Earth-Friendly
Raised Garden Beds
By: Lauren J. Heimberg
Eco-friendly
Raised Garden Beds are the hot ticket item for this year’s spring planting season. Raised garden beds and planters are multi-functional and can be used for planting flower beds, vegetable gardens or shrubbery, landscape edging,
playground borders and splinter-free
sandboxes for kids.
These modular raised garden beds can be stacked on top of each other, to adjust the height as your garden blooms. Typically, raised beds are sold in 6” high increments, and can be purchased in heights of 6”, 12”, and 24”. The width of raised beds should be limited to 2’ or 4’ widths, so they will be easy to maintain, without having to climb into beds.
The best elevated garden beds look like real wood grain but are made from earth-friendly recycled, composite plastic timbers. They are durable and long lasting, non-toxic (like arsenic-containing, pressure treated lumber), termite-free, and do not rot, warp, splinter or lose their wood grain finish like traditional timber.
There are a multitude of benefits to raised planters or raised garden beds including:
· Provides a beautiful frame for your garden
· Longer lengths may be used as landscape edging or playground borders
· Can be used as a, or sandboxes
· Improves drainage
· Improves poor soil conditions by providing a deeper topsoil layer
· Adjusts in height, size & shape to accommodate plant growth
· Lawn mower and edger proof plant and flower beds
· Easy to install
When purchasing elevated or raised beds and planters, make sure they are made from eco-friendly recycled materials and include anchor joints for connecting plastic timbers. You may also need finishing sleeves for landscape edging kits.
After constructing your raised garden bed, and securing it into place, place a liner made from gardening plastic or weed mat in the bottom of bed; this greatly reduces the growth of weeds.
Next fill the liner 1/3 full with nutrient-rich compost (from your
compost bin, we’ll talk about this later) then fill the rest with potting soil (store-bought or from another area of your landscape) and some dry organic fertilizer. Finally, you are ready to create your garden by sowing seeds or planting flowers, vegetable and plants starts.
Lastly, water your raised bed and don’t forget to water these beds frequently since there are above ground, and do not retain water as well.
If you are using the
raised garden bed for a sandbox, it is best to place a gardening plastic liner in the bottom before filling with sand. Some raised garden beds are sold as sandboxes and come with covers for protection from the elements and from animals who think it’s a giant kitty litter box.
After you’ve created your very own eco-friendly, raised garden oasis, you can begin work on the
composting and
vermiculture.
Raised garden beds make the process of gardening simple and pain-free. It eliminates the ordeal of digging and weeding. The raised garden kit is lifted from the ground level. Growing vegetables on these raised garden beds have many benefits. Raised garden bed kit prevents soil erosion, facilitates growth of the vegetables and prevents the growth of unwanted weeds. Its saves time, energy and water. It makes one’s garden look organized and creates a beautiful and a colorful garden. These beds are easily to handle and maintain. Growing vegetables on raised garden beds makes it easier for the gardeners to tend to it as the beds are raised from the ground level. Since it is one open bed, there is more room for the roots to penetrate and spread, thus allowing them to breathe better as compared to flower pots. A good number of vegetables can be grown in one bed at the same time. Raised garden bed kits are designed to retain water for a longer period as it has sufficient soil mass. There are engineered to provide the best drainage facilities along with soil aeration. These beds are most useful during spring as the soil in the beds warm up more quickly than the ones on the ground.
Raised vegetable beds are available in different materials and sizes. They come in forms such as composite timber raised beds, natural cedar raised beds, Vinyl raised beds, cedar rectangular raised beds, Elevated container gardens, Recycled Plastic raised garden beds, Ready-to-Grow complete raised bed gardens, etc. These models are available as ready to use or can be assembled. Raised beds can be built on are own as well. While growing one’s garden or backyard farm have several benefits such as providing one’s family with healthy and organic vegetables and reduction in the family expenses. It is also an environment friendly action as it reduces the impact of transporting and warehousing. It also contributes towards tackling air pollution. All these amazing benefits can be made possible even with limited space, by using raised bed vegetable gardening method.
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