Raised Garden Beds-the Advantages

Last year I got tired of weeding the whole garden, even the spaces that I didn’t plant. So I decided to build some permanent borders around some areas in the garden. I used some recycled fence boards that were about 1 ½” thick and 10” wide. I nailed these together, making a 12” tall ‘box’ that was about 6' across and 10' long. I set them on the ground and dug up the soil that was inside. I added soil from between the beds (since I was no longer going to use that for planting) and some compost. I added bark mulch between the beds (you could used rock mulch too), and found it was so much easier to look after just the beds.

  Some advantages are:

1. Easier to weed since they’re a little higher than ground level.
2. The soil in the beds does not get compacted from being walked upon.
   
   
3. The weeds don’t spread nearly as much because of the wood barrier.
4. There is better drainage.
5. The soil texture and quality is better as you can add compost to only the beds.

A couple of things to remember:

• Make sure you space the beds so you can get a wheel barrow between them.
• Rotate the crops, replanting a crop in the same place only every three years. This is very important to reduce or prevent a build up of soil borne pest and plant diseases, plus any depletion of crop specific nutrients.  

 Photo by: ana-white.com

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