b"NOW AVAILABLE! HORSEBACK RIDING YEARLY PASSRide and roam 365 days a year on their 20,000 acres of beauty for one special price!PLUS your Season Pass gets you 10% OFF ALL functions atWorried About Your Food theFlying E Ranch, including the 96.3 Real Country CattleSupply.Grow Your OwnDrive, barn dances and lodging! I f you want to make a bountiful garden full of fresh, homegrown vegetables and gorgeous flowers, theres no better way to make it a reality than with a raised garden bed.Raised beds solve all kinds of problems for gardeners. High-quality gardening soil avoids issues like hard clay or nutrient-poor soil, which means you can plant more densely and get higher yields. The container offers superior pest and weed management compared to ground-level planting. The tall beds also mean less stooping and bending to pick weeds or produce, along with structural support for hoop rows to start growing earlier in spring and extend later into fall.Making a raised garden bed is an easy weekend project even for a novice. You can make your own, custom-created beds from common hardware supplies. Heres how to do it, from placement to potting soil to plants.Most vegetables need full sun, meaning six to eight hours a day of direct exposure. If you can, orient the long side of the raised beds facing north-south; rows in an east-west orientation shade each other. Flat locations are best; slopes will cause water to drain unevenly, leaving one end of your garden dry and cracked and the other waterlogged.Shade isn't always the enemy. In hot climates, some afternoon shade or filtered light may help to prevent wilting and bolting (when cool-season veggies like lettuce go to seed and take on a bitter taste). Especially if youre planting cool-season crops like spinach, locations with afternoon shade may extend the growing season. Avoid spots under trees that create a lot of litter, like catalpas.You can make raised garden beds any shape and size you want; squares and small planters are popular styles, especially for smaller yards or as accent gardens. Try to keep widths to four feet; thats narrow enough to reach into the center from either side. Leave at least 18 inches between beds for easy access; two feet provides enough space for lawnmowers, wheelbarrows, and wagons. One to two feet is an ideal height. You can go taller, but it increases materials cost (especially fill dirt).Raised garden beds can be created out of almost any durable building material: bricks, concrete blocks, or engineered wall blocks all work fine. You can even use composite decking materials. To save cash, used materials may be an option. Recycling and re-use centers for building materials are increasingly popular; theyre a great place to find high-quality, affordable materials for small projects.By far the most common material for raised beds is lumber. Since raised beds are often used to grow edibles, steer clear of wood preserved with toxins, like creosote-treated railroad ties. Pressure-treated lumber sold in the U.S. for residential use no longer contains arsenic compounds like CCA, and the EPA considers copper-infused lumber treatments like ACQ to be safe for food crops. To be completely safe, or to grow organic veggies, opt for untreated lumber instead.Rot-resistant woods like redwood, cedar and cypress are more expensive than common materials like pine but will last 10-20 years. Pine is an affordable alternative, but will only last about half that. For assembly, use galvanized or stainless steel hardware. Screws or bolts are easier to work with than nails.To fill, use an online soil volume calculator to estimate material needs. GardenCONTACT US ANYTIME!2801 W. Wickenburg WayWickenburg, AZ 85390-1087 soil should be roughly 50 percent high-quality topsoil and 50 percent compost. If youre buying in bulk from a landscape supply center, make sure you get actual topsoil, not fill dirt, which is often subsoil with little of the organic matter andArizonaRealCountryMagazine@gmail.comvacation@flyingeranch.com(928) 684-2690 nutrients needed for gardening. Real topsoil is dark, with an earthy smell, and it breaks up easily in your hands. Adjust for your climate; hot climates like Phoenixor by phone at 602-254-6644will benefit from a soil that holds more water.www.flyingeranch.com ArizonaRealCountry.com April 2020 31"