The autumn-spring off-season is the time to build a warm garden bed. Its arrangement consists in creating a multi-layered "pie" from organic waste- due to the gradual process of decay, plant residues begin to release the heat necessary for early growing capricious thermophilic cultures.
There are several ways to arrange a warm bed. So, if the groundwater is deep enough on the site, it is advisable to lay buried beds. They are equipped as follows: at the chosen place, the top layer of turf is removed and a trench is dug 60-70 cm deep, then organic raw materials and a layer are laid in the ditch. The finished bed will turn out flush with the soil of the site or slightly below it. Raised beds - best option for wet areas. For the construction of such ridges, boards from improvised materials (slate, brick or boards) are installed on the surface of the earth. Next, the formed box is filled with organic matter and sprinkled with soil mixture. The higher the fence, the higher the finished bed will be. Regardless of the arrangement option, a warm bed is laid according to the following scheme:- Coarse and long-rotting waste is suitable for the base - branches, branches, small stumps, large chips and other wood trimmings. Additionally, you can use rags and coarse-grained stems of plants (for example, corn or Jerusalem artichoke). The thickness of the base layer is at least 45-50 cm.
- Various plant wastes are laid on top of the wood - flower stalks, weeds, potato peelings, vegetable tops. For normal aeration of the beds, wet vegetation must be layered with carbonaceous raw materials - chopped branches, fallen leaves, weathered sawdust or straw. The thickness of the second layer is 20-25 cm.
- Laid over the intermediate layer garden soil mixed with wood ash and seasoned compost or rotted manure. The thickness of the outer layer is about 15 cm. At the end of the arrangement, the warm bed is covered with a dense black film or a cut of roofing material - for additional heating and protection from weed seeds.
- for arranging the beds choose a spacious and sunny place;
- before laying each new layer, the previous one is plentifully watered hot water or mullein - the "filling" must always be wet;
- to fill the "pie" use waste exclusively healthy plants, not damaged insect pests and fungal diseases;
- in addition to the main crops, legumes are additionally sown on the garden - their root system enriches the soil with nitrogen, flowering attracts pollinating insects, and rotting stems will eventually become an excellent fertilizer.
- crops are planted ahead of schedule;
- warm beds do not need weeding (germinating weeds rot under cover and turn into natural fertilizer);
- planted vegetables are practically not damaged by rodents and underground pests;
- natural fertilizers provide seedlings with good nutrition and resistance to diseases;
- soil from warm beds can be used as top dressing for greenhouse and soil plantations.
Regardless of the size of our dachas, plots and gardens, we always hope to get from them good harvest variety of fruits, vegetables and berries. If everything is more or less clear with fruits, then with vegetable beds questions begin.
In order to rationally and with maximum benefit use the territory of the site, we suggest you build warm beds.
Thanks to its arrangement, a warm bed creates favorable conditions for growing plants.
How it works
Organics (manure, rotten straw, food waste, fallen leaves, mowed grass) with which you filled the bed rot, forming a large amount of nutrients and releasing carbon dioxide.
Plants respond to such a gift with increased growth and health.
Another plus of a warm bed is that when organic waste decomposes, a large amount of heat is also released in the roots of plants. In such a heated bed, seedlings can be planted 3 weeks earlier than usual, which means that the period of plant development increases. Thanks to this heating, the plants can easily withstand a temperature drop of up to 5 degrees. All this has a positive effect on the crop.
Why do you need a warm bed
Seedlings planted in a warm bed develop faster, are not affected by diseases, plants become stronger and healthier than usual. Weeds do not grow here, the applied fertilizers remain in place, and after using the beds you will also get humus - the most valuable fertilizer.
As a result, productivity increases almost three times! At the same time, caring for landings is quite convenient.
To use the land rationally and find a place for all the vegetables and berries that you love, carefully plan your site.
When planning, pay attention to well-lit areas, because that is where the beds are best placed.
The best option would be if you can organize 4 beds for alternating vegetable crops, this will ensure a crop rotation. Accordingly, the plants will be strong, healthy and actively growing.
