11/28/2010 Raised Vegetable Garden; Raised Bed…

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Advanta ges of Building a Raised Vegetable Ga rden
[ ? ] Su bs c r ibe
To Webs ite You can stop singing "My Achy, Achy Back Blues…" Make your raised bed
U pd ates gardens just the height you want to so it's comfortable to work alongside.

There's more area for the good 'ole sun to shine on, so your above ground
garden boxes warm up faster.

Four legged and two legged wanderers, such as dogs and children, are not so
prone to skipping and leaping into your lettuces. Plus, you can line the bottom
of your beds with netting before you build to stop burrowing pests.

You get to choose what goes into your garden boxes without having to
remove anything first, such as rocks, sand, claggy clay, poisoned soil and so
on. Fill up your raised beds with the best you can obtain for fast and healthy
plant growing results.

There's no worries with drainage and compaction, plus watering can be

controlled in an enclosed area.

With raised bed gardening, everything is rather more tickety-boo than a

common old ground hugging gaggle of stuff. Edges are defined, things stay in
place, it's easy to reach over and pluck and pick, and it looks neat... both sorts
of neat!

Disadvanta ges of Building a Raised Vegetable Garden

Because the sides are exposed to the weather, watch out for your raised beds
to dry out faster than the surrounding ground.

Initial costs can be a bit stiff unless you use recycled materials.

If for some reason you need to re-arrange your garden; botheration... it's a
bother, no it's a big bother, to shift a raised bed garden.

Building a Raised Garden Bed

Thanks to Les Bo ucher from Australia, who has pro vide d the follo wing
photo s o f building a no -dig ga rden with a raised vegetable garden bed
( S ee Les' co mments belo w) :

S tep 1. Lay out your garden

area. Leave the grass it will die,
or cut it if you wish. The garden
beds can be any height.

I've previously built ones for

community groups of about 1m
(3ft) high to allow for wheelchair
access. It's a matter of layering
to get things to the height you
want.

S tep 2. Lay out old cardboard.

Try your local supermarket for
this... recycling again...love it...

S tep 3. Wet your newspaper

before you spread it out — it
will stick together when you
overlap it.

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11/28/2010 Raised Vegetable Garden; Raised Bed…

S tep 4. Spread WET newspaper

OVER cardboard making sure
that it overlaps by about a
quarter to one third of its size.

By doing it this way you are

cutting out the sunlight and the
grass will die and it, as well as
the cardboard and paper, will
all rot back and feed Mother
Earth.

S tep 5. Next comes a layer of

Lucerne Hay (more food as it
breaks down).

S tep 6. A thin layer of Manure

(in this case "Moo Poo") is then
laid out...

S tep 7. Finally this is all

covered with a layer of straw (I
use Pea Straw as it adds more
nutrient as it breaks down) and
it also works as a mulch for your
plants keeping them warm in
the winter and cool in the
summer.

S tep 8. From here it is just a

matter of making a small hole in
the top layer of straw and
adding a handful of potting mix
or compost and planting into it.

You can see the results of this

one that I prepared earlier.

I hope that this inspires you to build your own raised vegetable garden
and to get out into your yard and smell the roses ( or cabbages).

Here's Les, and his comments:

"Since building these garden beds, I have gone on to share this idea
with others, including building eight beds 4m x 2m (13ft x 6½ft) for
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11/28/2010 Raised Vegetable Garden; Raised Bed…
a men's shed complex near where I live. These are about 1m (3ft)
high to allow access by wheelchair bound people as well as those
able bodied people who have bad backs." Les Boucher

See lots more photos of methods and material ideas for building a raised bed
vegetable garden here.

Here are full descriptions on more great ways to have other organic raised bed
gardens:

No Till Gardening
Straw Bale Gardening
Sq ft Gardening
Lasagna Gardening

50 Free Landscape Designs

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