Raised Vegetable Gardening

Having one’s own backyard food factory is a sheer joy in itself. Due to the non-availability of space and time, modern homes rarely engage themselves in vegetable cultivation. The entire task of tilling, weeding and planting can be back breaking. Raised bed gardening is the answer to this problem. Raised garden beds can be classified into raised flower beds and raised bed vegetable gardens.

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.

Why You Should Use Compost In Your Flower Bed

The benefits of using compost in your beds instead of just soil include less waste, less weeds, healthier plants with less diseases, and less harmful chemicals that damage your plants in the long run. Each benefit will improve the quality and life of your plants, and in turn make your gardening experience more enjoyable.

• Healthier Plants, Richer Flowers: Compost is made up of micro-organisms, worms, arthropods and humus, which provides soil with organic matter. It contains macro and micro nutrients, which are absent in chemical fertilizers. It neutralizes the soil, bringing pH levels to optimum range. It aerates the soil, and brings healthy bacteria, fungi, and insects to the soil. Composting also improves drainage, which is vital when growing flowers. It improves absorption and enhances soil quality. All of these are important for healthy plant growth. Your flowers will be richer and brighter, leaves a tad greener, and your garden friendlier to all kinds of organisms.


• Stronger plants from your compost will be less susceptible to diseases and bugs: You will find it unnecessary to use toxic and harmful pesticides and fertilizers that do more harm than good to your plants and garden. The micro-organisms present in your compost are enough to protect from diseases and pests.


• Compost means less weeds: Replacing soil with compost or mixing compost in your soil means less density, which makes it easy to pull out weeds, if any grow at all. Weeds are significantly less in compost than they are in bare dirt. The less time you spend weeding, the more time you have to plan out a beautiful spring, summer, or winter flower garden. You will have more attention for the plants themselves, rather than the weeds surrounding them.


• Less Yard Waste: If you happen to make your own compost, then it means less organic waste from your kitchen and yard. You can make better use of your yard trimmings and fallen leaves. It is convenient to have your own compost so that you spend less time and money on trying to buy compost or fertilizer in the market. Also, when you have your own compost, you can monitor the ingredients, make sure that it is 100% organic, and tailor it to suit your own needs. You can use waste from the kitchen – vegetable and fruit skins, spent tea leaves, etc. to make your compost pile richer. Less waste means less trips taking out the garbage. Make sure you keep your compost pile or bin away from scavengers. Keep it covered to maintain moisture levels and keep out air. If you have a child, this is an excellent way to educate him or her in living sustainably, reducing waste, and caring for the environment.

Designs For Garden Flower Beds

For ages, gardening involved digging, weeding and regular watering. Bending over and sweating it out was inevitable while gardening during the traditional times. With the evolution of new designs, gone are days of aching backs and tilling the soil. With the invention of raised garden beds, gardening has become a pleasurable experience. Raised bed gardening is perfect for small plots of vegetables and flowers. The raised garden bed keeps the weed away from the garden soil and prevents soil erosion. It provides good drainage for the garden and serves as a barrier to pests such as slugs, rats and snails.

Raised beds are available in a variety of different materials and sizes or they can be made with minimum difficulty. Raised gardening is great for households with a small backyard as it produces more per square feet than ordinary beds. Raised flower beds bring order and beauty to one’s garden as the soil level is raised and it gives a pleasing geometry to one’s garden. The raised garden bed kit is normally made of different kinds of wood. Cedar is most commonly used wood as they look naturally beautiful and are resistant to rot and insects.

Raised garden bed kits are available at reasonable prices. This encourages more people to take up gardening in spite of limited space availability. Not only does it add to the aesthetic value of the house, but it also contributes towards the environment. If every house, every apartment have a small little garden, it will create wonders to the depleting environmental conditions. These raised gardens can be moved from one spot to the other with great ease. One of the main advantages of raised garden beds is water conservation. Watering of raised garden beds normally is in most cases done through drip irrigation. This technique uses 30 - 50% less water than conventional watering methods such as sprinklers and watering directing through pipes. Drip irrigation not only saves water time and energy, it also improves the growth of the plants and discourages the growth of weed. Another main advantage of raised garden beds is that it helps reduce soil erosion as it prevents the topsoil and fertilizers from getting washed away or blown. The other benefit of raised flower bed is that it promotes natural aeration and drainage. As worms and other soil life are important to healthy soil structure, their channels provide aeration and drainage.

INSTANT CURB APPEAL

INSTANT CURB APPEAL. Increase the value of your home without hiring a landscape designer. Let’s face it, in these challenging economic times we need to use this time wisely to maximize value of your home.

Multiple studies have shown the increasing importance of curb appeal in selling a home, especially in a competitive market.

According to the Real Estate Agent Community Trends survey, commissioned by JELD-WEN Windows & Doors. Out of about 500 realtors polled, 82 percent agreed that buyers unimpressed with a home's exterior will not want to look inside. The results also found that 90 percent of respondents agree that a sale depends on first impressions of the front entry, while 91 percent said that the home's exterior is just as important as what is inside.

Another study by The Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association compiled the following property value statistics:

• Landscaping can increase the resale value of a property by as much as 14%
• The sale of a property can increase by as much as six weeks
• A landscaped patio can raise property values by 12.4%
• A landscaped curb can increase property value by 4.4% and hedges can add 3.6%

As our economy starts to improve and home sales increase, you will be ahead of the game!

Create a stunning DIY lighted, landscape design using pre-fab, curved raised garden bed kits, which contains everything you need to transform your empty yard into a stunning garden oasis, in less than an hour. You can have your landscape done before your realtor comes over to appraise your home.

A great choice for raised garden bed kits are called Landscape In-A-Box. They are beautifully designed all-inclusive, eco-friendly, curved raised garden bed kits. They come in different sizes and shapes to add variety to your yard or garden. They appeal to the “green” buyer as well. Unlike pressure treated wood, these composite wood timbers do not leach toxins into the soil. They are easy to install with just a screwdriver and a mallet, and even include an optional solar lighting kit.

Talk about curb appeal!

Earth-Friendly Raised Garden Beds

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.