Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Even after I outgrew this gardening method in our own backyard garden, I still use the close spac-
ing techniques. I also adopted the trellising of my vegetables after finding it so successful and now
grow as much as possible vertically. This lets me pack as many plants as possible into our garden
spot—we have to fence it to keep the critters out, which means I really am working with a finite
space.
Raised-Bed Gardening
Raised beds can be used to create garden spaces without having to dig into the ground. Essentially
they are huge containers, boxes without the bottoms. I've seen raised beds as short as 2 inches and
as tall as 3 feet. They are really useful when building gardening spaces in less-than-ideal conditions.
If you have a lot of concrete, hard clay, or infertile soil to deal with, or just want to work your
garden without stooping and bending over, a raised bed might be a great solution.
Raised beds are built with wood, brick, or stone walls in most of the versions I've seen. Railroad
ties are popular in my area and provide a wide, sturdy side wall. Regular lumber like 2×4 boards
or even repurposed boards from around the house can also be used. Natural stone is available
inexpensively for those who live in rocky areas but will require manpower to dig up and place.
If you are building your raised beds on concrete, you'll want to build them up high enough so that
the soil inside the raised beds is able to support the entire root system of your plants. This means at
least 18 to 24 inches for most plants and more for perennials such as berries and asparagus. If your
raised beds will be sitting over soil, you can probably make them shorter because ultimately the
roots will reach into the soil below. The poorer your soil quality is, the deeper you'll want to make
your raised bed; however, if you amend the soil you can improve the quality of the soil below while
still enjoying an immediate harvest. You'd also need to make the beds deep enough to choke out
any weeds from the ground or lawn below.
One way to inexpensively fill the bottom of your raised bed while improving the soil below is to
use the lasagna gardening technique. Lasagna gardening uses layers to improve the soil and smother
weeds and traditionally involves very low-key ingredients. Start with a thick layer of newspaper (the
black-and-white pages, not the glossy pages) that is at least several sheets thick so it will smother
out all the grass and weeds. Then layer in soil builders like compost, straw, manure, sawdust (from
nontreated wood), leaves, grass clippings, and other biodegradable plant materials. You can make
an entire raised bed of this mixture and let it age a season before planting, or bring in topsoil for
the uppermost levels and get started planting right away.
The biggest benefit of raised beds is that you're able to control the quality of the soil for your
plants. Your soil can be filled with organic material and won't be compacted or hard for roots to
stretch. Raised beds also have excellent drainage, which is handy in places with heavy rainfalls or if
your land is high in clay and has poor drainage.
