Why Permanent Raised Beds Are KEY For A Successful Market Garden

This week JM explains why permanent raised beds are the cornerstone of market gardening.
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[@happyhillsfarm9598]

Thanks folks for bringing market gardening to the masses and spearheading this local food revolution!

[@MovingBlanketStudio]

I learned this technique when I was a peace corps volunteer in west africa 25 years ago. I still follow this in my backyard veggie garden (although I have curved beds to make the area more whimsical).

[@louiscornwell338]

I live in the south and have a monsoon season every spring. Raised beds have fixed my standing water problems.

[@LovingAcresFarmstead]

Are you willing to share a supplier for that handy dandy wheel planter? We just unboxed our BCS tractor to prep fresh land for a new garden to feed the local community! Your channel is so helpful! 🙏💓🕯

[@rickyfiebiger7300]

JM, you are a true inspiration for all market gardeners in the world! It was largely from your content and book years ago that has kept me inspired on my Minnesota homestead. I have incredible hope that we will continue to be successful into the future. I really admire your recent restaurant adventure. Thank you for sharing your positive additude!

[@happyhillsfarm9598]

Keep on rocking!! Stay strong and farm on! 💪

[@danielsimard5624]

I cultivate my garden since 1975 on the raised beds way.

[@4helex]

Excellent. I'm using many of these techniques that I learned from you on a much smaller scale for our personal consumption (in case the food trucks stop coming).

[@jamesedwards2687]

Great presentation. Thanks.

[@wildfish4ever]

Great reminder. I have been trying to get started without raising the beds... but have lost crops to flash floods... garlic drowned etc. Raising beds starting today.

[@assadurrahman7003]

Great work. Thanks for sharing.

[@theun4giv3n]

Thanks for the videos. I am just starting out with farming. This is the sort of farm I want. It's awesome. Thank you.

[@One29Homestead]

Fantastic!

[@jamesalanstephensmith7930]

Very good reasons

[@forrestcarlson9117]

I have used this technique on my own farm in the past and decided it is not working for our climate and location. Our windy dry winters caused the soil to be eroded away and the beds flattened out by the time spring came around. I find in our region a permanent wood Mulch on perfectly flat blocks of beds with yearly compost additions gently scratched into the Mulch is an incredibly productive system. This also allows me to adjust the width of the planting beds and blocks at will depending on the requirements for production. An area that was a pathway between two narrow beds can be planted over into a wider bed with no loss in production because the soil never becomes compacted under the wood Mulch. A thin layer of wood chips spread every fall or spring is plenty to keep the soil covered year-round. And can be planted directly into with seeders.

[@irfanazim6696]

What crops do you rotate with leafy greens?

[@farnorthhomested844]

just subscribed. lots of good ideas. must take a lot of work initially. does the top soil from the walkway go on top of the raised bed?

[@Chris_Moran]

Pretty much. Market gardeners usually use a BCS with rotary plow to basically toss the soil from the walkway onto the bed. This can more simply be done with a shovel as well.

[@johncruser9853]

I use an 18inch wide rototiller on the pathway area, then go down the path with a flat shovel and put the loosened soil onto the bed.

[@abdulrafay7419]

Sowing seeds directly to soil what other one called when you put sprouts

[@ricoreich9462]

I know someone who farms two plots about 1 ha each without raised beds. It makes his place very efficient since he never has to cultivate any empty pathways and he doesn't lose any production space. For the rest he sues pretty much the same tools. I'm also wondering about the 75cm beds a bit. I tried it but it seems impossible to fit 3 rows with 30cm distance between them. I think I'll go with 90cm what do you think?

[@happyhillsfarm9598]

The idea of less space between rows comes from having healthy soils with adequate amendments, as well as allowing the mature plants to create a canopy to block out weeds. Plus it cuts down on space needed/increases yields on the same square footage.

