Raised Beds Take
Gardening To A New Level
Would you like to have more garden space with less
stooping? How about spending less time
doing soil preparation? Or maybe you would just like to have a little
hardscaping for visual interest but you don't want to invest a lot of time and
money into construction. Raised bed gardening may be just the thing for you.
Raised bed gardening involves building frames that can
range in height from six inches to 18 inches and filling the frame with good
garden soil. Frames can be any length, but most people prefer beds that are
four to six feet long, or the length of a standard piece of lumber available at
the hardware store.
Raised beds provide a number of benefits. Building a raised
bed "pyramid" creates visual interest and increases the square
footage available for planting. Second,
raised beds can extend the growing season. Soil in raised beds warms quickly,
and the bed can be covered with a hoop or tunnel to protect plants when frost
threatens in early spring or late fall. Third, raising the level of the soil
minimizes the need for bending or kneeling. This makes planting, weeding and
harvesting more convenient for individuals with mobility challenges. Fourth,
watering and irrigating raised beds is easier and less wasteful than attempting
to water the average garden area. Some raised bed kits come with a drip
irrigation system or a sprinkler head fitted to the bed. Finally, the soil in raised beds can be
blended to a gardener's specifications. One raised bed can be filled with
compost-rich humus for squash, melons or salad greens, while another can be
filled with sandy humus that is ideal for carrots and other root vegetables.
Raised beds increase possibilities for gardeners.
The big question, of course, is how difficult is it to
build one - or several
- raised beds? The answer is that raised beds are very easy to
construct, even for someone for whom DIY is a four-letter word.
Die-hard do it yourselfers can build their raised beds with
paver bricks, flat stones or standard 2 x 4s in whatever lengths are desired.
The easiest to assemble is a basic "box" made of lumber that would be
appropriate for decking; don't use treated wood, however, because the chemicals
used to treat the wood can leach into soil and contaminate edible crops. The
depth of the box should be a minimum of 6 inches. Lumber can be stained and
sealed or left unfinished. Staining and sealing will extend the life of the
fixtures and help keep them weatherproof. These structures will be permanent
fixtures in the landscape, so take care that the construction be aesthetically
pleasing as well as functional.
A much easier - and temporary - solution is to purchase a
raised bed kit. These kits generally contain artificial lumber boards, corner
brackets and anchors for the larger sizes. The brackets are on a stake with a
pointed end that slides into the ground and openings that hold the lumber. Many
of these kits are stackable, creating a significant amount of growing space but
using a minimal amount of square footage. These beds assemble and disassemble
quickly. Most people break these beds down at the end of every season and store
the pieces in a shed or garage.
However the beds are constructed, they need to be filled
with soil. This is where the fun begins, because a gardener can create growing
conditions in raised beds that would not normally be found in their
location. For example, a bed in which
herbs are to grow would require a sandy loam that drains easily. Midwesterners
can grow hardy cacti in a soil mix that is primarily sharp sand. A standard
kitchen garden or vegetable bed would need a rich loam; squash, cucumbers and
pumpkins need extra manure or mushroom compost added to the soil mix for
optimum fertility.
Once the soil has been installed, the beds can either be
direct seeded or starter plants can be placed into them. Once the plants are
placed or the seedlings have emerged, then it's time to mulch. Raised beds
drain more quickly than flat beds, so mulch helps to keep the soil evenly moist
during the growing season and it also helps keep weeds to a minimum. The kind of mulch you use depends on the
plants in the bed. Tomatoes, for example, benefit from either black or red
plastic mulch. Leafy greens or herbs benefit from wood chips or shredded bark,
which keep soil cool during hot summers and also keep soil from splashing up
onto leaves that will be going into the evening's salad.
Bed maintenance consists of ensuring the bed is adequately
watered, and applying time released fertilizer around plants at the beginning
of the growing season, or applying a water-soluble fertilizer once a week. The
water-soluble fertilizer can be applied with a watering can, sprayer, with a
sprinkler that is focused strictly on the bed or through drip irrigation. Because
the garden area is contained, less fertilizer can be used throughout the
season, as there will be less runoff and waste. Near the end of the season, the
beds can be covered with clear plastic tunnels in order to stave off frost
damage and extend the growing season. Gardens built in areas of extreme heat (
Raised bed gardening affords greater accessibility for
motion-challenged individuals, creates opportunities for more plant diversity,
and helps extend the growing season. Raise
the standard on your garden this year and try a few raised beds.
Gardeners Supply offers Grow Bed raised bed kits. Make gardening a snap with snap together parts. Each kit comes with soil mix.
Mobility challenged? Learn new tips, tricks and tools available for greater accessibility.
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