subject: Making Your Garden More Attractive With Raised Garden Beds [print this page] One of the best features of a house is its garden and if one is lucky enough to have the space to cultivate a garden then with a bit of care it can be made into a lush green space indeed, replete with flowers, vegetables and plants of various kinds. However, one dampener in this scenario could be poor quality soil. If this is the case in a garden, no amount of care and tending can coax it into supporting plant life. Raised garden beds can offer an extremely viable solution to poor quality soil.
What is a Raised Bed?
This refers to a structure, which rests on top of the surface of the soil. This can be a proper wood or cement or plastic structure. In some cases, one can create such a raised bed by piling up good quality soil in a cushion-like pile on top of the existing layer of soil in the garden.
Advantages of Raised Beds
Its primary advantage lies in its ability to help in growing plants and vegetables despite the poor quality of soil that a garden may have. Herbs, flowers, shrubs and vegetables can be grown easily in such beds.
They provide better drainage facility, thus keeping the roots healthy. They also get warmer faster and can enable the planting of seeds earlier than usual.
Another big advantage of elevated garden beds is the relatively low maintenance. One can also get more creative with them and make the beds into different shapes, like contours.
Creating such a bed does not need too much investment in terms of money and time. Stones, bricks and wood are the usual raw materials for making such a bed. However, even straw and mud can be used to get a basic and rudimentary elevated bed.
Creating a Raised Bed for Your Garden
It begins with proper site selection. This relies on 2 important aspects - the plant life that is meant to grow in the bed and the surface of the site. It is important to make sure that the selected site gets around 6 to 7 hours of sunshine. In addition, the site should be fairly level and flat. Choose a site where you can easily access all portions of the raised bed for weeding, watering and planting.
Remove the turf and weeds from the site. Mark the dimensions of the bed using chalk or string.
The bed can then be created with the desired depth. A few root vegetable may need a depth of even 10 inches, whereas herbs and most other vegetables and flowers will do alright with a 6 to 7 inch depth too.
If one is creating an elevated bed with wood and stone then create a simple frame or a trough with wooden frames or lining bricks and cement to create an open trough of the required dimensions. When using just wood, use naturally rot-resistant wood, such as redwood or cedar. Avoid lumber preserved with chemicals if you want to use the bed to grow vegetables.
Fill the trough with gravel. Line this layer with landscape fabric. This will suppress weeds from taking root. Create a mix of topsoil, fertilizer and/or compost. Put the soil mix into the frame. Sprinkle with a little of water and then plant the desired seed.
When creating several raised garden beds, make sure there is at least an 18-inch space between the beds for your wheelbarrow to move without hindrance.
