How To Do Raised Bed Vegetable Gardens

Benefits of Raised Bed Gardening

Raised beds are a wonderful choice for vegetable gardening for a lot of reasons:

• Access: It's easier to reach plants in the garden if it is raised. Highly raised gardens in containers make it possible for people in wheelchairs to access the garden or for seniors to garden without bending over.
• Visibility: It's easier to see your produce (as well as weeds and pests) when the garden in raised, making it easier for you to take good care of your plants.
• Soil: Making a raised bed means that you'll be importing soil in order to raise the bed. This means you can choose good-quality soil and amend it with just the right fertilizers and compost or other organic matter to produce better plants.
• No soil compaction: In addition to having better quality soil from the outset than most in-ground vegetable gardens, no one will be walking in your raised bed vegetable garden, which means the soil will stay fluffy, non-compacted and healthy through many growing seasons.
• Fewer weeds: Raised beds tend to have more plants in less space than a traditional vegetable garden lay out, which means there's less room for weeds. They also tend to be easier to control, especially if your raised bed is in a container.

How to Do Raised Bed Vegetable Gardens

Planning a raised bed vegetable garden is similar to planning a vegetable garden you would plant straight into the existing soil. You first need to find a location in your yard that gets a good bit of sun and has relatively good drainage.

Since you will be adding soil and amendments to fill the bed, the quality of the base soil is not that critical, but it's a good idea to have some distance from trees if possible, as their deep roots can compete with your plants for water and nutrients, even if your garden bed is somewhat raised.

Next, decide how much you want your garden to be raised. Generally, raised garden beds are at least a foot higher than the surrounding soil, but you can also build a system to completely raise the garden off the ground by using containers. If that's the case, it can be as high as you want or need, but the soil should be a foot or two deep to allow for deep rooting of the plants.

Materials

Then you need to choose materials for holding in the soil. There are many different choices available at lawn and garden centers, from simple plastic edging to wood and faux-wood products.

Don't use pressure-treated lumber for your raised bed, however, because the chemicals used to treat the wood can leach into your garden, which is not very healthy.

Mark out the size of your garden with spray paint, rope or a garden hose laid out in the appropriate shape. Measure the sides to determine how much of your chosen edging material you will need.

While you're at the garden store, you can buy soil, fertilizer and compost to fill your raised bed. The math can be a little intimidating to determine how much soil you need, but if you know the square footage of your space and the amount of soil in each bag, you should be able to figure it out. You can always go back and buy more later if you underestimate your needs.

Once you have your supplies gathered, remove the grass from the area where your bed will be, install the border and add your soil and other amendments. A garden tiller or even just a big rake can help you mix the soil and other things together.

Planting a Raised Bed Garden

Now that you know how to do raised bed vegetable gardens, its time to plant. You might be surprised at how much you can plant in a raised bed. It's really a more efficient use of space because you don't have to leave room for walkways.

In addition, if you stake plants such as tomatoes, beans and cucumbers to grow vertically and plant smaller plants under them, you'll find you have room for all of summer's bounty in a small space.