Raise Your Beds and Plant Away!

If you’re a gardening aficionado, then you might have heard of the term, ‘raised bed gardening’. I have to confess to being quite ignorant on the subject, but upon overhearing, quite by accident I assure you, an argument by a young couple over whether they should go for the more conventional garden, or whether they should try their hand at raised bed gardening, my interest was peaked. After all what on earth was a ‘raised bed garden’?

Being the curious minded person that I am, I had to find out what it was all about. I figured by the term "raised bed" that it had something to do with some way of elevating your garden.

I did the next best thing to find the information I needed. I went to my computer for instant gardening help. Calling upon the services of my favorite search engine, I typed in the words ‘raised bed gardening’ and was unsurprisingly rewarded by the wealth of information expected. Information which I shall now try my best to impart to you in manner that is understandable.

A raised bed garden is exactly what is sounds like. A garden upon a ‘raised bed’. The garden is elevated in different sections. To do this, some people use large containers, or pots. Troughs are also a favorite, providing a longer length for the gardener to work with.

Aesthetics is a great reason to get into raised bed gardening. Having said that, if you find it difficult to bend down continuously when gardening, then the raised bed garden is also ideal for you. But a second reason you would even consider a raised bed garden has to do with soil and drainage problems that you just can’t overcome easily, in your normal, ground level garden.

Raised bed gardens are attractive, and easy to maintain, with the added benefit of being able control exactly what goes into your soil mixture, and how much water you use when watering your plants.

You also have the ability to protect your plants more easily from burrowing rodents, weeds, and unwanted pedestrian traffic stomping on your beds.

The ease of access to your raised beds is definately the best advantage of the format. To be able to still be outdoors gardening and not have to get on your hands and knees on the mud is quite a perk for those of us with knee problems.

And if you want to plant away from the sun, check out our article on shade gardening..