Raised Garden Beds

Raised garden beds provide an option to make life easier for not only those who may be a bit physically restricted, but for everyone who likes to garden but wants it all to be a bit easier.

It can’t be denied that building your raised flower beds will involve a good deal of work and expense, but the difference it makes afterwards in how much less hard work is involved with the actual gardening, in my opinion at least, is worth every penny.

When it comes to building raised garden beds, they can be as simple or elaborate as your own personal style and budget. You can even buy modular raised bed kits that you add to when time and budget allows.

We live in a fairly rural area, with not a huge budget; so I went off down to a local scaffolding company and asked to rummage round in the broken scaffold planks that would normally go in the skip. It did take a few visits before I had enough to make something with, but it cost me nothing but endless cups of tea and grovelling before husband would get the hammer and nails out. What swung it was when I stomped off saying I would make it myself!

The point is, they don’t have to be made of bricks and have footings laid to support them.

My raised planter was made in one piece and then shuffled into place. It is a sturdy raised bed, but can be moved if I want to, as opposed to digging deep holes for posts and attaching the scaffold planks to them.

I found that a size of 4ft x 8ft is a nice size, and the raised bed is the height of two scaffold planks side by side, so about 24 inches. It’s just the right height for perching on when you want a cup of tea!

There are so many benefits to gardening with raised beds. I was going to try and list them in order of importance, but they’re all a priority depending what you’re doing.

When you first have your raised bed built but empty, it’s so much easier to create the right soil environment for what you want to grow. It is true that there are plants that like the ground a bit soggy and damp, but for the most part, all manner of flowers and vegetables need the ground to have good drainage.

If you have a heavy clay soil, it’s very straight forward to combine gritty sharp sand, plenty of fibre, be it from the compost heap or some well rotted horse manure, together with the local soil, as it goes back in the raised planter. Because it’s not compacted like a big lump of concrete you really can mix it up well without too much back pain!

When I fill mine with soil, I water it and leave it a few weeks and let any weeds put in an appearance; and rest assured they will! They are now so much easier to take out. Apart from being easier to reach, the soil isn’t packed hard so they don’t break off either.

The soil in the raised bed will warm up quicker than the ground at the end of the winter. Being that little higher off the ground, the risk of low lying frost pockets can also be avoided as far as possible.

I have the four corner posts on my raised bed extending another 2 feet above the top edge of the sides. I find this handy to put cups of tea of, tack string to support sweet peas or the like, and they also provide an excellent frame work if you need to support horticultural fleece or anti bird netting.

When the soil in your raised garden bed is that bit warmer, you can often get a head start on the plantings. This may mean that you could get multiple crops of certain types if you plan it well.

In our garden, we have a horrid little boy Jack Russell, who insists on telling everyone that he owns everything and he stands on three legs to do it! Growing things in a raised vegetable bed takes away the worry that he might have peed on everything!

All the watering that any of the fruit, vegetables or flowers that you decide to grow in your raised planter will need, will be so much more efficient. The soil won’t be continuously compacted by being walked on and the water will travel through the soil much more easily and get to the roots quicker. If you decide to install any kind of irrigation system, the whole thing is far less likely to get snagged by gardening tools or lawnmowers.

Raised garden beds also help provide shape and structure to a garden. Ours tie in with the slightly rustic edges I like in the rest of the garden. However, if, for example you live in a more cosmopolitan area, there are some stunning ranges of hard landscaping materials which can be used and perhaps could incorporate built-in seating areas and outdoor lighting.

When you want to make use of raised garden beds, the options are only restricted by your imagination and your budget. They remove so much of the back breaking work of gardening and being so adaptable when it comes to size and dimensions, they can be placed in so many different scenarios and will add a whole new dimension to the visual aspect of your garden.