As quoted by Elizabeth Murray, 'Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas'. This certainly holds true. Gardening is not restricted only to those who have ample outdoor space. With a lot of variations available in indoor gardening as well, one can have a full-fledged mini garden right in one's own room!
Another popular form of gardening apart from indoor gardening, is the raised bed gardening. It offers various advantages over the conventional kind of gardening. These gardens are ideal for small plots of flowers or vegetables. It also reduces the strain you may have to undergo by the continuous bending of the body when you tend to the garden beds.
Raised bed gardens are constructed several inches above the terra firma. This is especially useful if the state of the soil available or belonging to that area, is of a poor quality. Therefore the soil in this kind of garden can be improved to suit the conditions. Being easier to maintain, raised bed gardens are also popular are they are less prone to be invaded by certain kinds of grasses.
Advantages of Raised Bed Gardens
It allows you to control the soil quality within the specific area. You can even have different beds that contain specific soil to suit a particular category of plants.
Raised bed gardens drain away the excess moisture. This in turn helps the roots to breathe freely. This is beneficial during the time of heavy rains as the excess water is drained off faster. You would not have to face a problem of waterlogged soil, which can be really damaging to the plants.
Raised bed gardens allow to utilize the space to the maximum. The plants can be grown closer to each other but you must be careful to avoid overcrowding.
Since the soil is elevated above the ground level, it tends to warm up at a faster pace; this in turn helps facilitate better growth of the plants.
These reduce the strain on the back, as you don't have to keep bending over to tend to all your plants. Raised beds gardens add some ease to the lives of the elderly and people who face certain back problems.
These also can be made to look really attractive and bring more order to our surroundings.
How to Create a Raised Bed Garden
First you will have to mix the organic materials into your soil. This would help in providing the soil with all the necessary nutrients that would help in managing the drainage. (Use manure, compost, leaf molds, etc)
Once done, you need to create wide rows.
The bed needs to be marked with strings. An ideal bed should have around width-three feet and length-25 feet or less.
Now, rake up the soil from the walkway. Maintain a height of six inches. This will help you to improve the drainage. You can increase the height of the bed to suit your stature.
Now, use the rake to flatten the top of the soil.
A trench should be dug on each side of the row. Use the hoe to dig these trenches. Trenches would be especially useful during the rainy weather. It would avoid any unnecessary streams of water within the garden.
Use the rake to slope the sides of the bed. This would help prevent soil erosion.
To make your bed permanent, you can use rot-resistant woods such as cedar or materials like bricks, rocks etc. When the wood is coated with linseed oil, it would help in slowing down the rotting of the wood. But in case you aim to change the design or the look of the garden, then you should go in for a temporary bed. You can even have them made in various shapes like rectangular, round, etc.
Tips for Your Raised Bed Garden
- Plan companion planting. This would control the insects and also improve the condition of the garden.
- Begin your raised bed building in the fall, so that you would be ready to plant when spring arrives.
- Rotate the varieties of the plants every year. This would prevent the same nutrition being absorbed from the soil.
- Tall plants need to be planted against the wall.
