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Update on my garden bed concept. I've converted the first bed, here's a little video that shows what I've done. I posted this in the swale thread as well. I think I might have three threads going on this topic. Obviously it's on my mind this season! Sorry 'bout that.

It's on a lot of people's minds, Matt. The more often it's out there, the more likely that the right person will see it.

How long is the bed Matt? And about how high? I was wondering how much growing area the bed gives you? It looks to be about 25' long and maybe 3' to 4' high in the pictures. How deep is the ditch in front and about how much water is laying in it now. Do you feel that there is any danger of the water getting stagnent or breeding mosquitos? We are all looking forward to hearing about your results. It looks like it should work really well. As things dry out a bit the huglebed might suck up all of the water in the ditch eliminating any problems there. It sounds like you are learning as you go.

Guy, I think you have the dimensions pretty accurately. On the slope I'd say there is about 5'x25' of planting area, overall height from the back is 2'-3', and from the "path" or "pond" (depending on season, lol), it's about 4' to 5' high. The ditch is around 2' deep from the bed above it, and has around 6" of water. I'm not worried about mosquitoes or stagnant water. There's standing water all around the garden this time of year, and it should all dry out by the time it warms up enough to have mosquitoes. They aren't much of a problem here, anyway.

That answeres that question Matt, Thanks. Mosquitos are a pretty big problem for me here at my place, glad that you are not bothered much.

Perhaps one way to know what the effects of having such a bed are would be to objectively measure the relevant data. Seems that if you are trying to create a microclimate that mimics a region 300 miles to the South, you should put out a few thermometers to measure the temperature of the soil, as well as the temperature at various heights above the soil. This maybe could be done both in the bed as well as in a few other spots nearby and the differences compared.

Yeah, I had thought about that George, and if I can come up with enough similar thermometers, I'll do it. I thought maybe I would plant a small plot next to the tilted bed with some of the same stuff as I start to populate it. A control, if you will. I am going to try to observe this concept with some objectivity, although it's hard to have strict controls and the like in my loose garden style.

I've been poking around online for stuff about this idea tonight, and oddly enough sun angle and/or slope angle is always the first factor listed in soil temperature factors. I can't find one thing about building tilted raised beds in northern latitudes to extend the season. I just looked up my sun altitude angle for today at noon. 37 degrees above the horizon. So if I go from a 7* north facing slope to a 13* south facing slope, I gain 20* of angle of incidence in my favor. I think. Same time of day on summer solstice, the sun is 65* above the horizon. I realize this is simplifying things immensely, but I'm still excited about the idea.

Here's a sun angle calculator:
http://susdesign.com/sunangle/

And a couple soil temp links:

http://books.google.com/books?id=wpHF2M ... re&f=false
http://agriinfo.in/?page=topic&superid=1&topicid=401

http://www.essortment.com/soil-temperature-54558.html

Seems a fairly definitive answer you stumbled upon there. Unless someone can provide a more authoritative source with contradictory conclusions, I'd say the balance of the evidence is now decidedly in the favor of your theory.

In other words, you didn't waste your time.

I'm becoming more and more convinced of that, George.

One of the neat realizations is that, at my latitude, this will make a large difference when the sun is low, at the outside of the seasons when I need warmth the most. In the height of summer, it's won't change too much, other than the fact that I can now kinda plant "vertically." Like, similar sized plants, lined up from south to north up the slope of the bed, will have more sun and less shading effect on their neighbors than they would on flat ground.

Also, it's important to note that in those soil temperature links sometimes when they are talking about "sun angle" they really mean latitude and the larger angle of the overall earth's curve plus the effect of distance the light travels through the atmosphere. I wanted to bring this up to say that I realize I'm not going to change my latitude this way, and the sun still isn't going to be the same as a similar slope at a more southerly latitude. However, it will be a heck of a lot warmer than the same spot tilted north, I believe.