A raised garden bed is a beautiful thing, setting you up with a lush and productive garden. There are so many advantages to using them and here are just 10 of the many benefits to using them.
1. Your back will thank you!
This has got to be the best one: less bending, clambering and stooping, significantly reducing back pain and makes the whole process of gardening much more comfortable.
2. Pest Control
Raised beds physically move your edibles out of harms way. Well out of the way of low-flying carrot flies and cabbage root flies as well as slugs and other soil-dwelling pests, calling for less harmful pesticides.
3. Weed Reduction
By keeping your raised bed contents separate from the wild surroundings outside, weed seeds will find it harder to spread through your growing environment therefore reducing weed growth, calling for less toxic herbicides.
4. Easy Water Management
Soaker hoses or irrigation kits can be used for easy management of your watering. Add in a watering timer and you can have reliable, consistent watering, ideal if you're away a lot.
5. Flexibility
The different depths and sizes allow for a range of different crops, the deeper beds are perfect for root crops and shallower beds are ideal for growing herbs and salads.
6. Better drainage
They are a good way of boosting drainage as they can be filled with good quality, free-draining topsoil that gets your plants out of the boggy earth below.
7. You can plant raised beds earlier
Early planting in raised beds is possible because the soil
dries out faster in the spring and warms more quickly for planting than soil at ground level. They also receive more sun and retain more heat without distributing it to surrounding areas.
8. Soil is Less Compact
As they receive zero foot traffic from people, animals and birds, the soil does not suffer from compaction the same way that ground level soil does. This not only encourages more plant growth but also reduces maintenance as there is no need to redig to loosen the soil.
9. Ideal for Beginner Gardeners
Raised beds provide an easy way to begin gardening by eliminating many barriers for beginners. In many ways they guarantee success in the first year. Not only will you have free draining soil with less pests and weeds, you can also select the soil type suited to the vegetables you want to grow.
10. Higher Yields
The soil in a raised bed can be healthier than that dug directly in the garden for the reasons stated above and more. This means your plants can grow more vigorously than what you may typically find in a direct-dug bed. The healthier soil brought about by the more precise soil management practices, in turn produces healthier plants which leads to a higher yield of crops during the harvesting seasons.