by amanderson2
Gardening on Raised Beds
Hello again! Today I’ve decided to talk a little on Raised Bed Gardening. You know there’s so many ways to do gardening that work really well, consequently the decisions about gardening and the how to becomes a bit confusing. Some of us rather not bother with it, because of lack of space, or maybe we’re lazy. Maybe our jobs take all of our time and there’s no time for anything else. Either you have the gardening bug or you don’t.
I can understand if it’s a lack of space, because a real garden takes up a good amount of space, depending on what you want to grow, and how much. But maybe we want just enough garden to keep us busy helping things grow. This is where a raised bed garden can shine. There’s a couple reasons a person would want a raised bed garden. # 1 we already mentioned, Lack of space, 2. poor soil 3. using your space more efficiently.
To begin with you can grow a lot more in a raised bed garden then you can in a traditional garden. Of course you need to decide if you want a long narrow raised bed, or a square raised bed and etc. you get the idea. You can plant things closer together in a raised bed garden because you don’t need isle ways, unless you have one big square garden. Then it would be like a traditional garden. If you have a couple of these raised beds spaced a mowing width in between them you should be good to go.
Another thing would be to do a broad leaf application on your lawn closest to your raised bed garden, as that will cut down on the potential weeds that tend to make their home in the garden. When you plant your veggies in your raised bed garden there are different planting patterns you can use to maximize all of your space. You pretty much can grow everything side by side with no spaces. I recommend the book “The best of Organic Gardening” edited by Mike McGrath. This book has been compiled from many of the best organic gardening magazines and edited by Mike.
There’s a couple chapters written in this book by a couple authors that talk extensively about raised bed gardening. They each give some real good advice on this subject. Now I realize this book may not be in print as it is a older book. There are many organic gardening books out there that are in circulation that would give helpful advice along these lines. Back to the poor soil situation, once you’ve figured out the size of your plots, take out the sod and at least 6 inches of the soil. Next you want go to your local developer or nursery to get your clean topsoil. You may want to check out the nurseries compost additive to put with your topsoil for best results
Pile up your mix at least a good 10-14 inches in your bed. Make sure the edges are slanted up at a good angle and tamped down as to keep erosion from happening as quick. Once you’ve gotten that done you will want to find some type of mulch to go on top of your soil. What that does, it keeps the weeds down and holds the moisture in longer. I would use straw, hay, leaves, grass clippings, anything that can break down fairly quickly to form a mat like substance. Then as time moves on it builds up the humus in the soil making it even more fertile.
Of course don’t just rely on the rain to water your raised bed garden. You need to check it every day during hot weather and water and fertilize it at least once a week with organic fertilizers, such as fish fertilizer or liquid seaweed will give your raised bed garden the nutrients it needs to produce.
So there you go I hope it was beneficial to you, and with that keep on plowing ahead and do something successful in your life!
Best regards, Willis L Miller