Types of warm beds
A warm bed can be high, or it can look like a trench. The filling principle is the same for them, the difference is that for a high bed you will need to make a box, and for a trench - go deep into the ground by 0.4-0.5m. For a deep bed, we dig a trench measuring 1x6m (this optimal size, but you choose the one that suits you).
A high bed has one advantage: in early spring it will begin to warm up earlier, as its walls will be under the first rays of the sun.
You can also build a combined warm bed, the lower part of which will be in the ground, and the upper part in the box. You choose.
How to DIY
You can prepare a warm bed both in early spring and autumn. You will have to try a little and spend a little more time, but the effort expended will return to you with a good harvest.
So let's get started:
- we dig a trench 1m wide, 0.4-0.5m deep. Length is arbitrary
- at the bottom of the trench we lay any wood waste (cut branches, boards, tree roots, sawdust)
- we fill the trench with food and garden waste, paper, mowed grass, dry leaves, tops
- we fall asleep rotted manure. Preferably - horse, bird and rabbit. Cow and pig dung burn a little worse, but are also suitable for bookmarking
- add ash (if any)
- we fill the bed with humus with a layer of 10-15 cm (this is all that has been rotted in your compost heap for a year). If you don’t have such a mixture, then we fill the bed with soil that remains after digging the trench
For a high warm bed, you do not need to dig a deep trench, but you will need to build a box of the appropriate height.
- if there is no manure? You can replace manure with bales of straw, which must be filled with a solution of chicken manure at the rate of 1 bucket of manure per 50 liters of water
- a warm bed must be constantly watered: moisture is necessary for microorganisms that develop inside
- use the beds all season long. At first, it is convenient to grow greens in them (radishes, dill, parsley, lettuce). At the beginning of summer, plant heat-loving plants: cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, melons
- a slight slope to the south side will help plantings to evenly receive a lot solar heat and light
- it is convenient to work with beds of small width. Approaches from all sides allow you to cultivate the soil and check all plantings without trampling the bed.
What to make a warm bed
A high warm bed can be made from the most various materials available: board, slate, plastic, metal, stone, brick. If not only functionality and usefulness are important to you, but also beauty, then you will have to try a little more. However, such a garden will please the eye and become part of the overall landscape.
High beds arranged with the help of gabions are ready-made composters. All season you lay plant residues in them, and in the fall you fall asleep with soil - the bed is ready for the next season.
Beds with spicy plants look picturesque and give aromas. Such flower beds especially need watering.
From several beds, you can create a composition in the form of a flower, pattern, geometric shapes. Such a creative approach will decorate your site and make it more interesting. Use as decorations garden figurines, vases, bird drinkers, scarecrows.
Decorative borders are another way to make an ordinary garden bed an original landscape object. Depending on the style of the garden, the border can be made in the form of a fence for rustic style, decorate with a mosaic for the Mediterranean, the stone will remind you of Italy.
Make the aisles between the beds wide enough so that it is convenient for you to care for the plants.
A warm bed can even fit in a barrel! For example with such small area, you can get a pretty decent harvest.
Caring for such beds is as simple as possible, and the beds themselves become the highlight of the garden and give it volume.
Published by DecorateMe. Updated 18 Nov 2018 . Self-made warm beds are a great opportunity to get a harvest earlier than usual. Our capricious Russian spring often conceals unpleasant surprises, for example, sharp drops in temperature up to frost. In this article, we share our experience in creating warm beds for the purpose of growing vegetable products.
Nikolai Kurdyumov, famous agronomist and propagandist natural farming He said that fertility is not a state, but a dynamic process that occurs in the soil. Warm beds in layers are designed to create this continuous living process.
On the living substrate of insulated beds, vegetable crops develop much better, it is easier for them to cope with superficial night frosts and to endure temperature fluctuations. Vegetables on insulated ridges ripen faster, and the labor costs of summer residents are reduced.
