A raised vegetable garden is not just a pretty ornament to make your garden look nice – they can produce an endless supply of healthy food with very little time. In this article I want to point out just how much time you save with a raised garden as opposed to traditional gardening techniques.

All the time I see gardeners planting long rows with a massive 3 foot gap between each row. However, this method requires far, far more time than necessary. Why? The answer is digging and weeding.

It’s not that most people are too lazy to tend to their gardens, but that they have so much going on in their lives already to have the time or energy for growing vegetables. Often it’s only when the kids have left home that parents finally have the time to grow vegetables – which is a shame as there is a fantastic short cut to all this hard work…. raised bed gardens.

So why isn’t there a raised vegetable garden in every backyard? Because of tradition. It’s the way it’s always been done, and not many people know the secrets of raised beds.

Planting in lines has been done for generations and generations, going right back to the agricultural revolution. This layout was first conceived to allow ploughs to be dragged over fields, and a scaled down version was adopted by gardeners. The problem is that for small spaces, this is really not that efficient in terms of both the space usage and the amount of time needed to prepare and maintain the garden.

Digging of the soil is a job that puts millions off growing their own vegetables in their home. As if that weren’t reason enough, there’s also the exhausting weeding too. But with a raised vegetable garden, you can avoid these problems completely because the plants are so tightly packed that the weeds are shaded out.

As there aren’t any pathways in between the rows, you can fit around 4 times as many crops per square foot on average. This means you can have a much more compact growing area, leaving space for sheds, patios, etc.

There are other advantages of raised vegetable gardens such as needing 80% less water, and being able to grow on bad soil, or any surface for that matter. Yet, the best reason for making a raised bed is the amount of time it saves. I am not kidding when I say that you can save 90% your time spent gardening. Instead or an hour a day – you only need to spend a few minutes a day.

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I have only been vegetable gardening for a couple of years but we are learning every year. This past summer we tried our hand at growing Summer Squash, Buttercup Squash and Zucchini. The experience was a good one even though we didn’t get a lot of squash as I kinda grew them all too close together. I call that a learning experience and by next spring we will have a garden three times the size to accommodate the quantity we would like to grow.

I learned after I had already planted them but I should have planed the squash plants about 3 to 4 feet apart. Now don’t laugh at me but I planted all mine about a foot apart and it didn’t take long before they just became one big pile of leaves. I’m surprised we got any results that were positive but we did and I am happy for this year. Next year I will give them a chance to impress me even more.

The blossoms are very tasty when you fill them with cheese, batter them and deep fry them. Mmmm good

I think that I will be able to start digging up our new garden and making the raised beds for our summer squash while it’s cool in the fall. Last year I waited until spring and it got really hot early so I didn’t get to increase the size of my vegetable garden like had planned. Usually here in New Brunswick we get late frost but not this year. So it’s going to get done this fall.

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When you need to grow a vegetable garden in a raised bed it might be made with wood, concrete  blocks, stone or other materials which are then filled with earth. Depending on your requirements they can be anywhere from 6  inches to waist height above the ground. Common motives for creating a raised bed is for  more convenient accessibility  for people who find the bending  over movements, so familiar to  conventional gardening,  tough or not  possible to tackle.

It’s important to consider your construction materials carefully since lumber, for instance, that has been treated might permit poisonous substances to leach into the land and which lands up in the vegetables themselves. It is better to use hard wood or stones.

You should take into account how level your yard is as well. A pitched site is more challenging to work on than a level one and if it’s really steep you might get soil erosion subsequent to heavy rains. One tactic to help handle this is to set the beds crosswise to the slope.

Also, if your garden is very windy you might have to put up windbreaks. Ensure that they are permeable so the wind can pass through, otherwise they’re going to collapse or create instability and you will have to start again. They can be non-natural like a fence or a living barrier such as hedging. The latter is inclined to be more attractive but will require time to develop and will entail work to keep it in good physical shape and looking nice.

The usual shape for a raised bed vegetable garden is a simple rectangle although on occasion they may be circular with a slice removed so the centre can be reached with less effort. These are often called keyhole gardens and are especially good in locations where there’s a shortage of water. In such situations a chimney type structure may be made in the centre and packed with grass and twigs. When this is filled with water it permits it to flow more evenly into the earth, efficiently finding the roots of the vegetation planted in the raised bed.

Planting vegetables is normally done in geometric patterns and is closer than you typically find when gardening in rows straight in the ground. The closeness of the plants to each other causes a micro climate which helps to preserve moisture and keeps the weeds down. Moreover the soil does not become compressed, as there aren’t any human boots tramping on it, so the roots can grow without restraint. These dissimilarities from conventional planting frequently result in more veg being produced.

