Suppose you have a yearning for a small vegetable garden and are limited because you live in an apartment or in a condo and there doesn't seem to be any place available to plant one. One option is to adapt a raised garden bed to whatever space there is available whether it be a cement driveway or asphalt patio or even an apartment or condo roof top. A garden can be grown virtually anywhere there is space for a 4 ft. by 4 ft. raised garden frame.
The raised garden beds are usually constructed using decking planks because of their immunity to rot and insect damage. Because of their end use as decking, they necessarily must to be very straight and have very little warpage so are ideally suited for the construction of raised gardens. The boards are 5-1/2 inches wide, allowing for a choice of either shallow or a fairly deep garden depending on whether one frame is used or a second is stacked on top of the other.
Once the frame is placed on the hard surface, it is filled with bags of topsoil which are purchased at the local garden center. The bags weigh about 40 pounds and each contains one cubic foot of soil. A garden that measures 4 ft by 4 ft. and eleven inches tall would require 14 bags. The bags of soil come in several types; top soil, humus, potting soil, etc. They are all very similar in texture and I have settled on top soil as my preference.
We have selected a 5-2-4 nitrogen fertilizer which comes in 50 pound bags. Since it is granulated, it may be conveniently applied using a coffee can with 1/4 inch holes drilled into its bottom and used as a shaker. The plastic lid is fitted to the other end of the can. As each bag of soil is emptied into the frame, a quantity of fertilizer is sprinkled onto each surface while being raked smooth and awaiting the next bag of soil. This way, there is a strata of fertilizer distributed throughout the soil as it is filling the garden frame.
Once the raised garden is full of dirt, planting may take place. If tomatoes are to be planted from garden center seedlings, make sure you provide a wire frame in order to contain the plants as they grow. Once they reach about a foot tall, they will require as much as a quart of water daily to reach their full potential.
In late summer when the hot weather varieties have become exhausted, consider replanting to have a fall/winter garden .