Planting In Raised Bed Gardens
Raised bed gardening is a formed style of gardening where your soil is set at six inches to waist high,and framed with wood rock or concrete blocks and can be used for vegetable, flower, herb, or any other type of gardening you wish.
Raised bed gardening is a type of gardening where soil is framed in 3 to 4 foot wide beds, they can be made to any length or shape. The dirt is raised above the ground six inches to waist high, most of the time in an enclosed frame generally made of wood, rock, or concrete blocks filled with soil mixed with compost.
Vegetable plants can be placed in any pattern you wish as the same with flowers and placed closer than in a row garden. The placement is such that when the vegetables are fully grown, their leaves just barely touch each other making a micro climate in which moisture is saved and weed growth is held down.
Raised bed gardening creates a variety of benefits, they make for a longer planting season, they reduce the need to use poor soil and cut down on weeds if planted properly. Since you do not walk on raised gardens the soil does not become compacted and the roots have an easier time growing. The close planting and the use of compost that is rich in nutrients will give you higher yields in raised bed gardening than in row gardening.
|
 
|
Having the beds waist high will permit people with back and leg problems to grow vegetables with out all the bending. Raised bed gardening can be used effectively to control erosion and recycle and conserve water while saving nutrients by building on slopes.
Raised bed gardening using a cirular waist high raised bed with a path to the middle is called key hole garden. A stack is placed in the center and filled with sticks or straw this allows water poured in to flow out into the soil and reaching all the plants roots.
When using lumber in your raised bed gardening remenber not to use treated lumber, as it is toxic and will leave chemicals into the soil harming your plants maybe killing them. It is much better to use concrete blocks not pleasing but much safer an cheaper, they also can be painted or flowers pl;anted in front of them for a softer look. Advantages of a raised bed gardening is better drainage, higher yield, longer growing season, easy maintenance and reducing erosion potential. Raised gardens can be done in step form, tri level, or use half barrels for patio gardening.
When doing raised bed gardening use a good top soil mixed with compost , peat moss and sand. Soil in raised bed gardens, warms faster and dries out more quickly than soil at ground level.
|
|
These are great traits for spring and fall but not for summer, a covering of straw, hay, or wood chips in vegetable gardens will help to keep the soil cooler and retain water. At the end of the gardening season anything left in the garden should be tilled
under to feed the soil for next season.
Rasied bed gareding requires fertilization of plants the same as row gardens, a mix of 10-10-10 applied at the rate of 1-2 pounds per 100 square feet is good.