The amazing garden of Igor Lyadov
The whole process of vegetable growing according to the Lyadov system can be reduced to two technological operations- cultivation of vegetables on specially organized narrow ridges according to the Mitlider method and natural farming without the use of pesticides.
For many years in a row, the garden of Igor Lyadov was in a state of disrepair. Vegetable crops in the conditions of the Far Eastern climate felt uncomfortable, they suffered from waterlogging and soaking.
Regular fertilizing with mineral fertilizers did not save the situation, the taste of vegetables was unsatisfactory, potato degeneration was observed, and the yield of vegetable crops decreased every year.
The gardener enthusiast decided to seriously take up his site. He noticed that when using wide traditional beds, the leaves of only those plants that were located along the edges of the ridge normally develop.
The farmer concludes that the processes of plant growth and development are affected by the presence of fresh air masses and space. Igor Nikolaevich finds confirmation of his ideas in the method of growing Mitlider vegetables. It comes down to growing crops on narrow strips of land with a fairly large row spacing (75 cm or more). 
The Russian plant breeder decides to modify the methodology and raise the warm beds, made with his own hands, above the dirt paths by 20 cm in order to get rid of regular floods, which are not rare in the area where he lives. The enterprising gardener made wooden fencing- a box, and fenced the ridges.
Such a fence served as protection against erosion of the soil. It turned out to be an impromptu container.
The advantages of containers are obvious:
- the shape of the beds is maintained throughout the growing season;
- water lingers in the soil, and plants can be watered less often;
- the wooden box made composting more efficient;
- high ridges prevent the loss of nutrients and carbon dioxide released by microorganisms.
Soon Lyadov decides to abandon mineral fertilizers. Plants grown in his garden receive only organic matter in the form of manure, herbal infusion, compost, mulch. Also used. Warm beds and the amazing garden of Igor Lyadov are a great example of natural farming in open ground.
Beds in a greenhouse made of polycarbonate and polyethylene
so that the plants are not harmed by return frosts, and also in order to accelerate their development, cucumber seedlings are recommended to be grown under film cover until the last days of May. Before making beds in a greenhouse, it must be thoroughly disinfected, last year's residues removed and damaged elements replaced. in the greenhouse small size you can build three narrow beds, leaving two passages for maintenance.
The material for the construction of warm beds use the same materials as for the beds in the garden. In well-fixed boxes, add all the necessary components.
On a warm bed under a reliable shelter made of polycarbonate or polyethylene, plants feel much better, they grow faster and painlessly endure night cooling on the soil surface.
If you want to get the first production of early cucumbers earlier, then you need to grow them through seedlings. When growing through seedlings, you can save expensive or scarce seeds, each seed will yield a crop and will not get lost in the soil.
Cucumber seedlings are planted on permanent place growing when the plants have four true leaves.
Immediately before planting seedlings on insulated high beds make holes. The depth should be equal to the depth of the glass in which the cucumber seedlings were located.
On such ridges in an unheated greenhouse, cucumbers are planted in one row in the center of the ridge, leaving a distance of 20 cm between plants.
After a week, the plants must be tied to pegs, and preferably to a trellis. The lower edge of the rope is tied to a cucumber whip above the third leaf, the height is 12 cm above ground level.
A warm bed with warming compost and manure under a polycarbonate cover or foil provides optimal temperature regime for plants.
The temperature is regulated by ventilation, for this you can simply lift polyethylene film or open a window.
A wooden box will keep moisture longer. Cucumbers are a vegetable crop that loves moisture very much. Before entering the fruiting period, it is necessary to water the cucumber plantations every 2 to 3 days, while the water consumption per plant is 0.5 liters.
During the period of fruit ripening, cucumbers are watered daily, spending 1.5 - 3 liters of water under each root.
With the onset of stable heat, the covering material is completely removed.
Growing vegetables in warm beds in spring and autumn
Modern greenhouses, even those built with their skillful hands, are quite expensive for a summer resident, so zealous owners try to make the most of it.
