Garden Tips & Resources

Archive for the ‘Raised Bed Garden’ Category

Raised flowerbeds are perfect for older or disabled gardeners as well as for anyone who dislike doing a lot of hard-on-the-back bending. An easy way to mark where you want your beds to be placed is by sprinkling flour on the ground, then measuring the area you’ve marked off with a tape measure to determine how much lumber you will need to purchase for the sides of the bed.

Raised beds should be sufficiently deep to comfortably grow the plants you wish to grow but narrow enough to make reaching the middle from either side easy, especially important if you plan to grow vegetables or flowers for cutting. And remember to leave a comfortably wide path between beds as well.

Once you’ve established the desired sizes for your raised garden beds, buy the lumber necessary for raising the bed to the desired height. Dig a shallow trench at least a couple of inches in depth around the bed perimeters; if your beds are located on a hillside, dig the top trench deeper than the lower one to ensure that the finished bed sides will be level.

Then build the box sides for the raised bed, settling the lumber into the groove of the trench. Adding sunken posts at bed corners will make them more stable. Remember that all wood can warp, and place your boards so that visible curves are on the outside of the bed to avoid having nails pop out later on.

If you’re using railroad ties, you can simply lay them on the ground except as you need to level to accommodate hilly terrain. Make the box as solid as possible and pack dirt down around the edges.

Soil quality is very important for raised bed gardening: The better the soil is, the lower the bed can be. Poor soils require that beds be at least a foot above the ground level to allow for a base layer of gravel and sand to increase drainage. If your property has serious drainage problems hiring a contractor to help you plan your garden is a wise move. 

Then fill the bed containers with soil. If you live where soils are clay or otherwise heavy, lighten them by mixing in some sand and organic matter first. Buying premixed potting or topsoil soil that contains a good balance of sand, peat, and organic matter is the easiest way to go, but can be costly if your raised beds are large and difficult to do unless you have an easy way to haul bags of soil or the garden center you frequent offers delivery.

Once your beds are filled with soil, you’re ready to plant!