Raised Bed Gardening
As my desire to dig up the backyard and convert it into a thriving micro-farm runs headlong into the reality of what my wife will put up with, I think we have reached a happy medium, of using Raised Bed Gardens as Landscaping.
Raised beds offers a lot of benefits for the backyard gardener. They let you grow in perfectly amended soil in a limited space. Combine them with a system such as Square Foot Gardening or Bio Intensive Gardening and you can produce a surprising yield in a small space. Raised beds can also be built with an eye towards aesthetics. When I was using raised beds in our main garden area I would slap them together without and regard for looks. With my wife’s I went for form and function. By building them out of cedar and taking care with their construction we achieved our desired look. These boxes will supplement our main garden as well as beautify our backyard.
I’ve found that Pinterest is an excellent place to look for inspiration when it comes to designing a garden layout. I’ve got several of them on my GARDENING Pinterest board.
So what do you think of our layout so far?
The benefits
- Provides for great control of your soil
- Awesome for small spaces.
- Lends themselves well to high productivity
- Can be built to help keep critters out.
Check out
ย Keep Critters out of your raised bed gardens
How To Build A Trellis For Vertical Gardening
The First Year With Our Hugelkultur Beds
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Michelle says
Love the offset effect and not sure that you deliberately chose different amounts of humus in each bed but the color contrast of the soils is also rather aesthetically pleasing. ๐
Mike says
Thanks Michelle. The contrast is actually because we had just watered the beds that were planted so far.
Don says
I really like the lay out so far ! I’ve got one raised bed and I’m doing more containers this year . I got a good variety of heirloom seeds , also planted more berry bushes … I love this time of year !
Suburban Steader says
Looks great buddy! Still trying to convince my wife that mulch around the boxes is not a bad idea. She’s not a fan. I might just do it and ask for forgiveness! ๐
Mike says
I like the mulch because the weed whacker was chewing up my old raised beds!