Building Raised Beds

Building raised beds are a great way to have a flower or vegetable garden.

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Building garden beds above the native earth has numerous benefits. First, if your local dirt is not particularly good, you can add better soil to the raised bed. Hence, it will be more productive in the long run. Second, having the beds raised makes it easier to tend to your veggies or flowers by not having to bend over so much. Also, by having the soil contained, weed control tends to be easier. I’ve found that by adding a layer of newspaper on the bottom, before you add soil, can be helpful to prevent local weeds from growing up from the native ground underneath.

The following video is a nice overview of building raised beds.

From Wikipedia, link here.

Raised bed gardening is a form of gardening in which the soil is formed in 3 – 4 foot (1.0–1.2 m) wide beds, which can be of any length or shape. The soil is raised above the surrounding soil (approximately 6 inches to waist-high), is sometimes enclosed by a frame generally made of wood, rock, or concrete blocks, and may be enriched with compost.

Kitchen Garden

The vegetable plants are spaced in geometric patterns, much closer together than conventional row gardening. The spacing is such that when the vegetables are fully grown, their leaves just barely touch each other, creating a microclimate in which weed growth is suppressed and moisture is conserved.

Raised beds provide a variety of benefits: they extend the planting season, they can reduce weeds if designed and planted properly and reduce the need to use poor native soil. Since the gardener does not walk on the raised beds, the soil is not compacted and the roots have an easier time growing.

The close plant spacing and the use of compost generally result in higher yields with raised beds in comparison to conventional row gardening. Waist-high raised beds enable the elderly and handicapped to grow vegetables without having to bend-over to tend them.

Source Wikipedia (link)

Hope this post is helpful to you with building raised beds. If you’re interested there are some great garden products INCLUDING RAISE BEDS available at: