5 Situations that Call for Raised Beds

If you've followed Growing The Home Garden for any length of time you probably know that I'm a proponent of raised bed gardening.  Raised beds can be made of all sorts of materials and have all kinds of advantages for growing a garden.  Raised beds are great solution for many tricky situations in the garden. Here are a few ways that raised beds can help a garden that may have some issues!

5 Situations that Call for Raised Beds

1. Poor soil.  Very few gardeners are lucky enough to have perfect soil for gardening.  You may have hard clay, very sandy soil, or even no soil!  Raised beds help in each of these situations by allowing the gardener to have control over the soil conditions.  The soil can be just right from the very beginning.  It can be filled with a combinations of soil, compost, and other materials to be exactly the right blend for what needs to grow there.
   
2. Sloped gardens.  Often gardeners live on hillsides and may not have very much flat land to grow their crops.  Raised beds can adjust for the slope and create a terraced raised bed garden.  The raised beds level out the garden area and create flat surface which reduces soil erosion from the garden area.
3. No Soil!  Sometimes you don't have any ground what-so-ever to plant the garden in.  When there is no ground a raised bed can be built on legs to make a raised bed table.  Raised beds can even be established over concrete areas.  
4. For poor drainage areas.  If you have an area of your yard that is hard to grow plants in due to poor drainage raising the soil level may help and raised beds may correct those drainage issues.  It may take some special planning but with raised beds you can lift the plant roots away from the heavy moisture areas.
5. For year round gardens.  Raised beds are easy to construct hoop houses over.  A few PVC pipes and a sheet of plastic can keep your garden growing in cold weather.  Cool season plants like spinach, chard, kale, lettuce and others can be harvested throughout the winter if kept covered and growing.

And one more!

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  For design or organization reasons.  Sometimes a gardener might want a garden that looks a little more formal. Raised beds make designing a garden in a parterre layout very easy.  It could be that the gardener wants to easily keep track of crop rotation or wants to incorporate flowers in various beds to attract beneficial insects through companion planting.  Raised beds can help a gardener stay organized and offer a lot of design options.  

Have you used raised beds to fix a tricky situation in your garden?

How Tall Should a Raised Bed Be? (5 More Raised Bed Design Tips)

Have you ever wondered exactly how tall a raised bed should be?  Here's the answer: 11 and 5/16ths.  Yep that's right, 11 and 5/16ths.  Of course not!  The real answer is that the height of a raised bed is dependent on a number of factors which makes each situation different.  Today's Friday Fives post is another raised bed design post all about the height considerations when building a raised bed.  Hopefully this will be helpful as you plan you fall garden or even your spring garden for next year!

5 Considerations for Determining How Tall A Raised Bed Should Be!

1. The most important thing for your plants is the soil.  It has all the nutrients and its where all the water will be stored after rains.  If you have rich, compost like soil already than you don't have to worry about how tall your bed will be.  In fact then you might not even want to worry with raised beds unless you just want them for convenience (more on that later) or appearance. If your soil is less than perfect - i.e. rock or clay - you will want more height so that you can add better soil on top where the plants will be happy.  Raised beds will eventually improve the soil conditions underneath as organic matter trickles down into the clay areas.
2. What materials do you have available to use for you raised beds?  If you are planning on using lumber of some kind then you can build as high as you like fairly inexpensively. 
   
   When it comes to stone you will need some kind of mortar to hold the stones together as you gain height.  The same is true with concrete retaining wall blocks.  The other difficulty with tall stones or concrete raised beds is the time involved in building them.  The taller they are the longer it takes!  However you could build a layer or two one year then add to them the next and gradually build height.  
3. Consider what plants you are growing. 
   
