to loop it around this bed so i'm going to yeah we'll send it down that way first it's harder than i expected it to be just weave it back down through the center i'm going to put one of these staples in put one in here to secure it and here okay nice curve you want to put one of these landscape staples in all right perfect so at the end of the hose we're just going to cap it off similar to how we put it in on the other side we have these teeth going to insert the soaker hose into it tighten the cap and so that way it doesn't spray out the bottom all right mark's sending this through that's good yeah we'll readjust the slack later okay so stick it in here and then yep and then twist that this top part to spread it on okay okay so we have the hose set up to the timer uh at the spicket at the house it's connected here and all you have to do is turn it on here all right oh wow so it looks like you have really good water pressure so what we want to do is soak this to give all these new plantings a great start okay do you guys have any questions for me yeah i was wondering so i know right now we soak it but for like after today how long do we leave it on and how many times a day should we set the timer for that kind of stuff so that magical timer we could set it for however long we want and what i'm recommending is once in the morning and once in the evening so we should watch how long it takes to get to a good soaking period and then you could set your minutes say maybe start with 10 or 15 minutes at each cycle sounds good thank you so much for coming to raleigh jen it was a pleasure take care thanks for watching this whole house has got a video for just about every home improvement project so be sure to check out the others and if you like what you see click on the subscribe button to make sure that you get 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