Today, we talk about how to build or setup a raised bed gardening. Raised garden beds are easy to build and also maintain. They offer gardeners as well as a garden with lots of benefits. In this article, we will discuss how to build a raised bed garden on your own as well as some tips to use perfect wood and also soil. Raised beds are considered to be a simple way to get involved in gardening. Irrespective of you purchasing the kit or building your own raised bed garden, there are many best reasons to use raised bed gardening.
Raised bed garden:
A Raised bed garden can also be termed as a Raised bed. This is a large container for planting which will sit on the top surface of the ground and is also filled with plants and soil. This can be also considered as a box which has no top or bottom and is placed in a sunny location. This will be filled with the soil of good quality in order to become a source of pleasure and an attraction to the garden.
Building a Raised wood garden:
Selection of right wood:
Most of the people will be particular about their wood frame safety. In order to make sure that the wood lasts for a long time, there are many options:
Lumber which is pressure treated on a regular basis today will have a combination of chemicals which is applied for the prevention of the soil to get moist and the weather from getting rot. Though the wood which is treated with pressure is considered to be safe for organic growing of plants, few people have some restrictions in using it and there are several alternatives which are environmentally friendly.
The woods which are expensive like cedar will consist of natural oils. These will help in the prevention of rotting and will make them last longer. They are very expensive for buying, but they are more durable.
Selecting the boards which are thicker will help the wood to last longer. For instance, larch which is thick of 2 inches and is sourced locally should be able to last for at least 10 years without any sort of treatment.
Always make sure that you are not using any railroad ties as there is a chance that they are treated with creosote which is considered to be toxic.
Other alternatives to wood are concrete blocks. Anyways, always remember that the concrete will improve the ph of the soil with time and you will need to take care of the soil amendment accordingly in order to grow the best-raised bed garden.
Size of the raised bed:
In the first place, you will require a place with its ground levelled and also gets a good amount of sunlight. It should be able to receive sunlight for at least 8 hours a day. This will reduce your options to some extent.
When coming to bed size, the width of 4 feet should be common. Lumber is cut more frequently in the increments of 4 foot and you should also access the garden without stepping on to the raised bed. If you make the bed with too much width, then it will make it tough for you to reach the center. This will affect your weeding and harvesting.
Length of the bed is very much important. Typical pots mostly have a width of 4 feet and length of 9 feet. You will need to prepare your bed as long as possible or you should build many raised beds for varied crops.
The bed’s depth can differ, but soil depth should be the minimum depth. Most of the plants grown in the garden will require 8 to 12 inches for the sake of their roots, so 12 inches would be fine.
Read:Water Culture Hydroponic System.
Preparation of the site for a raised bed:
Prior to the establishment of the bed, break up and also loosen the soil below by making use of a garden fork so that the soil will not become compact. You will need to go to a depth of a minimum of 8 inches. For the improvement in rooting, few gardeners would like to cut the top layer, dig down one more layer and then come back to the top layer and combine the layers of the soil together.
If you are in a plan to keep your raised bed in a space which is occupied by a lawn, put a cardboard sheet, a tarp, a small piece of fabric which is used for landscaping in order to kill the grass in the first place. After almost 45 days the grass will be dead and can be moved easily.
Build a Raised Garden Bed:
Building raised bed garden boxes is a simple method.
As support for timber beds, you will need to keep wooden stakes at each and every corner. Keep them inside the bed in such a way that the stakes are not that much visible.
You will need to drive the stakes till 2 feet into the ground and should leave the remaining stakes above the ground exposed to air.
Also, make sure that the stakes are levelled so that they are present in the ground at a similar height or you will have beds which are not even.
The lowest boards should be kept 2 inches below the level of the ground. Also, check that they are levelled.
Use the nails which are galvanized for fixing the boards to the stakes.
You can also add more rows of boards by fixing them to the stakes.
Raised bed garden soil:
The blend of the soil which you keep into your raised bed is the most important one. Most of the gardeners will fail because of the soil which is poor rather than anything else.
The beds should be filled with a topsoil mix, compost and other types of organic material like manure in order to provide the plants with an environment which is rich in nutrients.
Also, remember that the raised bed soil will get dried more rapidly. At the time of spring and winter, this will be good, but at the time of summer, you will need to add straw, hay or mulch on the soil’s top so that they would help to restore the moisture.
Watering should be done more often as this is very important for the raised beds mainly in the starting stages of growth of plants. After they are established, there will be no requirement of too much maintenance.
Requirements to prepare raised bed garden soil:
Below are the requirements of 4×8 foot raised bed:
Topsoil: 4 bags. Make sure that you are not collecting the topsoil from your backyard as there may be chances of weeds and pests in it.
Peat moss: 2 buckets.
Compost: 2 bags
Grass clippings or leaves which are shredded: 2-inch layer. Make sure that the grass clippings are herbicides and also free from fertilizers.
