How to make a raised bed garden, if your space is limited, or you just want to garden on a smaller scale.
In a raised bed you can plant the vegetables that you like the most. Make it so convenient, that when you are cooking or preparing your salads, just step out of your kitchen and take a few vegetables or pinch off a few leaves of this and that and go back in and get ready to eat the freshest vegetables possible. They can't get any fresher than that!
If you love herbs, build you a separate little Herb raised bed garden, and enjoy the best and freshest aroma and flavour you can imagine. Spice up your cooking and your salads and enjoy the good living!
Making the raised beds is not complicated and it should not be expensive. You probably have some lumber and other materials laying around in your yard or barn, or somewhere along the fence in your back yard.
A few 2x6x8 or 10 or 12, it depends on how much space you have and how long you want to make the raised beds.
The ideal width would be no larger than 4 feet, so you can reach easily from all sides. That's when you build the beds rectangular shape. You can make them in circles or triangles if you want to.
Here is an example of a raised bed that I made from some scrap lumber, and I did not want to cut, just adapted the bed to the size of the material. Sometimes it works like that, and sometimes you cut it to the desired size.
You can see the pictures by visiting my blog.
Just select a nice sunny spot, (a little partial shade is not going to hurt) the sunnier the better. Nail the boards together in the corners, like a frame. If you place the bed directly on a grassy spot, and you don't want to remove the sod, place some cardboard or news papers on top of the grass, to keep any weeds to grow up through the dirt.
Now it is time to put the soil in the bed. If you have some good rich top soil, that's good. If you don't have any top soil or the means to transport it from the garden supply place, like a solid trailer for example, you can use ground pine bark. It is much lighter and it works just as well if not better.
That's what I use in my raised beds as well as in all my container planting, and in my propagation by rooted cuttings, which I'll talk about in an other article.
On a bed of the size of 4x10 mix into the pine bark about 4 bags of 50 lb well composted cow manure, and a few handfuls of organic fertilizer. Mix it well and level the soil. Now you are ready to plant.
Consider on what side of your property is the sun rising, and plant accordingly, so that the taller growing plants are not going to cast a shade on the lower growing ones. Like the tomatoes that are growing taller, should be planted towards the west side of the bed, and the lettuce and spinach on the east size.
When choosing the location of the raised beds, make sure they are close to a water spigot, to make it easy to water.
As for the choosing of the vegetables is a matter of what you like the most. Here are some ideas: tomatoes, bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, hot peppers, (just make sure not to plant the hot peppers close to the sweet ones to avoid cross pollination and make them all hot), cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, radish, squash, etc.
For the cucumbers, if you'll notice on the left bed in the picture, I nailed two thin boards on the ends of the bed, and tied a fence wire mesh, for the cucumbers to climb on. This will save a lot of space.
If you like herbs, to spice up your cooking and your salads, make a separate herb bed. You can plant parsley, dill, basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, garlic chives, onion chives, sage, peppermint, etc.
Herbs can be planted by seeds directly in your raised garden or you can start them indoors in some 3 or 4 inch pots, then when the danger of late frost is over, take them out of the pots with the soil undisturbed, and plant them in the garden. This way you will have an early start.
Watering: The drip irrigation is a better solution, instead of over head sprinkling. If drip irrigation is not affordable, water around the plants to get the water to the roots.
Keep an eye on those pesky weeds, and pluck them out as soon as you see them. Other than that, there is not much to cultivate in a raised bed, just watch them growing and enjoy the fruits of your "easy" labour.
Another thing to watch is the caterpillars, that you can control by removing them by hand instead of using pesticides. You don't want to poison your body, do you?
So, as you can see, a raised bed gardening is not hard to make at all! If you love nature and you want to have some good quality preoccupation in the tranquility of your little paradise, go for it! You'll be glad you did!
If you enjoyed this post I invite you to come back soon, as I'm dedicated to post more information and related articles for the gardening enthuziasts, and anyone who is contemplating to garden, be it for a hobby, convenience, or just to forget about the troubles of the world. Nature can be one of your best friends.
And do you know what I like about growing plants? They never talk back!
Mike Borlovan
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