[@ricoreich9462]

Sure. But healthy soil and inputs doesn't mean there is no fungal disease at all. I don't know any place that can produce headlettuce in decent size and quality at 25 cm toe distance whole year round. I assume if row spacing is 25 the spacing in the row is the same or lower. So to me there is no increased yield since I can't produce what I want.​@@happyhillsfarm9598

[@stevehatcher7700]

In my 30 inch/75 cm beds I do 4 rows for lettuce, carrots, onions, and beets. 5 rows for radish, green onion, and cilantro. I could do 6 rows on those crops, the soil fertility could handle it, but then weeding becomes too problematic at that tight a spacing. 7 to 9 rows for arugula - it grows so fast weeding is not an issue there. Bigger crops like kale get staggered planted in two rows. Medium sized like fennel might go 3 rows. Even bigger like eggplant or tomatoes are just one row down the middle of the bed. Bush beans are two rows. Pack them in as tight as your soil fertility can handle, and your cultivation tools/methods can manage. At maturity the plants should be touching each other. Like Happy Hills Farms said in their reply, create a full canopy so your crop shades the soil to minimize weed growth underneath, and to maximize yield. Going to 90cm instead of 75cm will make the beds just that much wider that straddling the beds, with one foot on each side, to do bent over hand work, will be just that much harder to handle with your legs spread farther apart. That's one of the key points of the 75 cm/30 inch bed system. Or, as some do, forgo straddling the beds and only work from the sides reaching in. There you may consider going with 120 cm/48 inch beds. Cuts down on total area of walking paths and puts more ground into production. You're only reaching 60cm/2 feet from one side or the other. In that system, using the spacing I mentioned above, you could run 7 or 8 rows of lettuce in one bed. Or 4 rows of lettuce down one side and 4 or 5 rows of green onion down the other side. Lots of options.

[@ricoreich9462]

@@stevehatcher7700Thx for the reply. Well im not goin to straddle over much since it feels very bad to me. 120cm beds are best in tractor cultivated systems so i dont consider them an option. I guess we are talking about different salads. If i do headlettuce 7-8 rows on a 75cm bed, i would never get any good product. In the european market we usually aim for at least 300gr. lettuce heads often the market even requires 400gr.+ No matter how good my soil fertility is, its not possible closer then 25 cm usually 30 cm. Some farms even go 37,5cm between roaws and 25-20 in row spacing. The beds are completely covered up by the salad heads within a few weeks. My experience on a small trial field i did was that if you go 3 rows x 30 cm on a 75cm bed it doesnt work since the bed crumbles away to easy at the edges, especially under dry conditions.

[@stevehatcher7700]

@ricoreich9462 I'm not growing for the heads. Loose leaf bagged lettuce mix. So a tighter planting and a bit smaller head at harvest, works better. Cut and come again harvesting, so each head gets harvested 2 to 3 times.

[@gardeningingatineau]

Where do you get these awesome tools you have!?

[@TheMarketGardeners]

Dubois Agrinovation and Johnny's are great places for a lot of different tools, but there are many different stores with different tools!

[@milesmanning]

If you had a small tractor would you use it? Just curious on the tractor hate. Seems like it could do the same thing as the BCS and also make spreading compost/ making compost way easier for your employees.

[@TheMarketGardeners]

We don't hate tractors at all! We're simply teaching a system of farming that is optimized for the use of a BCS and hand tools and therefore doesn't require a tractor. That being said a tractor can be a great help on a farm for moving large loads of compost around and doing larger land works, and we have used small tractors for these things over the years as well. Plenty of market gardeners use tractors, but just as many do it without even a BCS! The message is that you don't NEED a tractor in order to have a successful small farm, and that allows many more people to get started in this amazing world of market gardening! 💚 - Chris MGI

[@BCSAmerica]

@@TheMarketGardeners Well said, JM! *edit - Sorry! Well said, Chris!

[@happyhillsfarm9598]

​@@BCSAmericawell said Chris? Hehe

[@TheMarketGardeners]

@@BCSAmerica heheh thank you! -Chris MGI

[@MrThfknsamurai]

I bought a legend force rear tine tiller. it has a 212cc engine and plenty of torque. The tines seized up so I removed them and now I use it as a small "tractor" it lookes the same as a $2000 BCS tractor after I took the tines off.

[@katerineaubry3454]

Not going against raised beds here but do they involve buying compost every year though?It's a big expense.

