Area Guide to Homes & Gardens: July 27, 2023
How does picking ripe red tomatoes at arm’s length sound? Snipping fresh chives without bending over to cut them or harvesting a bumper crop of potatoes with little more than gloved hands for the digging? Cold Frame With Plastic Sheeting
If kneeling and bending aren’t among your favorite activities – or you simply don’t have the mobility to do those motions – consider raised bed gardening.
Raised beds offer flexibility and creative options to grow food for the table, ornamental plants and perennials for the landscape and lush floral bouquets for pure joy.
The main purpose of a raised bed is to elevate the growing area of your plants while making them easier to tend, care for and manage.
Raised beds can be made from organic materials like oak, cedar, redwood, stone and other sturdy mediums.
Look for wood that is rot-resistant and untreated. Treated lumber, which includes pressure treated and railroad ties, should never be used around edible plants, vegetables and herbs because it can contain heavy metals that may leach into the edibles.
Appropriate materials to craft a raised bed can be made of really anything that is non toxic and will hold the structure together.
For a modern, farmhouse or industrial look consider using corrugated or sheet metals for walls and top them with wood or other materials to seal off sharp edges.
Repurposed livestock tubs and metal basins have become popular ways to garden in a container or raised bed fashion.
“You’ll need drainage at the bottom, so [the rasied bed] can’t be a closed off,” said Margaret Pickhoff, a commercial horticulture educator in the Bucks County office of Penn State Extension in Wrightstown Township.
In order to help contain soil and moisture, consider using permeable garden or landscape fabric. When fashioning using materials as a bottom for your raised bed make sure there is plenty of drainage, she added.
Large containers with small trees and shrubs are also popular in the landscape, and can take advantage of a raised bed structure.
“Keep in mind the size of the root ball of whatever you are growing” when working with a landscape designer for large raised bed projects, Pickhoff said.
Matching the container size to the root size of whatever you are planting will help achieve successful growing.
“Once you get into shrubs and trees the root system is much larger,” she added.
Because raised bed gardens can be set high above ground level, they’re ideal for deterring destructive wildlife. Keep tender seedlings and young plants away from munching rabbits, groundhogs and other small animals.
A raised bed garden is a great option for those with heavy or poor soil quality, soils that are seriously compacted or when starting a garden from scratch, according to Pickhoff.
“In urban areas where folks are concerned about heavy metals in the soil, [raised beds] are also great options,” she said.
For those who want to garden in small or limited spaces raised beds are a solid option.
“Raised bed gardens are great for any skill level – from young children to seniors,” said Andrew “Andy” Eckhoff, general manager at Bountiful Acres in Buckingham Township.
“When my son was about four-years-old we grew potatoes. We added more soil every day [to our raised bed] and when it came to harvest, we could put our hands into it and harvest the potatoes easily by just fluffing out the soil,” he explained.
For seniors, or those who use wheelchairs, raised beds are an attractive alternative to remain active gardeners.
From 10 to 14 inches high to waist high boxes or structures raised bed gardens mean no digging or prep required at ground level.
“For people with smaller areas and terraces you can have them waist-high, two and a half by four foot. You’d be surprised what you can grow in a small area, with really, really good soil,” Eckhoff said.
Raised beds are a perfect solution for large gardens where contained order, structure and defined spacing is preferred.
“For an older gardener, it’s easier to tend and work. You are using a soil blend or mix, which is often more organic, light and fluffy” in which to work, Eckhoff said.
Starting or building raised beds from scratch gives you an opportunity to give your seeds, seedlings and plants their best shot at a premium growing season. Buy the best soil mix you can find to optimize success, Pickhoff said.
“This way, you do not have to worry about bringing in soil amendments,” she explained.
When adding compost to raised beds, keep the 4 to 1 ratio in mind. That means four parts general potting soil to one part compost.
“You don’t want to fill the entire raised bed with compost. While organic matter is good you really can have to much of a good thing” when it comes to compost, Pickhoff explained.
Consider buying premixed raised bed soil or materials, if that makes beginning your raised bed garden easier.
Raised beds will need to be watered and fertilized more frequently because the soil can drain and dry out faster, especially in hot, dry weather.
Use a high quality liquid fertilizer or slow release fertilizer to make sure essential nutrients are available to your growing plants, Pickhoff said.
If you find you’re watering regularly a consequence of watering is washing nutrients out of the soil. Regular fertilizing ensures your plants have the essential nutrition they need to thrive.
If soils are soggy or flood easily raised beds will drain faster, and they warm up faster – which often means plants will grow faster, too, Pickhoff said.
Approach your raised beds – regardless of their size – the same way you approach container gardening.
From planting a few weeks earlier in the spring to extending the harvest in fall or even creating a cold frame or “hoop house” garden environment, raised bed garden options afford many possibilities.
“The flip side is the soil may freeze faster because it’s less insulated,” she said of growing plants well into the fall in colder climates.
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