Raised Bed Gardening: Fruitful, Fun, And Fabulous

Great Garden Companions

• are tired of all the heavy work involved with traditional row gardening,
• have limited planting space,
• have physical challenges that make squatting and bending painful endeavors;
• want to grow as many plants in as little space possible.

Benefits of raised bed gardening

1. More flowers, herbs and vegetables in less space. Cunningham states "that you can grow just as many vegetables in three 6- by 3-foot intensively planted raised beds as in a conventional 10- by 20-foot row garden."
2. Less weeding. You plant the veggies closer together, leaving little to no room for weeds to grow. If you mulch, your weeding chore virtually disappears.
3. Less watering. In raised bed gardening, the plants grow more closely together, so there isn't a lot of open space for the sun to shine down and dry up the soil. Once again, mulching will decrease the need for watering even more.
4. No more tilling and heavy digging. Once you create the beds and build them up with organic matter, the soil becomes loose and friable. Transplanting and pulling out the rare weed become easier than growing thistles on the lawn. Plus, when fall comes and you need to remove the spent plants, they come out with relative ease.
5. Raised beds can be built waist-high for physically challenged gardeners. Eliminating the need to bend or squat makes gardening a breeze. And you don't even have to build your own bed, if you don't want to. You can buy pre-fabbed tall raised beds, lessening your work even further.

How to build a the perimeter of the raised bed 

• Buy a pre-fab bed and fill it with the soil of your choice. You can get anything from cedar to durable plastic. Buying pre-made beds saves you a lot of time and work, as all you have to do is fit the sides of the bed together. Most require no tools. Some garden bed manufacturers also offer aesthetic shapes and designs so your garden will look like part of a professional landscape.

• Use bricks. This may be somewhat cheaper than buying a pre-fab bed, but I can tell you from personal experience it may not turn out that way. The major disadvantage of using brick is the weight. If you decide to move the bed to another area, it takes a lot of time and heavy labor. Only use bricks if you must have that "look" and you are certain that the bed will remain in its location permanently.

• Build a bed with wood. If you are a DIY-er, this is may be your favorite solution. It's the least expensive, and depending on the quality of wood and how you build it may be portable when empty. This video shows you step-by-step how to build your own bed. Cedar is the best wood, as it takes longer to decay than other types of wood. If you find scrap wood to use, make sure it has not been treated with chemicals, because they will eventually make their way into your plants.

1. Work the soil until it's loose and crumbly. 
2. Rake the soil into beds that are several inches higher than the ground. The beds should be no more than four feet wide.
3. If you form multiple beds adjacent to each other, leave a path about a foot wide. Use a hoe to pull loose soil away from the path into the bed.
4. Level the top of the bed.

How to fill a garden bed

• Use compost. Either homemade, or from a nursery. If you are going to buy your compost, I recommend using a more expensive brand, as some cheaper commercial composts may contain unwanted fungi or other diseases.

• Use Mel's Mix. The recipe for this comes from Mel Bartholomew's book, All New Square Foot Gardening. It consists of one part peat moss, one part compost, and one part vermiculite. It produces great results for a garden; however, you may find it to be cost-prohibitive. 

• Use a commercial potting mix. I recommend one that does not include chemical fertilizers. 

• Use native soil with amendments. The amendents will vary depending on where you live. In north Texas, we need to add both lava sand and greensand, among other things, because they improve the clay soil's drainage. Contact your local extension agency for advice on how to improve your area soil for gardening.

How to plant in a raised bed