   Plants like potatoes that like to be buried then covered as they grow may need deeper raised beds than a more shallow rooted plant.  Vegetables with long roots like carrots or parsnips should be considered for the height of the raised bed especially if the soil quality underneath the raised beds is very poor.  Carrots like loamy soil with very few obstructions like rock or clay.  They find it difficult to grow long and straight and tend to end up producing funny looking tap roots! 
4. The taller the raised beds are the quicker the soil will dry out.  As you build height you also build surface area around the sides.  The sun and air will move against the outside of your beds which increases the rate of evaporation and will dry the beds out faster.  Raised beds in general dry out faster than gardens planted in the ground so this may not be a major factor but should still be considered.  
5. Convenience!  Raising the height of a garden as much as 24 inches can be a great boon for the handicapped or those who have trouble bending in the garden.  It makes weeding, watering and harvesting much easier on the body.  Tall raised beds are a great option for those who are having trouble gardening but still want to participate in the hobby they love!

I think in general that raised beds of any height improve a gardener's ability to garden.  They keep the soil in place and usually involve a higher quality organic rich soil than what was originally present in the soil.  If money is a concern consider building raised beds in mounds that slope down to the edges without any type of formal sides.  It's still a raised bed and will do the job nicely!


For more raised bed design tips please read Designing a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden: 11 Things to Think About!

More Friday Fives Posts

Building a Fall Garden Bed From Stone Retaining Wall Blocks

Fall is fast approaching.  No matter how much we may wish to pause time and reap our summer garden harvest we have to start thinking about the fall garden.  This weekend I redid and rebuilt one of my garden beds to update it for fall crops.  If you've followed me for a while you may remember the raised circular garden bed I made with retaining wall blocks.  With the help of Lowe's Creative Ideas I completely revamped it and prepared it for the fall crops.

Here's where it was before.  The stones had sunk some into the soil and weeds had crept in all around.  I weeded and re-leveled the stones before beginning the "real" project!

I brought home 36 retaining wall blocks from our local Lowe's in Spring Hill, TN.  On the level base provided by the stones I had there previously I set the first row of blocks.  I adjusted the spacing of these these blocks as I went and had to go back over it a couple times to get them adjusted how I wanted them. The spaces between the blocks needed to be small enough to prevent soil from leaving the circle but also needed to be adjusted so that the circle fit the space. Once the first row was set I staggered the second row of block and completed the raised bed walls.

Then I layered the soil with a weed prevention method.  I used newspapers which eventually biodegrade but you could use landscape fabric too.  Then I filled the beds with a mix of soil.  I added 5 bags (1 cu. ft.) of compost and 2 bags (2 cu. ft.) of soil conditioner.  The soil conditioner keeps the soil from compacting too much and provides drainage.  Eventually it will break down and feed the soil.  The compost has easily accessible nutrients for the plants.  I left my basil in place and buried portions of it below the soil.  Basil will root along the stem kind of like tomatoes and should be fine in this situation.

Next I installed a deer prevention strategy.  I have had big issues with deer in my garden this year.  You name it, they ate it! To make sure they didn't eat my fall garden I installed 4 - 18" pieces of rebar.  Then crossed two 10' pieces of PVC pipe over the bed to create a dome. The rebar made excellent stakes for the pipe. Over the dome I put bird netting.  It's labelled as bird netting but I've found it impedes the deer effectively.  They tend to graze on the easiest to find vegetation and should be deterred by the bird netting.

Now it's ready for planting!  There are all kinds of fall greens that can be planted in the garden.  Spinach, chard, kale, lettuce, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and many others.  I bought a few packs of Organic Garden Seed from Seeds of Change there at Lowe's to grow in my garden.  So far I just have lettuce started.  The other seeds I'll start in biodegradable starter pots.

This project from start to finish was completed in one afternoon.  You can use these blocks to create flower beds for any season.  Try a raised block garden for fall flowers by planting with mums and asters and inter-plant with a few of your favorite veggies!

Now I have a great looking circular garden bed ready for growing our crops this fall!

A Raised Bed with Concrete Retaining wall Blocks

This week I put together another project in the vegetable garden. It was a little one that was another step toward designing my vegetable garden as a parterre style garden layout.  This raised vegetable bed was also another project that I accomplished with materials furnished by Lowe's Creative Ideas.  The idea for this project was to create something that was both edible and ornamental! I decided that working in the vegetable garden was the way to go.  Vegetables can be very ornamental by themselves but I also incorporated some more traditional flowers and plants to enhance the garden's ornamental value.

