The Art Of Growing A Raised Bed Veg Patch

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When you wish to grow a vegetable garden in a raised bed it can be built from wood, concrete blocks, stone or other materials which are then filled with earth. Depending upon your requirements they can stand anywhere from six inches to waist high above the land. Common reasons for building a raised bed is for more convenient access for those who find the bending actions, so normal to ordinary gardening, problematical or impossible to carry out.

It is important to consider your construction materials with care since timber, for instance, that has been treated might allow noxious chemical substances to seep into the earth and which finishes up in the vegetables themselves. It is better to use hard wood or stones.

You need to bear in mind how level your garden is too. A pitched area is more challenging to work on than a level one and if it’s especially steep you could get soil erosion following torrential rains. One method to help manage this is to position the beds crossways to the slope.

Additionally, if your garden is very windy you might have to erect windbreaks. Make sure they’re permeable so the air can pass through, otherwise they’re going to fall down or generate instability and you will have to start again. They can be non-natural like a fence or a living barrier such as hedging. The latter is inclined to be more pleasing but will require time to develop and will require effort to keep it in good physical shape and looking good.

The most common shape for a raised bed vegetable garden is a rectangle though now and then they may be circular with a piece removed so the centre can be reached with less effort. These are called keyhole gardens and are particularly good in areas where there is a shortage of water. In such conditions a chimney type assembly can be made in the center and packed with grass and sticks. When this is filled up with water it permits it to run more regularly into the land, effectively reaching the roots of the crops sown in the raised bed.

Planting vegetables is generally done in geometric arrangements and is closer than you normally find when gardening in rows straight into the ground. The proximity of the plants to each other causes a microclimate which helps to store up moisture and keeps the weeds down. Also the earth doesn’t become compressed, as there aren’t any human boots tramping on it, and as a result the roots can develop without restraint. These dissimilarities from traditional planting regularly result in more veggies being grown.