Domestically Sustainable Agriculture - Construction, Planting, and Harvesting

Step 2 Raised Bed Overview

The type of garden we will be building is known as a raised bed garden. Raised bed gardens offer:

• Excellent drainage of water
• The soil warms up more quickly in a raised bed than a bed in the ground.
• Maintenance is easy and very customizable
• The garden can be made more easily accessible.

- We plan on building boxes to grow in, which will help to make access to the gardens much easier.

The one major disadvantage of building a raised bed garden is that fact that more labor will have to be put in to building it. Depending on the quality of the build, maintenance can be either easy or hard. So, it will be best to make the most sturdy, and supported bed in order to avoid labor as the season moves on. The raised beds can also dry out a little easier, which is why we will instal a green system of a rain barrel to make use of the rain water instead of continual use of well water.

Comments

[kayeed44]

I'm 65 and have used raised beds for years. PROBLEM area is the grass around the outer perimeter. I use old discarded rug, about a foot wide, and the long fasteners used for "weedmat" to keep it in place. It keeps all the grass from growing under the box and into the garden AND makes mowing easy.

[A good name]

Eh... I personally just edge my from time to time and make a small trench.