For materials on this project I used the retaining wall blocks.  There are quite a variety of block styles to choose from.  I went with a mid priced block (about $2.50 per block) that has some natural looking contouring.  The sides of the block are beveled to allow for rounded corners or even circular raised beds. 

For plants I chose three colors of sweet peppers (orange, red, and yellow), two daylilies (which are edible), some gerbera daisies (to plant on the edges), and a red flowering penstemon called 'Ruby Candles'.  Adding flowers and herbs to a garden bed in order to attract beneficial insects is called companion planting. Flowers attract pollinators which as we all know are very beneficial to gardeners!  I do need to note that this bed already had a few plants that I grew from seed including peppers and basil. 




I set the concrete blocks directly on the soil since these were only going to be a one layer border for the raised beds. I leveled the blocks with soil but if the blocks were to be used as a retaining wall they would have needed gravel for leveling underneath the stones.  

I filled the raised bed area with soil and compost I had on hand in the garden.  Once it was planted I mulched with a hay bale that I bought at Lowe's.  Mulch is extremely important to retaining moisture in the soil.  We're going through a dry spell right now and anything I can do to keep water where the roots are is a necessity!

The plants are freshly planted and need some time to settle in before looking their best.  I'll update you in a week or two to show you how it is coming along! In case you missed my last project check back and see the vertical garden arbor using gutters I built!

I've written several times before about raised beds.  I'm a fan, a huge fan of raised beds. With a raised bed you can control the soil, control the moisture, and garden virtually anywhere.  It makes sense that raised beds are a great option for every homeowner (here's why: 8 Benefits to Gardening in Raised Beds).  The question though that new gardeners will ask themselves is how am I going to do this?  How should I plan and design my raised bed garden?  Those are important questions that we'll look at here in this post.

5 Steps to Planning a Raised Bed Garden

Step 1: Pick a Great Location for Your Raised Bed Garden

Decide on a good location, it's essential.  Vegetables need the proper amount of light to thrive.  Most vegetables need full sun but you can get away with part sun or grow leafy vegetables in somewhat shady locations.  Ideally find a spot with a good southern exposure (for northern hemisphere gardens) where the sun will light the garden for at least 8 hours.  The more sun the better!  Plants that enjoy full sun will produce much more vigorously and high production is what you want!

Step 2:  What are you going to grow?
What do you want to grow? Existential gardeners may prefer the question to be "What is your garden's purpose?" If you want tomatoes you have to plan for the right amount of space, soil requirements, sun requirements.  Don't worry, it sounds more complicated than it is!  I like to plan about 4 square feet per tomato plant, add plenty of compost to the soil with organic soil amendments, and stick them in the full sun!

Most vegetable seed packets will show you exactly how much space you need.  The better seed packets will even provide growing tips.  Pick out what you want to grow then use the seed packet information to decide how much you need to grow...

Step 3 How much do you need to grow?
Are you trying to feed your family entirely or just supplement your meals with fresh vegetables?  Do you need to produce enough vegetables to preserve over the winter or just want the seasonal fresh produce from the garden?  Figure out your needs are so that you can plan the correct amount of plants for your garden.  To determine this look up the approximate yield of each type of plant you want to grow.  Then calculate how much space each plant needs in the garden to figure out how large you garden needs to be.

I always recommend to start with a smaller garden then add raised beds as you go.  A big garden right off the bat can be overwhelming for first time gardeners.  You don't want to grow more vegetables than you can take care of easily so as time allows expand.



Step 4 Plan out what materials you want to use!
Anything that holds soil can be a raised bed.  That gives you a wide range of options when deciding what materials to use.  For wood try going toward cedar and redwood if you can afford it.  I've used untreated pine in the past and it will do a good job for about three years. Composite lumber is another good way to go.  Recycled plastics are merged with wood materials to create a very long lasting material but it is more expensive than traditional lumber. If money is a concern you can start with the cheaper materials now then upgrade as you can afford to do so.  My most recent raised bed used metal roofing material which has a unique look and should last for a long time.