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Most people enjoy sitting in their gardens and even using them to grow their own vegetables.  Unfortunately many of us live in areas where the soil conditions are less than suitable for growing either of these sorts of plants.  Years of compression on the soil from people walking and building on it often leave it too compacted down and it takes a lot of work to rectify this.  Installing raised garden beds can help to make any garden look great in an easy and cost effective manner.

A raised garden bed can be useful in many ways as it is basically an elevated container that holds soil.  The great advantage to a raised bed is that they can be so flexible as they come in a range of different sizes.  You could also have a raised garden bed that is built into your garden using wooden fancing or bricks.  The other option is to have one that you can move at different times of the year or if you fancy a change.

It doesn’t matter what you decide to grow raised garden beds are great for vegetables, herbs and flowers.  The reason for this is that the soil is more porous as it isn’t likely to be walked over so it lets more water through.  You will see some fantastic results if you’re growing flowers in a bed as they will be up to the same standard as those you get from garden centers or a local flower shop.  If you choose to try growing your own vegetables in a raised bed the soil composition will be a big benefit for you.  your home grown vegetables will benefit from the mixture of top soil and compost combined with excellent drainage through the bed.  When growing your own vegetables you can control the growing environment more easily.  Small weeds are easy to spot and remove before they become a problem and planting companion herbs and vegetables will help to attract the right sort of insects to your vegetables.

There are a few simple things that you can do should you decide to install a raised garden bed that will help you to get the best results from your seeds.  You want your raised garden bed to get the most amount of sunshine possible.  Placing it in an area that doesn’t get a lot of shade and faces north will allow the maximum amount of sunlight.  You will find that raised beds can become dried out quickly so you need to monitor the level of moisture of the soil.  Moisture levels can often be controlled by making sure you water the bed during the morning and in the evening.  If you create channels between a row of vegetables then this will help to prevent flooding by channeling water out of these areas.

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We have created two new raised bed gardens for next year and now we are planning what we want to grow in them. I was thinking it would be great place to try some squash and zucchinis.

Gardening using a raised bed garden can be very much more straightforward than regular gardening and can resolve many widespread problems. In a raised bed a support is used to contain soil above the ground at a convenient height so this type of gardening is perfect for someone in a wheelchair or who has trouble kneeling down to work on a normal garden. You can easily grow all kinds of plants including vegetables and flowers. Drainage is a lot better in this kind of garden and flowers and vegetables that grow better in soil that is well drained will thrive.

Raised bed gardens are not complicated to make but if you are not proficient at woodwork you can buy raised garden kits that are uncomplicated to install and will look attractive for a long time. They are accessible in many sizes and shapes so you can be sure to find one just right for your garden. They also look exceedingly eye-catching and several are made from cedar which is assured to keep on looking good for many decades.

Some Advantages of a Raised Bed

• Earth in a raised bed warms up faster than the earth in your garden in the Spring and will keep warmer for longer later in the year. This gives you a longer growing season so you can transplant seedlings or sow earlier and give your plants a longer time to grow.
• If you have inadequate earth in your garden which is deficient in nutrients or maybe is very heavy clay then the use of a raised bed can answer this problem. You can supply high-quality soil with all the right nutrients so that your vegetables and flowers will grow well.
• If you suffer from medical or physical problems that make it difficult to kneel down or this type of effort makes worse your back pain then the use of a raised bed can make gardening much easier. Building a bed at a suitable height will avoid pressure on your knees and back and let you garden for longer periods. For those who need to use a wheelchair this form of gardening will let them take pleasure in growing vegetables and flowers which they cannot do with a regular garden.
• In a raised bed that is correctly made, drainage is much better than in a traditional garden and you won’t have waterlogged soil that can damage your plants and cause to inadequate growth.
• In a raised bed you could sow closer together which you to grow extra plants in the same space and also helps in preventing weeds from growing and also helps to conserve water.
• Soil doesn’t become compressed from being trodden on in this kind of garden which permits oxygen and water to reach the roots easily ensuring they grow correctly.
• Although you can blend your garden soil with soil bought from a garden store it is better to use 100% newly prepared soil. This will make certain that there are no weed seeds or pests present in the soil which will give a much better foundation for your garden and your plants. It will also reduce the need for weeding. If insects or other pests do infest your raised bed they are fairly easy to deal with in a small space or, in extreme cases, you can clear out all of the soil and fill up with fresh, uncontaminated soil.

Conclusion

Raised gardens may answer a lot of of your gardening troubles, are very good-looking and will look good for many years. Cedar raised garden kits are enormously popular as they are resistant to water and exceptionally long lasting. Whether you decide to make your own raised garden or obtain a raised garden kit you will find that you will benefit from your gardening more and will cultivate many more nourishing vegetables and attractive flower beds.

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