Can’t kneel to garden? Poor soil a problem? Poor drainage? Short on space?
Raised beds might be the answer!! Some of the advantages of gardening in raised beds are:
improved soil conditions
greater productivity in a smaller space
saved water
the greatest advantage may be the ease of planting/maintaining a garden
easy to construct for most do-it-yourselfers
They can be built in many different configurations to fit conveniently into your landscape design and from materials which provide an attractive addition to your landscaping. Raised beds can be built to any height to accommodate your gardening needs and can be built directly upon the existing ground. However, by building beds waist high you overcome the need to bend over or kneel to garden. They can even be built to a height that would accommodate wheelchair gardening. Raised beds do need to have a minimum depth of least 8 inches to allow for proper plant root development. They need to be somewhat deeper to grow root vegetables.
When constructing raised garden beds, consider the materials from which the beds are to be built. Any lumber will do but, redwood or cedar will be more durable and will last much longer than beds built from softwoods like pine and fir. Recycled materials can be used in raised bed construction, but caution should be taken to assure that no treated materials of any kind are incorporated into your beds. You do not want toxic chemicals leaching into your garden soil.
When considering the size, shape, and placement of the beds, an important consideration should be accessibility. The gardener should be able to access the beds from at least two sides and reach at least halfway across the bed. Three or four feet wide is a good width to assure ease of planting, weeding, and harvesting. Place your beds where they will receive 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily.
Raised garden beds should be filled with a combination of garden soil, compost, and soilless medium to provide optimum growing conditions for your plants. The proper soil combination should have the correct pH for your desired plants and supply your plants with nutrients. A proper soil combination will also provide for ease in maintaining proper moisture content.
Watering in raised beds is easily accomplished with a simple garden hose, however, a drip system will water your plants more uniformly and provide even greater convenience to your raised beds.
Additional advantages of raised beds are soils warm up faster and are easily covered with row covers to protect seedlings from spring frosts. This can also aid in extending the growing season in the fall. Raised bed allow you to grow more vegetables per square foot as you can plant plants more densely. Plants can be placed close enough to one another to shade out the weeds, yet just far enough apart to prevent overcrowding.
With raised beds weed control and pest control is accomplished more easily making garden maintenance a snap.