Grow Your Garden in a Raised Garden Bed

If you are planning to add a flower or vegetable garden to your yard, you should consider raised garden beds. A raised garden bed simply consists of a box made of wood, bricks, or blocks which has soil to elevate the planting bed’s level above the surrounding ground. With raised beds, you get a simple and effective way to create a garden that is healthy and productive by positively manipulating the growing environment. And the best part is that you can create the ideal planting conditions for soil structure and drainage, no matter how bad the ground you are starting with is.

Benefits of a Raised Garden Bed

When it comes to the size and shape of raised planting beds, there are many different options to choose from. These include prefabricated frame kits that are great as they are really simple to assemble. No matter what type you choose, there are distinct advantages that raised beds offer that traditional ground-level garden beds do not, including:

Better Soil: With raised garden beds, you gain greater control over soil quality. You can even add new soil or incorporate organic matter that is more nutritious to make sure that the growing conditions improve for your plants. With raised planting beds, pH balance, depth, richness and texture are all right at the tip of your fingers.
Increased Yields: With raised planting beds, you can get double the yield of conventional row gardens. By planning the beds so that you can reach in from all sides, the need to plant in rows gets eliminated, making it easier for you to maintain it as well. Also, when you space plants in a matrix instead of rows, you can get more plants into the bed and they will thrive in the rich soil and you will find a significant harvest increase per square foot.
Lower Maintenance: Because you can make better use of the space in your raised garden beds, it means less room for weeds, less waste, less water, and less stress. You will still have to water and take care of your plant, but you can target your efforts on places where it counts the most. You get easy accessibility as well, which means that you do not have to spend too much time and energy on maintaining your plants.
Improved Drainage: Water gets drained away faster when you have raised planting beds. This is great for you when spring rains come. When the drainage is good, problems like fungus, rot, and diseases are eliminated. You need to keep in mind that during midsummer, you will need to water your plants more often.
Water-Saving System: You get a small and organized space with raised garden beds, making it ideal for you to incorporate a water-saving irrigation system. You can use systems such as a soaker hose or drip irrigation to water your plants to keep them thriving and alive. Saving water has many advantages and with raised beds, you can do your part for the environment.
Longer Growing Season: Raised planting beds warm up a lot faster than the surrounding soil during spring. This means that you can start planting a little earlier than you would with traditional planting rows. Likewise, they tend to stay warmer and produce for a longer period of time in the fall.
Improved Pest Control: Although it is quite tough to make any garden pest-proof, there are a few advantages that raised garden beds offer. You can easily protect them against burrowing critters by adding a lining to the bottom with hardware cloth and fencing the sides. Slugs and other creepy crawlies will be discouraged as they have to climb up the sides. You can keep the birds away by adding a simple frame on top of the raised bed so that bird netting can be easily draped over it.
Easy to Use: Raised garden beds give you fantastic ease of use, which is why they are a better option than conventional rows. They can be built as high as you need, so that you are comfortable while working on them. Benches can also be incorporated around the edges to keep your knees from getting hurt.
Neater to Look At: Raised planting beds have nice clean lines that give them a neater appearance. You can plant lawn grass in between raised beds or add stone pathways that you can walk around on. You do not have to worry about messy mud and you can have a garden with neat order that looks marvelous.

As you can see, raised garden beds are much better than traditional garden rows as they offer many unique advantages. You can be as creative as you like and add elements to make your garden look even better. With raised beds, you can have a beautiful garden that is filled with bright flowers or vegetables. No matter what you plant, with raised garden beds, you can have a garden that you are always proud of. It is something to think about!