Metal raised bed

Concrete makes a great raised bed either from cinder blocks or retaining wall blocks.  Natural stone is one of my favorite materials due to the uniqueness found in each individual stone - they give the bed character. A dry-stacked short wall of natural stone would make a great raised bed.  A gabion is another option that looks pretty nifty.  It's a cage made from wire like the kind used for concrete reinforcing that is formed then filled with stone.  The size of stones you can use depends on the wire mesh.  Each type of materials has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Wood is cheaper and lighter than stone materials but it doesn't last forever.

Step 5: Plan your garden layout!
When planning the vegetable garden layout there's a lot to consider.  Imagine how to get in and how to move around inside.  Are you looking for convenience or do you want to emphasis the aesthetics? The two don't have to be exclusive!  Are your compost bins going to be nearby?  Do you need truck access for soil, mulch, and other materials?  Are you going to need a fence to keep animals out?  All of these factors can affect the layout of your vegetable garden.

More Garden Designs available here.

Think of the pathways.  You want pathways that make the garden easy to travel through - especially when you have a wheelbarrow or garden cart.  You may want to measure your garden cart or wheelbarrow ahead of time to get an idea of how much space your cart needs then plan the path to fit - then add a few inches to make it comfortable.  A wide pathway down the center of the garden and narrow walkways between the rows is a good way to maximize growing space.

Sometimes the layout can affect the space and size of your raised beds so its a good idea to plan the layout ahead of time to get the best vegetable garden design you can!

I've changed my garden layout every year.  Part of that is because I come up with new ideas but also because I realize that there are things I didn't fully plan out.  By starting at the very beginning with a really good plan you can avoid the need to redo it so often.  Your raised bed garden will need updating every now and then and you will come up with new ideas but those ideas will be easier to integrate into a solid garden design if you start with a solid plan!

It's Not Just a Box

It's not just a box.  Really it isn't.  It's so much more than that.  You built it in your backyard, sideyard, or even front yard.  You filled it with soil.  You tended that box and nurtured every single tiny seed you planted in it.  That box is your garden.  That box with the untreated wood your neighbor told you would rot one day isn't just a box.  It's food for your family.  It's education for your children.  It's nature in action and it is your raised bed.

After we bought our house and I built my first raised beds in the backyard I thought I should explain what I was doing to my neighbor.  I didn't want him to think I was just some crazy person who simply liked making wooden boxes. He stopped by once to ask me something so I explained that they were for my new raised bed vegetable garden.  I was pleased with them and in my naivety I thought that everyone likes a garden.

The first words out of his mouth we're "they'll rot you know." Yes I knew that.

They're made of wood, they aren't weather proof.  Organic materials will one day become part of the soil again.  "They'll rot you know," not exactly a positive and uplifting statement.

That doesn't matter.

The box isn't meant to be permanent.  Sure it's nice if it lasts for a while and you can get several seasons of use out of it.  In fact mine did.  They lasted about three years before needing replaced.  They were untreated pine boards but even treated wood, cedar, and redwood succumb to the rigors of Mother Nature. Wooden raised beds will eventually become compost.

But it's not just about the box.  It's about the experience.

The box is just the medium for growing the plants.  It holds the soil in and gives the gardener a defined area in which to plant.  Inside that box is what matters.  The soil, the plants, the seeds, and most of all the experience.  When you put that first raised bed in your garden you've taken a step toward becoming a gardener.  It's just one of many possible steps but it's a good one.

The years of knowledge and experience I gained as a result of those first few wooden raised bed are worth much more than the replacement value of the lumber. The crops of vegetables that we've harvested easily cover the cost of the boxes - many times over.  Most of all though the experience of growing, learning, and teaching my children about the garden has been priceless.

