Building Nursery Beds

Gardening by the Yard : Episode GBY-617 -- More Projects »
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Master gardener Paul James says nursery beds are great temporary plant homes until you have time to find permanent planting spots.
Master gardener Paul James admits he commits a gardening foul every now and then--he's always buying plants without having any idea where to put them once he gets them home. He just can't resist buying plants that look good and healthy, especially during the winter when they're on sale. Since he isn't likely to change his ways, he decided to create several garden plant beds to serve as temporary homes for his plants.
A plant bed can be as simple as a mini-garden that's dug up in the yard or you can create a more elaborate structure. He has two raised-bed frames, and he shows how to build the third one. The lumber he uses is rough-sawn cedar, each board an 8-foot 1x12. You can use any rot-resistant lumber you like. You can also use cinder blocks, stones or hay bales. The soil is this area is not great, but he's back-filling the frames with a special soil mix.

Steps (directions are for a four-foot-square bed):

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Figure A
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Figure B
  1. Cut two eight-foot boards in half.
  2. Fasten the boards together with wood screws (figure A).
  3. Choose a spot that gets approximately three or four hours of dappled sun if you want to house both sun- and shade-loving plants. The location also needs to be accessible to water.
  4. Dig a shallow trench to place the frame in to prevent it from shifting; make sure it's level.
  5. Drop the frame in the trench (figure B). If the frame is not level, either add soil or dig a little more. Once the frame is level, tamp the soil surrounding it.
  6. Add a two-inch layer of shredded leaves and straw inside the frame. Sprinkle the leaves and straw with blood meal to get the decomposition process going.
  7. There are all kinds of materials to fill frames: You can add pure compost if you have enough of it or a mixture of topsoil and any manure-based product. You can also add topsoil along with leaves, grass clippings or rotted hay or straw. Or add mushroom compost, a product containing a blend of composted manure, alfalfa and other composted products made from cotton burs. Use whatever you can--just make sure the mixture drains well and contains plenty of organic matter. Mix the contents well. Fill the bed almost to the top--leaving plenty of room for a final topping of mulch--and level the surface.
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Figure C
James adds to his new garden beds some plants that he picked up on sale. He found some beautiful green sedums with gorgeous texture and a Siberian iris (figure C) called 'Caesar's Brother', which has beautiful blue flowers. He also found an autumn fern, which is almost an evergreen in Tulsa, so it will develop nice green fronds throughout the winter.
An artemisia (figure D)--which has gray foliage--requires full sun. A mock-orange (figure E) has sweetly-scented flowers in white and a white buddleia (usually called butterfly-bush) will attract butterflies (figure F). He adds all these plants to the garden beds; with the fluffy soil mix, he doesn't have to dig much. After placing the plants in the beds, he tops them off with a layer of shredded bark mulch.
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Figure D
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Figure E
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Figure F
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James is planting a variety of sun- and shade-loving plants, so he places the beds in an area that receives three to four hours of sun each day.
These beds will serve as temporary homes not only for plants that you buy but also for plants that you dig up yourself or that fellow gardeners give you. For example, James has some liriope that he dug up from around the base of a tree stump and he adds this to one of the beds. At the same time, he adds a clump of ornamental grass given to him by a friend. In time, he'll likely find homes for these plants, but they'll be perfectly happy here for several seasons; many of the plants he put in the beds can be dug up and divided, and that saves money.

Placing patio plants that die back during the winter in garden beds to protect the rootballs is another way to use the beds. Try taking some of your favorite plants and burying them--pots and all--in a garden plant bed. Trim the top growth to an inch or two and top them off with leaves or other mulch just enough to cover them. Water only when the soil is dry to a depth of four to six inches. In the spring, simply reverse the process and put the potted plants back on the patio.

Also in this Episode
Gardening by the Yard : Episode GBY-617
•Dry-Climate Gardening
•Building Nursery Beds
•Imported Fire Ants