Raised Bed Gardening

Raised bed gardening is a popular way to deal with poor soil and to make the process of gardening much easier.

There are many advantages to using raised bed gardening for your vegetable garden or for any herbs, flowers, or even shrubs that you want to plant. Here are some of the benefits you will see when you raise your garden beds:

• Raised beds are an easy way to make your soil fertile and well-drained; a big bonus if you live somewhere very rocky.
• You can fill raised beds with special planting mixes that are designed for the plants that you want to grow in the beds. Mixes are available for everything from hydrangeas to tomatoes.
• Raised beds are generally shallow enough for easy access from one side.
• The height of the bed makes it easier to work, because you don’t have to bend or kneel as much. Raised beds can even be made high enough for a person in a wheelchair to work in them.
• Raised beds cut down on yard work and keep the mess from the garden more organized and contained.
• Raised beds look great with many different kinds of yard décor. They can be made of many different materials and will add a nice, permanent structure to your yard.
• Because you don’t waste space for walkways in a raised garden bed, you can grow more plants in a smaller space. You’ll also get higher yields by using better soil.
• Setting up a soaker-hose system for watering in raised beds will help you conserve water. The plants will benefit from this because the water isn’t splashing on the plants’ leaves.
• You may be able to plant earlier in the spring because the soil in raised beds warms faster.

The only real negative to raised bed gardening is the initial monetary and labor costs associated with setting up the raised beds. Depending on your choice of materials and the size and number of beds you are planning, this can be quite an expensive undertaking, especially if you pay someone to build the beds for you.

Additionally, good-quality soil or garden mix can be quite expensive as well; again depending on how many beds you are trying to fill and how deep they are.

One way to get around some of the expense of establishing raised beds is to make a temporary raised bed. These beds are formed simply by tilling the soil to a depth of a few inches. Then you add soil amendments to the fluffy soil in order to raise the level of the garden even higher above the surrounding ground.

If people and machines are kept off of the soil, it will remain raised in comparison to the surrounding soil. You can also till annually to help raise the soil back up.

No border or wall is necessary with this type of raised bed, but adding a small border of bricks or plastic edging can help prevent erosion as well as adding an ornamental touch.

A more common and popular type of raised bed gardening is permanent raised beds. These boxes or barrels can be placed anywhere in the landscape, from a single planter on the patio to a series of terraced beds on a hillside.

Wood is the most popular and inexpensive material for building raised beds. Many people use old railroad ties or pressure-treated, rot resistant lumber to build their beds. While some worry about the health or environmental impact of using such materials, some studies have shown that there is no danger to plants or humans when these materials are used.

Stone, brick, concrete blocks and synthetic wood are also popular choices for building raised beds. Large containers, such as whiskey barrels, can also be used.

The size and shape of your raised bed is largely up to you. Consider your needs and the needs of the plants you intend to put in the bed. Most plants need a depth of six to 12 inches, but deeper is always better. If you have a very long space you want to fill with raised beds, breaking the bed up and putting walkways between them can make it a little easier for you, both in terms of materials and for working the bed later.

The width of your raised beds can also vary, but accessibility is key. Don’t plan beds that are so deep that there will be places you can’t easily reach.

The most important thing to remember in raised bed gardening is that raised beds drain a lot faster than conventional gardens. At times this can be a good thing, but in the summer it means you really need to keep an eye on your plants and water them when the soil is dry.

For this reason mulching your raised beds is a really good idea. Use wood mulch, hay, or even plastic mulch (you can design your bed so that it is the same width as a roll) both to keep the soil cool and to help retain water in the soil.

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