I am slowly transitioning to raised beds in our vegetables garden. Last year my husband built two small raised beds close to the kitchen for my herbs. They worked out so well, I can just step outside the kitchen and cut fresh herbs for cooking.
In our regular vegetable garden we already have four raised beds; two for strawberries and two that I usually plant garlic and lettuce in. This year we are going to triple the number of raised beds. The downside is that I will be a little late in getting the garden planted but that will be a small sacrifice.
I love raised beds. A raised bed is a mound of loose, well prepared soil, six to eight inches high that will make for easier gardening and healthier crops. Raised beds can just be a mound of dirt which you can reform each year or they can be permanent with edgings of stone, blocks, or wood. My beds will be permanent. You can use raised beds for anything from flowers to vegetables.
Here are a few more perks of raised garden beds:
1. Because the beds aren’t subjected to regular foot traffic, the soil always stays porous and loose and never compacts. The loose soil provides good drainage, enabling water, air and fertilizer to penetrate easily to the roots of your plants.
2. If you make permanent raised beds, the path next to each bed is never used for growing vegetables. Because it is constantly being walked on and packed down, it stays dry, clean and relatively weed-free.
3. Because the beds are segregated by the paths between them, you can take advantage of the layout to rotate the variety of vegetables you plant in each bed each year. Crop rotation maintains the soil’s nutrients and discourages pests and pathogens.
4. Finally, your raised bed garden is always orderly, organized and pleasing to the eye because it is so easy to maintain!
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Nancy on the Home Front 