Raised Bed Gardens
A raised bed garden is a great idea for a small plot of flower or vegetable garden. It just requires that you have a few inches of fencing around the area, to fill in the soil with. Not only does this save you the tiresome job of tilling the ground, it also looks pretty if you use a good wood for the fencing! You could easily build yourself a raised bed garden from accessories lying around the house – bricks, stones, wood or even cardboard. How much you spend on the supplies solely depends on what look you are trying to achieve.
Better looking and easier to maintain!
You will find that a raised bed garden is easier to maintain than a conventional patch of garden. For one thing, people would think twice before stepping on it! Well, that’s basic human psychology working here – people do think twice when they see you have put in such effort to protect your plants. Anyway, since you wont have the odd person stepping over your garden bed, the soil will remain porous, and not get tightly packed as does happen often with conventional gardens. Cultivating a raised bed is easy since you are able to reach into every corner of the plot, and take out weeds with ease. In a flat patch, the weeds often spread their roots well into neighboring areas, and can be much harder to completely remove in such case.
Getting started with your raised bed garden
Once you have your perimeter fencing 6-8 inches high installed, you are ready to fill it with a nice rich soil. Remember, soil needs to be moist and freely packed so your plants can ‘breathe’. This is the stage you could make the soil richer by adding compost and other organic matter, which will later provide nourishment to your plant roots. Next you can divide the area into rows and columns to help you maintain a good safe distance between plants, so their roots don’t interfere with each other. Keep one row dedicated to one type of plant. Place stakes in the raise bed to help you divide the area. Plants of similar nature can be kept next to each other. Keep stakes 3 feet apart for different varieties of plants. You could dig a trench along the rows that you have already planned. A trench provides a release of water during rainfall. Remember, too much water can rot your roots, and a raised bed garden could hold in rainwater for long periods owing to its fenced sides.
Maybe you could make a checklist to help you remember things to do while preparing the bed for cultivation. An elevation for your raised flower or vegetable garden will definitely improve the standard of your garden, no doubt!