We have gardened in two different places: the home we owned for 20 years in town, and the 13 family-owned acres we now share with my brother-in-law. At our house in town, we gardened for years by tilling up the ground like most people do, and planting in rows. We grew vegetables, and never knew there was a better way.
I can't remember how we ran across the book, Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew. After reading this book, we were convinced that maybe we could be even more successful at gardening by growing our produce in raised beds. We decided to give it a try. Two years before we moved to the country, we built our first raised beds per the SFG method, even using the proportions of mix for the soil that he recommended, and planting the number of seeds per square recommended.
Guess what? Our tomatoes never produced as well as they did that season! It worked!! Not only that, but it was SO much easier to keep weeded and watered than regular rows. We also weren't wasting a lot of water that is inherent in gardening in rows, and the soil mixture we used helped hold moisture in when the weather was dry. We fell in love, and haven't gone back since.
When we moved to the country a few years ago, we gardened however we could until we got all of the boxes built in our new garden. Considering we have a fairly large garden, this was a pretty big undertaking, and took a bit to finish. We repurposed wood laying around the homestead, and also purchased individual fence slats to help build our beds (MUCH more economical than buying regular wood). The fence slats are 6" wide, which is deep enough for most non-root vegetables. We have a few very deep beds (around 12 inches) that we use for carrots, parsnips, and such.
I have been mulching our beds with peat moss, which helps to hold moisture in and also improves the soil. It also helps to control weeds until the plants grow and take up more space. I love the weed control that gardening in boxes provides. Your plants are together in a square or rectangle, which leaves less room for weeds to grow in between them. We have the walkways between the boxes covered in 20 year shingles, and it works very well to keep things from getting too muddy, and from weeds taking over the walkways.
There are other ways to cover your walkways: cardboard (I used this before we got the shingles and it worked. We got them at our local grocery for free), newspaper (You would have to weigh them down with a few rocks or a few handfuls of dirt), or mulch (wood chips, pine bark, sawdust) would all work as well.
The boxes themselves provide an interesting geometric view that is pleasing to the eye. We have some boxes that are rectangular, and some boxes that are square, and they aren't all the same size, so it is never boring! On the far end of our garden, to simplify the finishing up process, we boxed in 3 or 4 long rows all the same size.
Throughout the winter, I have been amending the soil by adding compost, food scraps, chicken manure, and peat moss directly in the beds. In the spring, we will take our small electric handheld tiller and mix it all in.
Whether you garden yet or not, I would consider adding some raised bed boxes to grow some of your own food in. Not only is it healthier, especially if you garden naturally without poisons, but we also live in perilous times where it is a possibility you might not be able to make it to the store to buy what you need for an extended period of time.
There really isn't an exact science to building a raised bed. It can be as fancy or as simple as you want. It just needs to be at least 6 inches deep to provide enough room for roots to grow. You could even build one on a sunny small deck or balcony.
I highly recommend the previously mentioned book Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew. (Buy it HERE). He gives a thorough explanation of the benefits and the how-to's of raised bed gardening. There is also tons of information about how to grow and take care of specific fruits and vegetables. We love our copy.
Keep in mind that you don't have to actually lay out individual squares in your raised beds if you don't want to. We did that at our old house, but now we just plant as we choose. You can still incorporate the method without using every single specific. I hope that you will consider at least looking into this method of gardening. It's definitely worth considering! Anyone can learn to garden successfully with raised beds.
Happy gardening and Blessings,
Debbie, Home at Serenity Springs
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