Discussion Board

For years, I have saved lots of information on How to Grow Vegetables in Beds that you stand up to them and work the veggies. I have not tried it because something tells me the plants would get dry too quick. Any thoughts on this??

Chrmann--a very interesting question! I think that the answer might be like container gardening--having a water reservoir under the beds and some kind of wicking system. That way the soil will pull in the moisture it needs and will stay more evenly moist as opposed to drying out and then being watered.

There are commercial "Earth boxes" with a water reservoir at the bottom, as well as websites with information about how to construct your own.

I rigged up a water reservoir in a large galvanized washtub that I wanted to use as a planter. I used strips of old denim jeans as wicking material from the reservoir into the soil. This worked GREAT. I was never very successful at growing things in planters here before that, because it is so hot, dry and windy in the summer. I have to replace the jeans strips every year because they rot away over time.

For a larger-scale version of this you'd want to think of something for a wick that would hold up better. Probably your soil would need to be re-mixed every year, though, so the wicks could be replaced then anyway.

I had some containers one year on my front porch (concrete porch). I planted tomatoes in these BIG containers. I took a piece of 2 inch PVC pipe and cut it about 4 inches taller than the container. I then drilled holes up the pipe until I was about an inch from the top of the soil and put the pipe in the soil close to the center of the pot. I then would pour water into the pipe to water the plants. This worked pretty good except the concrete porch attracted the heat too much so the tomatoes were watered but cooked. I learned from that experience to put these containers in a different spot...one that wasn't gravel or concrete. Ha!

My Dad grew up in southern New Mexico. It was hot and dry there. He always used compost and irrigated. One of his favorite methods of watering plants was to bury a large can (with drilled holes in the bottom and sides) next to the plant he wanted to water. My Dad is dead now. He would be in his 90's if he was still living. But, he always had a garden no matter where we lived. He was an electrical engineer by day and would come home and garden until bedtime. My Mom died when I was real young and it gave him something to do. His whole family always gardened. My Dad also used to recycle hose pipe that was messed up. He would punch holes in the hose and plant this underground.

I guess what I was wondering about: Has anyone ever grown a table garden? I've been thinking about starting one of these for years. It is built of wood and is on wooden legs with rollers. You could always move the bed around, as needed, to where it is shady or sunny. You could make a square foot garden this way. You would have to make your own (or I should say "maybe") soil mixture to fill the large container. You end up avoiding soil born diseases if you mix your own soil-less mixture. I guess you could use your "denim drip" or the PVC pipe drips in these containers. I understand you line the wooden containers with plastic, then add rocks with drip irrigation mixed in and then the soil. Once planted, you still use compost/mulch to help keep the soil moist. If you have a year in which the soil is too wet to get ready to plant in the ground, you wouldn't have to worry about that if you have table gardens. I saw in an old Organic Garden magazine (40 years ago) where a person who was in a wheelchair made himself a garden to the height and width that he could manage. He had a fantastic looking set-up.

In my greenhouse, I have tables made of plastic tubs (? unsure what type of material it is) with PVC legs. I guess you could use that outside. Then, you wouldn't have to worry about the wood rotting.

Anyway, was wondering if anyone has done this before and about their experiences and what problems I might encounter.

I think that I remember the article you mentioned in Organic Gardening magazine, because for years I wondered if I could rig up something like that for my dad who has a bad back--however he was not really all that into gardening anyway so I never did. But it was on my mind for years.

I remembered seeing a unit for sale and found it at Gardener's Supply here: http://www.gardeners.com/Standing-Garden/NewOutdoorPlanters_Cat,38-554,default,cp.html It is a 'standing garden' with a cedar box. The serious flaw I see in this item is that it doesn't look like the legs are adjustable at all. You'd want to be able to lower it to the right height for a wheelchair, raise it up for a taller person, etc. but I think a person could design their own box with some kind of adjustable height feature.

It seems to me, though, that the 'grow boxes' made in Rubbermaid containers and set up onto a table would provide a more modular, adaptable system, easier to manage. There is plenty of info online about growing in containers, and these would be the same, just at a different height.

Other than a theoretical interest, I don't have any experience doing this so I can't really help with your questions.

This is a very old post, but I have grown table gardens. I like to square-foot garden and there are some table garden ideas in Mel's book. We used these at a nursing home that I did my internship at in college. They were 3' X 3' and very lightweight because of the vermiculite and peat moss that we used. We just picked it up and put it on the table where the person was seated. They would also sit on top of a large outdoor ottoman. I have used small ones on the railings at my house because I wanted to keep gardening when I had had foot surgery, just couldn't get to the ground that season. I was on the porch with a watering can every day, so there wasn't a problem with the garden drying out. At the nursing home, the people who were in wheelchairs or were not very mobile did not have a lot to do each day, so watering every day was something they did.

Fulenn