The Essentials of Creating a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden
 (Read 500+ times)
By Gillian Pearce
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A raised bed vegetable garden are generally built with wood, blocks of concrete, rock or other materials that are then filled with earth. Based on your requirements they can be anywhere from 6 inches to waist high above the land. Common motives for building a raised bed is for easier accessibility for individuals who find the bending over movements, so common to conventional gardening, tough or not possible to tackle.
It is important to consider your construction materials wisely since wood, for instance, that has been treated may enable noxious chemical substances to leak into the land and which finishes up in the veggies themselves. It's better to use hardwood or rocks.
You should bear in mind how flat your garden is as well. A slanting area is more challenging to work on than a flat one and if it's really steep you might get soil erosion after torrential rains. One approach to help manage this is to locate the beds crosswise to the slope.
Additionally, if your yard is very breezy you might have to put up windbreaks. Ensure they're permeable so the air can pass through, if not they'll give way or create instability and you'll have to begin again. They can be non-natural like a fence or an alive barrier such as hedging. The latter is inclined to be more pleasing but will need time to grow and will entail effort to keep it healthy and looking nice.
The most common shape for a raised bed garden is a rectangle although on occasion they may be circular with a piece cut out so the middle may be reached more easily. These are sometimes known keyhole gardens and are especially good in places where there's a shortage of water. In these circumstances a smokestack type structure may be constructed in the centre and filled up with grasses and sticks. When this is filled up with water it permits it to flow more evenly into the land, effectively finding the roots of the vegetation planted in the raised bed.
Planting is commonly done in geometric patterns and is closer than you normally find when gardening in rows straight in the ground. The closeness of the plants to each other can cause a microclimate which helps to store up moisture and keeps unwanted growth down. Furthermore the soil doesn't get compressed, as there aren't any human boots walking on it, so the roots can grow more freely. These variations from conventional planting often lead to more veg being grown.
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Author Bio Box: Gillian Pearce
Visit the grow a vegetable garden site for more tips and resources on how to get the most from raised bed vegetable garden including information on growing culinary herbs and vegetable container gardening.
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