Even if the greenhouse is without additional heating, and you live in the country for a limited time, you can develop such agricultural technology so that the crop ripens from April to November under transparent vaults. Of course, this applies to stationary greenhouses, year-round closed with glass or polycarbonate.
In an unheated greenhouse, sowing of cold-resistant crops begins in early April, or at the end of March if the weather is warm.
The seeds of radish, parsley, dill, lettuce, arugula, Chinese cabbage, and mustard are the first to fall into the ground.
No matter how the greenhouse protects, for early landings it should provide for the possibility of additional cover of plants with non-woven material.
In the same way, you can grow all of the listed crops in the fall, extending the season for consuming fresh herbs until the end of November.
Autumn harvest of greenery
How to make a warm bed in the fall for growing greens until the end of November?
- At the end of August, the greenhouse is practically free from tomato plants, eggplant peppers, it is good if a couple of cucumber lashes are preserved. So why not use the free areas, securely covered from cold nights, to good use.
- As in early spring, thoroughly clean the greenhouse of plant residues, remove all damage, yellowed and diseased leaves from the remaining plants, rinse the polycarbonate surfaces.
- Loosen the soil, spill it with a dark red solution of potassium permanganate, season with humus, wood ash and.
- After a couple of days, pour the prepared ridges with a solution of phytosporin, make furrows and sow vegetables on the greens.
A warm bed, built in an unheated greenhouse, will allow you to grow greens until the last days of November
Do-it-yourself warm beds, step by step manufacturing
There is such a rule of the farmer: everything that is taken from the earth must be returned to it:
- Create on site compost pits and fill them up with some fertile land, peat.
- Strictly follow the principle of a sandwich, that is, layers.
- In order for the compost heap to turn into full-fledged compost, each row of waste must be covered with urea or other nitrogen fertilizers.
- Another condition: the compost must be watered, for 1 square meter you will have to knock over at least 15 buckets of water. And keep in mind, you need to pour water evenly, over the entire thickness of the heap. In a layer of compost and humus will soon start earthworms, they will turn the compost and humus into fertile humus.
How to make a warm bed:
High warm beds will save water for irrigation. It is recommended to mulch the ground with cut grass, slightly dried in the sun.
Instructions for installing a warm bed in the garden - video
Traditionally warm bed done in the fall, when after harvesting a lot of tops, branches from pruning and other plant debris accumulate. Resourceful gardeners came up with the idea of burying all this in the ground, and planting vegetables on top. The method has taken root and is of interest to younger generation especially at the start of a new season. You can build a warm bed in the spring, but it is not suitable for every climate.
What is a warm bed
A warm bed resembles a layer cake. Coarse plant residues are laid down, for example, thick branches, stumps, boards, and smaller fractions are placed above: thin branches, tops, flower stalks, kitchen waste (cleanings), manure, sawdust, poultry litter, fallen leaves. The earth is poured on top with a layer of 20–30 cm. As a result, we get a bed on a pillow of organic matter, which rots and releases heat.
A warm bed looks like a layer cake, the filling of which is waste of natural origin
Moreover, the earth is raised above the level of the site, it is better heated by the sun. To enhance this effect, arcs are installed on top and covered with a film or spunbond. Another plus is that decaying organic matter serves as food for plants.
The bed can be used for 2-3 years, then you need to lay a new filling.
Advantages and disadvantages of the beds
Benefits of a warm bed:
- warms up earlier than usual in spring, which means it is suitable for getting an early harvest:
- during rainy periods, water quickly drains from an elevated surface, does not stagnate:
- promotes order on the site, all plant debris is removed, in addition, warm beds are usually framed with boards, they look neat, and the paths between such borders can be covered with pebbles or sand, covered with dense material, laid tiles so that weeds do not grow and it is convenient to walk;
- it is comfortable to work, because the height of the beds sometimes reaches 60-70 cm, no need to bend low.