Building a raised bed out of lumber "will rot you know," but the experience gained and the benefits of that raised bed garden won't - because it's not just a box.

Making a Raised Bed from Metal Roofing Materials

Recently I put together my newest raised bed.  I was inspired by some pictures I've seen lately where metal roofing materials were used for the sides.  It was a very cool look that I wanted to see if I could replicate for my garden.  I went to the store and gathered 9 2x4's, 3 steel roofing panels, and a box of deck screws.  The total material cost for this raised bed is around $100 but you could greatly diminish that if you could find old metal roofing from a barn or a shed.  The metal roofing panels were $15 each which adds up to almost half the project.

I built the side frames for the raised beds first.  The 8' sides used full length 2x4s with 3 21 1/4 inch vertical pieces as supports on the sides and the middle.  The 4' sides only used 2 supports per side which made for a total of 10 vertical support pieces.  I cut one roofing panel into two 45" pieces and used the full length of the other two panels.  The sides are set at 48" but I needed a gap on either end of the 48" sides for the wood corners to contact each other for a smooth connection.

The construction of this bed is pretty simple but it does take more time to build than a typical wooden raised bed where you simply screw the corners of the wood together.  The metal sided raised bed is very tall at around 28 inches but is a good height for anyone who may have health issues that prevent them from bending over to do garden work.  At this height you can do all the maintenance from a standing position.

The big challenge will be filling the bed.  I'll begin with a layer of straw bales in the bottom and layer with compost, newspapers, leaves, grass clippings, soil, and any other organic material I can find!

Here's a video on the construction of this metal raised bed. Enjoy!

Should You Use Raised Beds?

I've talked a lot about raised beds over the years here and there's no doubt that I'm a fan but are raised beds perfect for everybody?  Does everyone need a raised bed?  The answer is it isn't always necessary.  Anyone could utilize raised beds to have a great garden, but you don't have to have raised beds for an effective and productive garden.  Use this post as a checklist on whether you should use a raised bed or not.

Here are some factors to help you evaluate if you should use raised beds.

The Native Soil.  If your soil is not an ideal soil for growing crops then you may want to use raised beds.  Soils can vary considerably from location to location and even within an acre the soils can be significantly different.  Parts of our yard are sloped with the backyard being pretty much flat.  The sloped areas contain high amounts of clay and very little top soil but the flat areas have a much more rich and humus-y soil.  The areas near the trees are very porous and soft which would be great for growing vegetables except for the fact that the trees would shade the heat loving summer vegetables.  You want your garden soil to be full of organic matter, well drained, and porous enough to allow roots to move through easily.  If the soil is less than ideal then consider the raised beds.

Location.  Raised beds can be built just about anywhere.  You can build a raised bed over rocks, over clay, over poor soil or great soil.  They can even be turned into a table and placed on a deck or patio for the convenience of a nearby kitchen.  With raised beds you have the flexibility of placing the beds wherever you need them. If you only have a slope your raised bed can be higher on one side than the other to create a terraced garden which may allow you to garden in places you didn't think you could!

Convenience of the gardener.  If you love to garden but are handicapped or if you just prefer to not have to bend over as much in the garden tall raised beds can help.  Raised beds can bring the crops up to make gardening more convenient for the gardener.  As a gardener you will do a lot of weeding and plant tending so why not make it more convenient?

Pests!  Do you have voles?  Voles are these little tiny mouse-like creatures that love to nibble on roots.  They will eat your vegetable garden from underneath.  Don't get moles and voles confused.  Moles eat grubs and worms not your plants.  With raised beds you can attach hardware cloth underneath your beds and the voles won't be able to nibble their way through.

You Like the Look!  A neat and organized raised bed garden can be a very cool landscape feature.  Arrange the beds  in a potager arrangement or a parterre layout and you'll have a garden the envy of every neighbor!

Here's another post I wrote about the benefits of raised beds.  Every situation is different and a raised bed garden may not be absolutely necessary for you but consider your options!

Do you garden with raised beds?