I posted about my gardening love in 2017, and after that, I couldn’t post much. Like a recipe, I want to be sure about my gardening practices as well before posting it here. So I took my time to start the series. Finally, I am happy to start the series with raised beds. Here is a picture of my raised bed that I took on a bright sunny day.
What are Gardening Raised Beds?
A raised bed is nothing but a planting bed that sits on top of the existing soil. Usually, the soil is in a contained unit. You can see wood, bricks, or concrete used for building the contained unit or the raised bed. Ours is all wooden.
Why do we need Gardening Raised Beds?
Internet is flooded with the benefits of raised beds. But let me explain why we went with raised beds instead of planting vegetables directly on the ground or on the pots and potters.
My Raised bed Layout:
As you can see from the video, I converted my side yard as my vegetable garden and placed all the raised beds there. A part of our backyard still has pots and potters where I have tulsi, curry leaves, and other herbs. I have three raised beds which are 12X3 feet and one raised bed, which is 12X4 feet.
Price:
The raised bed building process:
Even though we did not construct it; I want to share the process. You first need to remove the lawn/grass and weeds thoroughly from the area. Then place the built bed. (Our gardener constructed the raised beds based on our requirement on site. He did not use the prebuilt ones) Cover the soil inside the bed with weed cloth or barrier. This cloth prevents the weed, but it allows the water to drain and roots to breathe. Then fill it with good organic soil, manure. I would also recommend installing the drip irrigation system at the same time.
The lifetime of a Raised Bed:
We built this raised beds 1.5 years ago and so far, so good. I did not face any issues. Using good quality wood helps a lot. If you are wondering that if you could move the raised bed after placing them, the answer is YES. I have done that but of course with the help of the gardener.
Few Pointers:
A couple of pointers I would like to share here:
Use good quality wood but make sure they are untreated. I would recommend untreated wood for organic gardening. Make sure you use a weed protector. Use good quality organic soil and also add manures, chicken manures are tremendous, and they enrich the soil. Depending upon your backyard layout, you can customize the raised bed sizes. Make sure you place them where you get ample sunlight.
There is nothing more than rewarding than growing your food and cooking the same. I hope this article was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Also, follow me on Instagram or join my Facebook Group for more gardening and recipe updates.