Cons of a warm bed:
- in winter, the elevated area freezes more strongly; with insufficient snow cover, strawberry bushes may die, winter landings onion, garlic, etc.;
- in spring, the soil thaws and dries up early, watering should be started earlier than usual, often long before water is brought to the site;
- in summer, in the heat, there will also be a problem with watering, they will be needed more often than beds on flat land;
- the organic filling gradually sags, the ground level decreases, it is necessary to add it;
- ants like to settle in warm beds;
- framing material will be required, otherwise the earth will spread into paths, washed away by rains;
- the construction of such a bed requires a lot of labor, it is easier to take all the waste to compost heap than to dig ditches, build curbs, shift the earth;
- not suitable for all crops, especially in the first year, when there is still undecayed organic matter under a small layer of earth, only plants with a shallow root system can be planted.
minus associated with frequent watering, is corrected by mulching, but finding or growing mulch, laying it in a thick layer is also work.
Warm beds are an analogue of high ones, they are needed for very damp areas(in a lowland, under a blind fence) and with a close occurrence of groundwater. They justify themselves in the damp climate of Primorye and the North-West, but are not at all suitable for the arid and hot south.
In a harsh climate, warm beds are made even inside greenhouses
We, in Western Siberia, every summer is different, it can be both hot and rainy. They made only one bed warm for strawberries along the fence. There is always a lot of snow in that place, it takes a long time to fall, when the ground is already dry in the rest of the area. Ordinary beds they remain damp there for a very long time, but this one melts earlier, dries out better, on hot days the shade from the fence saves. I can also recommend starting with one garden bed to understand whether it will be useful in your climate and on a particular piece of land.
How to make a warm bed in spring
The principle of warm beds in spring and autumn is one, and there are at least two manufacturing options in any season:
- low, raised warm bed:
The latter option is suitable for areas with very poor soil(sandy, clay, podzolic), as well as soddy, when there is no time to raise virgin soil. top layer can be filled with black soil.
Tips for making warm beds in spring:
Plants can be planted on warm manure beds or bedding from a poultry house no earlier than a week later. This organic burns with release a large number heat, the temperature of the earth in the garden can rise to +70 ° C. In order not to burn the plants, you will have to observe the processes under the soil layer. 5–7 days after the construction of such a bed, immerse the thermometer to a depth of 20–30 cm. If the temperature does not exceed 40-50 ° C, start sowing. On warm beds only from plant residues, you can start planting immediately.
Video: low warm bed of the original form
Warm beds are arranged on top of an organic pillow, heated by it from below and the sun from above. They are needed in regions with late spring for early harvest, relevant in areas with rainy summers. Warm beds can be placed in damp places, lowlands, and also on top of infertile soil.
With the first spring warmth want to plant flowers or vegetable plants, To obtain early harvest or the first flowers. However, early seedlings require warm soil. Therefore, you need to arrange warm beds on the site. They are especially relevant for areas with a close groundwater level, where the earth remains cold for a long time. How to make warm garden beds? Consider
Advantages of thermal beds
Such ridges are good for wet spring and northern regions our country. The soil warms up faster, the plants do not get wet when the groundwater is close or waterlogged.
Places with loved ones groundwater the device is raised above the surface of the earth, and in dry areas, on the contrary, it is deepened in order to retain moisture longer.
A well-equipped ridge can last up to five years, then it is necessary to make a new one again using the same technology.
Organics retain moisture well, so watering is carried out less frequently, no more than 1-2 times in 7 days. And if you arrange drip irrigation, you can save a lot of time and effort.
A warm bed can be arranged on outdoors or in a greenhouse. On the open ground, you can install arches, cover them with agro-cloth and plant heat-loving plants.
When arranging a warm bed, you can fully use the compost and make room for new plant residues.
Weeds practically do not grow and easily water in a new elevation.
Warm beds with their own hands
It is best to do such work in the fall after the completion of all garden and field work. Time does not drive, and there are a lot of organic matter in the form of plant residues at this time on the site. Having made a warm bed in the fall, in the spring you can safely plant heat-loving plants (eggplants, peppers, cucumbers) in them, and wait for an early and rich harvest.
Warm bed in the greenhouse
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