Photo courtesy of Linda N. at Flickr.com.
Whatever you’re growing, it may be to your advantage to install a few raised beds in your garden. Raised beds can be superior to natural soil beds in several senses. First of all, you entirely control the soil that goes in them; you can mix it to your specifications, adding whatever organic materials you like and creating a precise balance of pH and soil nutrients that fit your needs. Second, plants in raised beds generally get better sun and air circulation, simply because they’re situated a bit higher than plants growing in the ground. Raised beds also warm up earlier in the spring, which means earlier planting and harvesting.
Raised beds are also good places to grow plants that need to be segregated from the rest of the garden. For example, mints and horseradish are so effective at competing for resources that they can take over a bed, choking out other plants if you’re not careful. You don’t have to worry about that if you grow the problem plant in a separate raised bed. And by the way — raised beds grow fewer weeds, particularly if you mix the soil yourself, because any plants in the ground surface would have to grow a lot further to get to the surface. Install flooring in your raised beds, and you may never get weeds.
Possibly the best reason to use raised beds in your garden is that they’re generally easier to work with, since you don’t have to bend down as much. This is ideal for those of us with back trouble or stiff joints, and it makes gardening much easier for folks in wheelchairs. Just remember two things: raised beds require more water than natural beds, and you must avoid using treated wood to create your raised beds. The poison used in treated wood to keep bugs from eating it (generally a petroleum distillate called creosote) can pollute your soil.
Check out our entire store section on raised bed gardening!
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I use several raised beds. The results are so good, they kind of grow on you, and one is not enough. I start new beds with commercial garden soil and compost. I like to add some worm compost from my worm farm to the beds in the spring. You would not believe the results! Just one example: I planted New Zealand spinach in one 3 x 3 bed, and it filled the bed and then crawled out about 3 feet on all sides beyond the bed. New Zealand spinach does not bolt the way regular spinach does, but still, I’ve never seen spinach grow like that all summer and into the fall from a single planting in the spring. The combination of great soil and great drainage really makes a difference.