Raised Garden Bed Kits Make Great Vegetable Gardens

A raised bed solves many soil problems because you have total control over the soil that you place in the raised garden bed. You can use any type of potting soil mix or even a soilless mix if you want, reducing the presence of many soil diseases and pests. You also easily manage drainage and watering with a raised garden bed kit. Since you don't typically walk on a raised garden bed the soil structure is much better, with improved aeration and water retention. And you can use intensive gardening techniques like Square Foot gardening to boost the yields you get from your vegetable plantings. Planting in close spacing not only produces more crops per square foot, but reduces weeds and needs less water.

But there are advantages for the gardener, too, when using a raised bed system. The raised bed itself is typically easier to reach, and some are built at waist level to allow gardeners with back problems or other issues easy access to the bed. Another key advantage is that you can put a raised bed many places where a typical garden wouldn't work, such as the patio or even an apartment balcony. One attractive raised bed solution is a cedar raised bed, which not only lasts a long time but has an attractive knotty appearance.

The easiest way to get a raised bed is to buy one of the raised bed kits. But, for the DIY gardener, it is not that difficult to build a raised garden bed from raw lumber. The most difficult part for many gardeners is getting the corners square, and for that there are raised garden bed corner brackets available from many sources. Choose corners that are the right height for your lumber, and note that there are even corners available that let you create shapes other than simple rectangles with angles other than ninety degrees.

So with a raised bed garden, you can get more from your garden with less work and pain from you, a winning proposition all around. And they are great for growing flowers as well.

One very popular type of raised bed gardening is square foot gardening. This is a relatively structured approach to creating a raised bed. The preferred soil is a soilless mix, and the garden is laid out in squares, approximately one square foot in length. The idea is that so many of a given type of plant will do well when intensively gardened, and so you plant a given number in each square. It's quite popular these days, and is a good choice for the gardener who is uncertain about the best way to intensively garden in a raised bed.