Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening-Advantages of Raised Vegetable Gardening
Raised bed vegetable gardening has many advantages compared to the
traditional in ground garden. The area is smaller and easier to
tend. The soil inside the bed is rich and loamy. Since you
never step on the raised bed, the soil won't compact and get hard
for plant roots and water to move through.
You can get an earlier start with your garden because the soil in
the raised bed will warm up faster than the regular ground will.
Seeds will be used sparingly, because you only plant a certain
number of seeds in each area. Fertilizer and weeding are
concentrated on the area which holds your vegetable garden, and
not wasted on footpaths and weeds.
Pulling weeds from this loose loamy soil will be much easier,
since their roots won't go very deep. If you use a planting
mix that does not contain native soil, you won't have to amend
it as much, and you won't have the seeds of all those weeds in
it from the start.
If you used the hardware cloth and the landscaping fabric, not
only weeds, but gophers and moles will not come up from
underneath and devour the roots of your vegetables;
something very hard to achieve in an in-ground garden. You are
unlikely to see your best plant suddenly dry up and die, still
full of fruit, because the roots are gone.
Your water won't all drain out the gopher hole, leaving your
garden soil dry. Those little telltale mounds of dirt next to
a gopher hole can ruin your whole day, and your garden.
Planting Medium for the Raised Bed Vegetable Garden
When you have assembled your raised bed for your vegetable
garden, you will be eager to fill it and start planting. You
need to give some thought to what you want to use in
your garden bed for a planting medium.
The benefit of a raised bed vegetable garden will be less if you
fill it with rocky, sandy or clay soil that is nearby. You
will need to add amendments just like an in-ground garden, and
drainage would be more difficult too, because the soil would
not be a good loam.
For such difficult soil, it would be better to buy compost,
sphagnum peat moss, and horticultural vermiculite, or some
topsoil. Mix in about equal amounts. I recommend the Kellog's
Brand Compost.
If you have good loamy soil, rich in organic matter, then you
can use about 75% native soil. The rest should be compost and
steer manure. A little outdoor potting soil to give it more
fluffiness wouldn't hurt, but isn't as necessary if you have
good soil.
Be aware that you will bring insects, weed seeds, and possibly
even plant diseases in with that native soil. So it's a
personal choice which you would prefer to use.
Manure
When you buy steer manure, you need to get the sterilized bags
at the garden center. Using raw manure that hasn't been
composted can expose you to bacteria like E. Coli and
Salmonella, among others. See Organic Food Safety-Manure
Even sterilized manure can burn plants if you use too much. A
thin layer on top, worked into your soil, will be all you
need. Maybe 1/8-1/4 inch thick, depending how deep your
bed is. Compost will not burn, it is already broken down to
the point where it is like a fertilizer, with the added benefit
of bringing body and microbes to your soil that will
work to help your plants grow and be healthy.
It is easier to mix the soil well by using a plastic tarp and
mixing so that it is all even and thoroughly mixed. Then
putting it into the bed. What you don't want is to have pockets
of unmixed parts that keep the water from penetrating properly
or stunt your plants roots.
Also, if you plan to garden organically, this is the time to
add your organic starter fertilizer so that it will be evenly
distributed. Dr. Earth's premixed fertilizer comes with trace
minerals and microbes that break down the fertilizer to make it
more available to the plants. Fish meal and kelp meal
combinations are great starters too.
Make sure that once your soil in is the raised bed, you take the
time to level it well. Otherwise the water will puddle at one
end and leave the other end dry. Soaker hoses are a good choice
for a raised bed. You can even bury them an inch down in the
soil to save on evaporation. Raised beds will dry out faster
than an in-ground garden so expect to water more often.
Square Foot Gardening
Square foot gardening is the basic approach used when planting a
raised bed vegetable garden. If your bed is 4 feet wide by 8
feet long, then you have 32 square feet of planting space
available. Using tomato cages and trellises can greatly
increase your available space by limiting large plants to 1
square foot of ground space, and letting them grow
upward, or vertically.
One idea is to set up a pole that goes across the middle, about
5 feet above the soil. You can use jute strands for climbing
plants to hold onto as they grow up. Staking or caging
tomatoes is another alternative. For plants that need sturdy
supports, a trellis can be screwed on to either end of the
garden.
Make sure that your bed is oriented north/south so that it will
get sun from east and west on both sides of the garden. Many
people use string to mark off the squares in the beds. To go
lengthwise, start 1 foot in from the edge on either side, and 1
in the middle. This will give you (4) 1 foot wide by 8 foot
long strips to plant in.
In square foot gardening, you use 1 square foot for large plants
like a pepper or tomato. Be sure to put the large plants in
the center of the square. For the smaller vegetables, 4 bush
beans can go into one square. One Square holda 16 radishes or 9
carrots or onions. Alternate large and small plants so that as
the large ones grow out, you can harvest the small plants that
they are growing over.
When you've harvested a square, plant seeds for a new crop of
something else.
Whatever system you use, you will need to remember to check the
limits of your growing season, the last frost date, and your
climate zone. Every year rotate the crops. So if you grew
potatoes, tomatoes, or peppers in one section, write it down.
You need records to know where something's been and where it
should go next. Each year rotate the area for each crop to
prevent soil depletion and disease problems. And Have fun!