Building and Maintaining a Raised Bed Garden

Raised bed gardening can be done with simple, homemade boxes or sophisticated professional containers. Before building or ordering, determine the available space and whether to use one large container or two smaller ones. A larger container requires more soil and will be heavier.

Make sure to reinforce larger containers, particularly if you are placing these on a patio or balcony. Next, get soil for the containers either purchased from the garden shop or mix in up to 25% soil from your ground garden if the soil is in good condition.

4X4 2-Rail White Color Raised Bed Garden Kit

If you aren't sure about the ground soil condition, then use purchased high quality soil Add equal measure of sand and compost so the pH is balanced. Raised bed gardens retain moisture well when the plants are gently covered with organic bark mulch. This also discourages weeds.

Water usage is dramatically reduced with raised bed gardening. You water only the plant area without wasting water that occurs with ground plants as the water runs off from sides and non-growing areas.

If your raised bed garden is compromised by soil disease, just dump the soil, clean the containers and replant. If the same thing happened in a ground garden, you would have to condition the soil and let it stay dormant for several years before planting again.

With raised bed gardening, the productivity remains high for commercial farmers. Defending your plants from nibbling creatures is much easier in raised bed gardens. Cover the container bottoms with chicken wire to discourage rodents and place a bird-netting canopy on the top to keep birds from sampling the first fruits.

Raised Bed Gardening gives the most for the least - that is the most flowers, fruits or vegetables in the least amount of space. This compact method makes possible greater productivity for professional gardeners without losing valuable land to crop rotation or soil disease problems.

For homeowners, raised bed gardening is the easiest way to grow organic foods when land space is small. You can choose the height of your raised bed garden so that older adults or persons in wheelchairs can easily tend their gardens and clip flowers. Containers can also be stacked at various levels to increase the yield in a small space or for decorative reasons.

Danove® 6000 Series 8' Ball Finial Raised Planting Bed

Raised bed garden flowers can be ornamental or even edible. Bright yellow petals of Calendula can be a saffron substitute and Tangerine Gem Marigolds have a citrus flavor. Delicate Daylily flowers can be stuffed and eaten like squash blossoms.

Herbs are delightful for greens and flowers. Herbal flowers that grow well in raised beds are basil, chives, cilantro, fennel and dill. If you value organic produce, then save money are grow your own in a raised bed container.

Group plants in raised beds according to those that have common watering needs: lettuce, field greens, chard and spinach prefer high moisture; broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage need root level watering; carrots, squash and tomatoes must avoid excess watering that might promote fungus.

All plants and flowers suitable for container growing benefit from the good drainage that is typical with raised bed gardening. Whether you have a major crop of vegetables or just want fresh salad greens and herbs at your back door, raised bed gardening meets both objectives and every budget.

As soon as the raised bed garden containers are installed, you're ready to mix soil and start the growing season. If ground soil is rich and disease free, you can mix up to 25% of ground soil into purchased fresh soil along with sand and compost. The soil needs to have a balanced pH, not too acidic nor too alkaline.

2 Pack of Stacking Joints

A county extension service or gardening center can test a soil sample and make recommendations for balancing. Raised bed gardening is ideal for growing organic produce so you need to make seasonal additions of organic compost to keep the soil nourished.

When the growing season is over, remember to remix the soil and cover with a thin blanket of crushed leaves during winter months. If creatures start to nibble away your crop, you can take friendly action to protect your garden without harming the environment.

Just add chicken wire to the bottom of the containers to keep out rodents. When fruits or vegetables emerge, the birds start to breakfast at your place. Create a net canopy or a shaped chicken write cover for the containers to discourage fly-in feeders.

There are also natural solutions for weeds. Cover the base of plants with organic bark mulch or black plastic mulch. These resist weeds well - no need to use pesticides. When weather turns chilly, make your raised bed gardens into an instant greenhouse. All you need to do is add a cold frame with plastic liner walls that fit over the raised bed containers. The cover is easy to move for watering and harvesting.