The most recent National Gardening Survey says, “More and more consumers are choosing not to dig holes in their leisure times. If they have the finances, they are investing in raised beds.” A raised bed is gardening soil, raised above the normal soil level, and contained by durable materials such as wood timbers, bricks or metal edging.
Raised beds offer the advantages of high-quality soil, ease of gardening, and ideal placement. Photo credit: GettyImages
The Benefits of Growing in Raised Beds
The benefits of gardening in raised beds include being able to start with high-quality soil amended to the needs of your plants, says Clare Matthews in Low-Maintenance Vegetable Gardening (Companion House Books, 2018). Here in southwestern Ohio, where we dig in clay soil, raised beds give us a growing advantage. Other advantages include having smaller areas to water, weed and tend, and the soil in raised beds warms faster than the surrounding ground.
Location, Location, Location Applies to Raised Beds
Choose the right location for your raised bed—full sun, good drainage and away from tree roots.You don’t want to build your raised bed in a low-lying spot where water collects, nor do you want a location that’s difficult to get to or that gets a lot of foot traffic from neighbors.
This urban community garden uses narrow raised beds to maximize use of the land. Photo credit: GettyImges