Get Growing with Raised Beds

If your garden area is anything like mine, you may benefit from gardening in raised beds. After getting the results back from a soil test (available through the Monroe County Soil Conservation District, 1931 Liberty Drive, Bloomington), I learned my soil was heavy clay with not a lot of organic matter, and practically NO phosphorus, a nutrient essential for good plant growth. What to do? Put in some raised beds!

After gardening with raised beds for several years now, I have learned there are definite pluses and minuses to consider:

Pluses:

-Easy to amend and maintain the soil following results from a soil test

-Since you don’t walk on the soil in the bed, there is no soil compaction allowing you to grow more intensely (closer plant spacing)

-Weeding is easier

-Harvesting is easier

-Beds dry out quicker allowing for earlier planting following a wet spring

Minuses:

-Depending on material used, can be expensive (though a one-time cost)

-Time-consuming to build and fill the beds (again, one-time effort)

-Because beds dry out quicker, you need to water more often during dry summer months

As you can see from the photo, my beds are built to last using 2X6 or 2X8 lumber of varying lengths. The lumber is held in place with 4X4 posts which are attached on the outside of the beds using rust resistant screws driven from the inside of the bed, allowing for unobstructed planting and cultivating (though little cultivating is needed with raised beds). One important point is to avoid making beds more than 4 feet wide. This allows for easy harvesting by reaching into the bed from either side without overly stretching yourself.

Different material can be used to build your beds, including cinder blocks. Just be sure whatever you use is rot resistant. Avoid using pine boards, for example. My beds were constructed using new treated lumber. I say “new” because treated lumber made prior to 2003 was treated with arsenic (CCA). Treated lumber sold today contains no arsenic and is considered safe for food contact and for growing food.

To fill my beds, I used a combination of native soil, bagged topsoil and lots of sphagnum peat moss. If you’re fortunate enough to have compost, you can substitute that for the peat moss.

Happy Gardening with raised beds!

Article submitted by

Ed Kitchen