For centuries, raised bed gardening tips never fail to provide useful information not just for newbies but even for experts as well.  As timeless as the technique may be, its results are always way beyond the ordinary gardening can offer.  With the proper raised bed gardening tips, anybody can be an instant plant grower!

Raised Bed Gardening Tips – What to do Before and After Planting?

Going out of the conventional gardening is fun and exciting.  But of course, you must be responsible enough to know the necessary things you must do before you get to start with your task.  Preparation is just the beginning.  There’s still the after-planting job that garden owners must accomplish.  Take a review of the following advices.

3 Hints Before You Decide to Plant

• To walk or not to walk.

Make up your mind if you want to step on some parts of your raised bed garden or not.  If you think you’ll need to, you may install patio pavers, with that you get to avoid walking over the soil.

• Prepare an irrigation plan.

Doing so would save you a lot of time later on.  You may choose either soaker hose or drip water system.

• Check the surrounding tree roots.

If your raised bed garden is located near some large trees the best way to avoid weeds is by installing a fence or barricade at the bottom of the bed.  Your blockade material can be available in the market or you can recycle some of your old carpets or thick cardboards.

3 Pointers When You’re Done Planting

• Mulch your garden.

This process would improve moisture retention of your soil.  It would also decrease the quantity of weeds.

• Loosen up your soil.

There will be times when the soil will be compressed.  Alleviate it by fluffing the bed with garden fork.

• Add at least one inch layer of compost each year.

Since soil depletes as time goes by, you may put over an extra inch of compost annually to patch it up.

With the summary of raised bed gardening tips above, you’ll definitely have a wider knowledge how to take care of the soil and plants at the same time.

Raised Bed Gardening Tips – Benefits and Drawbacks of Raised Bed Planting

Some gardeners already shifted to raised bed garden, some remain with the traditional way, but for what reason?  They probably weighed the pros and cons of the system.  Check the enumeration below.

• Benefits

-       You get a chance to prepare your own soil mixture with the essential nutrients your plants need in order to grow.

-       Less fatigue and effort – no hassle of bending and stooping.

-       You can organize your crops the way you wanted.

-       Easy to maintain.

-       Soil erosion incidents are reduced.

-       Protection from animals and weeding.

-       Ideal for those who do not have much land area.

• Drawbacks

-       Manual cultivation.

-       A bit costly as compared with conventional gardening.

-       Raised bed garden requires frequent irrigation especially for areas with hot climate.

-       Once you selected the wrong materials for the construction of raised bed, chemical leakage may occur which is very harmful for the crops.

Did you find the drawbacks as real hindrances for pursuing raised bed planting?  If not, then continue reading the rest of the article for the complete raised bed gardening tips that you can still learn!

Raised Bed Gardening Tips – Composting Procedures

Although your plants are not on the ‘typical’ soil, you may still apply composting techniques that may enhance the growth of your flowers or veggies.

• Worm Tubes

-       The principle of this method is to have a specific area in your garden wherein you can collect kitchen leftovers. Worms would then come over beneath the tubes and eat.  When they’re done, they’ll crawl back into the soil and deposit their wastes which in turn become your compost.

-       If you would create a tube or a bin, make it sure it has the three essential needs of worms- aeration, temperature and moisture.

• Trench composting

-       This is a very straightforward approach wherein you just have to dig a channel around 1 foot deep.  Fill half of the trench’s height with dried plants, kitchen leftovers and other compostable substances and cover them up with the earth you’ve ploughed out.

-       Trench composting does not require any kind of maintenance in order to take effect.

-       This method focuses on the plant roots where it is needed.

-       With this technique, you need not worry about the odor of the rotting wastes because they are beneath the ground.

With raised bed gardening tips to follow, you are not just controlling the soil but you get to customize your composting technique as well.

Raised Bed Gardening Tips – What’s the Best Wood to Use?

Location and plants are not the sole considerations when it comes to raised bed planting but the wood material that would be used as well.  Wrong selection may lead to leaching of chemicals from treated woods that could be absorbed by your crops, gradually destroying them.  With that, think of the following wood choices that are proven to be safe and effective.

• Cedar wood

This lumber has shown its capacity to resist rot caused by irrigation.  It also has natural protective layer that shields against insects.

• Redwood

Similar with cedar wood, this timber is one of the top choices of gardeners when it comes to building raised bed gardens.  Pest and deterioration have no place in your vegetation should you decide to use redwood.

• Recycled wood

Though it may be a reprocess material it is more expensive than some normal type of woods.  One reason for that is some of its varieties are made from a mixture of plastic and wood fibers making the material more durable and sturdier.

There you have them, the gardeners’ favorite wood choices!  With the enlightenment of raised bed gardening tips, you’ll be able to pick your own preference with full confidence!

Got a better picture of unconventional way of planting?  Share these raised bed gardening tips with your friends and have fun gardening; your own idea would be most welcome too by filling out the comment section.