There are many challenges you face in gardening such as pests getting into the plants and soil being run off. But many people are using raised beds by heaping soil into a large pile or containing the heaped soil inside a box.
A raised garden bed is a DIY project that you can do on your own. Without a raised bed, you will need to till the soil to add fertiliser and new soil. But with a raised bed, your work gets a little easier because all you need to do is add materials on top of the bed when you are planting something new after a season finishes. You can skip a lot of heavy work with this method. And manual tilling of soil can essentially deplete the structure of the soil. It is best to let the soil do its own tilling over time with the organisms such as worms that live in the soil. And the roots when they are pushed into the soil help with tilling as well. You are letting it happen organically without causing a lot of disturbance.
And of course, because you don’t need to do much of the heavy work, you will not have to worry about aches and sprains that come after a heavy day of gardening. With raised garden beds, the plants are easier to reach and this will make it easier for you to carry out weeding. This is a great gardening option for seniors as they don’t need to tire themselves out unnecessarily. Even for younger people, you don’t need to break your back when weeding the garden. So they are a lot better on your health.
One of the biggest issues you will face when gardening is critters stealing root crops or snails and slugs getting into the plants. This can be eliminated up to a great extent with the use of raised beds. There will not be any groundhogs or rats coming to steal root crops and dogs will not be urinating directly on the plants. All of this affords some protection to the plants you are growing. You can also add more protection to the raised bed such as a fence that will prevent deer from getting into it or an insect net that can cover the upper portion of the raised bed that will discourage any insects from getting into the plants.
You will also be able to improve the drainage of the garden bed when it is raised from the ground. People generally use a garden box that is about a foot high and have the soil sitting one inch below that. This depth is more than enough to facilitate proper drainage even when there are heavy rains. There is a touch of aesthetics when it comes to raised beds. It is a great way of creating pathways through your garden and it will look a lot neater. Even when you are planting vegetables, herbs and fruits, your garden will still look beautiful and well-kept together. When plants are at ground level, it can crowd the view and they can look a little disorganised.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.