[@edissab.9991]

With or without raised beds, you need to add compost or something else...

[@shellysmith1037]

yes, and it is a big expense. Can't get around that

[@stevehatcher7700]

I don't have access to enough compost, in my location, at any price, that would satisfy my quality standards. So I only make my own. It's only enough to apply a little to each bed at each planting succession. Really just enough to inoculate the bed with good microbes, and a little bit more organic matter than what was there. Not inches deep as a mulch layer to suppress weeds and planting into the compost, as is often preached by many market gardeners here on the You Tubes. You might want to purchase enough to do that in year one to really boost your soil organic matter. Running that much compost, year after year, can create issues down the road with phosphorous build up. Particularly if the compost contains animal manures. Phosphorous is not a very mobile nutrient. It flows through soil at less than an inch per year. But, like me, not using that much compost means you do need to use a fair bit of other fertility inputs. I use a mix of pelletized chicken manure, alfalfa meal, bone meal, blood meal and kelp meal. Still a considerable expense each year. But if I didn't pony up that expense.... I'd end up farther and farther behind each year. It's an investment towards increased profitability, not just a dead end expense. Oh, and I don't raise my beds. Flat land. Silt Loam soil. The effort to raise the beds seems lost on me, for my soil. Run-off down into walkways. Every few years digging up, or rotary plowing walkways back up into the beds. Ugg. Work. And my very silty loam can dry out fast and turn almost clay like, at times. In a raised environment that may happen more often. Much higher levels of compost (organic matter) may mitigate that, but I, currently, just can't get enough to achieve it. The beds do end up raised about an inch though, between the no-till(ish) decompaction in the beds themselves and the compaction in the walkways.

[@sorinleonte8227]

Pls. tell me,how much is it in In metric system ?!

[@IanRobinson2yt]

30 inches is 76.2 centimetres. 50 feet long rows is 1524 centimetres or 15.24 metres. 18 inches for the walkways is 45.8 centimetres. If you want to do 100 foot rows double the measures for the fifty feet.

[@miltkarr5109]

The 2 Biggest problems with raised beds is the weeds that grow on the edge. Very detrimental and ridiculously hard to cultivate. The second is needing much more irrigation.

[@celtickitc]

Now if I can keep all of the Fire Ants out of the garden beds...😮

[@sorbierdominique1229]

🤣🤣😂🤣🤣🤣😂

[@shellysmith1037]

It is funny th YT vid says # no till......yet in ever video it show you tilling soil.

[@TheMarketGardeners]

The tools we use on the BCS for bed preparation only mix the top 1"-2" of soil, to make a high quality seed bed for planting. This is still considered "no-till" because we are not inverting layers of soil. It's the equivalent of thoroughly raking the surface of your seed bed to break up any clumps of soil. We understand that this can be confusing though, and we also often promote the term "minimal tillage" as plenty of successful organic growers till their soil to some degree. Regardless of labels, the goal of building heathy soil revolves around minimal disturbance and supporting the life in the soil, through whichever means the farmer chooses. Hope this helps! 🙂

[@BCSAmerica]

@@TheMarketGardeners 👏👏👏

[@musicman2394]

Funny guy ,, learned a lot from you and Tks for your knowledge but soon you won’t have a chance to garden like you think,, all will be lost because you want to keep your image, some people see the truth and tell it , it’s everyone’s duty including yours, get boosted

[@rickyfiebiger7300]

What do you mean by, "get boosted"?

[@imogenveneear1935]

Explain your comment it sounds like neo nonsense.

[@paulmarcellus8409]

???????

[@floydblandston108]

Does not understanding the difference between cause and effect have a relationship between not knowing your azz from your elbow? Watch and decide.....

[@DestinationJapan95]

You’re tilling…smh

[@TheMarketGardeners]

The various tools you see in action only work the top 1-2" of soil to make a quality seed bed for planting. No layers of soil are flipped and the structure of the bed remains intact. The only time the soil is more disturbed is when creating beds initially, and when raising them occasionally over time. Beds can settle over time so we will toss soil from the row back on to the top of the bed, but this still doesn't effect the deeper layers. The goal is always minimal disturbance!