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Raised Beds

© Marge Talt

If you haven't used some type of raised bed in your garden, you really should consider doing so. I've got several various and assorted kinds of raised beds. When I used to grow vegetables, my vegetable garden consisted of a series of raised beds. This type of bed is good for sun or shade; open space or woodland gardens. Raised beds offer several advantages over planting at natural grade. A few that spring to mind are:

• The ground warms up sooner in spring;
• Drainage is good, even if your natural soil does not drain well;
• You can control the soil in the bed, either as a general improvement on your native soil or to provide specific qualities for plants that need something different;
• Raised beds can be easier to work in since you can get them high enough so that bending isn't such a chore;
• Raised beds can give interest to an otherwise flat site.

Technically, if you simply mound soil above natural grade, you've made a raised bed. The advantage of this is substantially less initial work and investment, but the disadvantage is that you lose planting space because of the slope required to keep the soil from washing.

I think most of us, when we see the words "raised bed", envision a bed with a edge of some kind. If you're working against a wall or a slope, you only need edges on the exposed faces.

If you've got a flat site, however, you need to make what is basically a bottomless frame. It can be any size you choose and any shape you can manage. It can also be any height. If you make them about eighteen inches (0.45 m) high, you can use the edge as a seat (if it's wide enough), either for working in the bed or as part of an outdoor seating arrangement. Keep in mind the length of your reach from the edges. It is best if you can manage to tend a raised bed without having to walk in it to reach those plants or weeds in the center. This keeps the soil from getting compacted.

Most people can reach about three feet (1 m) comfortably. If your bed is accessible from all sides, this means you can make it about six feet (2 m) deep by whatever length you like. If you really want it deeper, plan to place some blocks or rocks to use as stepping stones to access the central part.

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