I was determined to own a raised gardening bed after reading Mel Bartholomew’s ‘Square Foot Gardening’ book and setting off on my own organic growing “revolution” a few years ago. Close friends, family members and people sitting next to me on airplanes all quickly became aware of how exciting Mel’s method was. I remember telling my mother about how easy it seemed to start growing your own food and she should read Mel’s book, she replied in her calm southern accent “It is pretty neat isn’t it? I read that book in the seventies.” to my surprise. I didn’t know she’d ever heard of these techniques and found out she had actually been interested in growing her own food again, but health issues had prevented her from moving forward.

I started searching around for some sort of ready made product, a way for the masses to begin growing, something I could try out and recommend to interested growers. I wasn’t very satisfied with what I found…There was nothing! No instant gratification at all! No “iPod” of garden beds seemed to exist.

No problem, I have tools.

An organic raised weed free no dig vegetable garden would be an ideal way to grow your own food in your backyard and Mel gives you instructions on how to make your own, but you need to be handy with some light construction tools, not to mention have access to some. This was no problem for me because of my work experience and began building myself and my family all different sizes of raised garden beds, even a big four foot by eight foot raised bed with legs that was self draining!

I know the elderly, the disabled and children may have a much harder time building a garden from scratch and simply may not grow their own food for this very reason. I’m sure many seasoned farmers and gardeners give up the craft as they age, perhaps on account of aches and pains or a complete inability to perform the necessary upkeep.

By the end of that summer, I had built about a dozen raised gardening beds of all different sizes and materials; some had trellises, some used old tires and concrete for support, some were made from composite decking and some pine or oak…but ALL produced that season.

All kinds of organic tomatoes, organic garlic, organic potatoes from stacked tires, organic brussel sprouts, big beautiful Russian mammoth sunflowers, organic zucchini and many more kinds of produce were harvested throughout the season. In addition, a twelve inch round vegetable container sat on my deck and provided many delicious bowls of crisp mixed salad greens.

I followed Mel’s organic vegetable soil mix preparation and it worked beautifully. He calls for one third each of: organic compost, coarse vermiculite and peat moss. I have experimented with other mixes too, but his works just as well as any. I recommend using local resources to make your soil mix, more articles to come on that!

Any ways, I was ecstatic about the entire experience, growing my own food had permanently and radically changed my life. My daughter has developed this wonderful connection to the land and understands that food starts as a seed and doesn’t actually come from a box or a can. My entire family enjoys the freshest local organic food possible right out of their own backyards.

My friend Brok and I had worked together in our gardens, shared tips about backyard composting, compared produce size, etc. and got to talking one day and asked ourselves a sobering question.

Could we design an easy to assemble, no dig, weed free, organic vegetable garden that could be used all year round indoors or out? We thought we were up for the task, after all we had managed to harvest a couple of successful seasons and we had become acquainted with quite a few experienced organic farmers.

Brok and I then set out on our own brand new organic growing revolution, one aimed at bringing awareness to people who had never had a close relationship to their food before. The people we wanted to reach have never planted a seed in soil before or watched as it became a seedling, much less picked an organic tomatoe from their own back porch. We wanted to share this wonderful opportunity with people who never knew it existed and knew we had to put all of our hearts into making this a possibility.

We began with the idea that food grows pretty well in nature, sometimes it just needs a little nudge here and there, a little nurture, maybe some shade from the high summer afternoon sun or a sprinkle of diatomaceous earth to keep some pesky insects away. There had to be a design that could work in harmony with the natural process already set in place to grow nutritious vegetables, sweet fruits and aromatic herbs.

We started to design a gardening system that EVERYONE can grow their own food with, something that works WITH nature, not against it.

Building the raised gardening bed thirty inches by forty eight inches makes it large enough to produce a substantial amount of food, ten square feet of growing space, so 120 carrots, 10 tomatoes and any combination in between. Elevating the garden bed to waist height allows planting, watering, maintenance and harvesting to be done without bending over. Those with health issues can now garden and grow with a little more ease.

myGroFarm Raised Vegetable Gardening Bed

The trellis system is integrated into the main unit and doubles as a frame for it’s all weather cover. Having the trellis in the center of the unit allows all the plants to be trained onto the net for stability and support, while the cover slows down evaporation and heat loss. A made to fit cover allows the grower to plant earlier and extend the fall season a little more as well while requiring less watering throughout the entire season. Rain saturated crops become a thing of the past as well.

Both Brok’s family and mine have been composting their kitchen and garden scraps for a few years now and have been using the rich, nutritious compost in our gardens. Why not make the bottom portion of the unit a composter? We did. It could also be used as a storage area.

The size of the unit actually makes it well suited for the urban environment and is ready to be placed on sunny porches, rooftop decks, patios, sunrooms, kitchens and anywhere else where you have a sunny two and a half foot by four foot space. If you don’t have a sunny space, you’re still in luck, with the proper lights setup, you can use the myGroFarm to grow indoors all year round.

To be part of a general solution, we decided to manufacture the myGroFarm here in the United States, to cut down on carbon emissions and to create more jobs for the local economies. We also settled on using a recyclable material for the main body of the unit. While the technology isn’t in place yet to use recycled materials for the construction of this new system, we are working closely with industry leaders to make that a reality in the near future.

That was the conception of the myGroFarm and the rest was history…

Well not really, we actually are just starting to see the myGroFarm vision become a reality.

We’re working very closely with the local school system in Tulsa, Oklahoma to help bring organic vegetable gardening into the curriculum. We’re also working with a few non-profits to develop a universal fund-raising platform to provide revenue for educational systems and non-profits while giving children a once in a lifetime opportunity to start their own organic gardening revolution. On top of this, we are establishing partnerships with activists, industry leaders, authors, business owners, educational institutions and farmers to spread awareness about how easy it is to grow your own food and how beneficial this is for the planet’s health and our own.

We are facing troubling times when more and more of our food is produced by unscrupulous means; genetically modified organisms, poisonous pesticides and fertilizers, water and soil depleting farming practices and profit minded captains of industry. The choices we make about where our food comes from speaks louder than anything I can write, so I encourage you to plant a seed, visit a farm or do some more research.

You’ll find growing your food is simple, anyone can do it and you may just surprise yourself at how well you do or what other miracles you’ll discover in that new raised gardening bed of yours.

I would love to hear from you! Please visit our project’s website myGroFarm.com

e-mail me at seth@mygrofarm.com with any thoughts, suggestions or comments.