Tips for Using Your Raised Bed Garden

Once you’re raised beds are built are ready to go, you’ll next need to mix your soil and fill your beds. You can dig up a good amount of soil from your existing garden as it will have many of the minerals and nutrients your plants need to grow. If, however, you’ve had any problems with plant diseases in your garden, it’s best to start off with fresh soil. Talk to your local extension agent for details.

You can use roughly 25% soil from your yard as a base. Add in equal parts sand and compost to form a good, well-draining soil. After you’ve mixed your soil, check the pH to make sure it isn’t too acidic or alkaline. If you don’t know much about soil or composting, we recommend visiting this on-line compost guide, which will get you on your way to composting and creating the perfect soil for your raised beds. Looking for a terrific soil recipe for your raised bed garden? Try the Square Foot Gardening soil mix. It is amazingly good.

To discourage pests from attacking your plants, you can add extra protection to both the top and the bottom of your raised beds. If you’ve got an elevated raised bed you can cover the bottom of the bed with chicken wire or a similar kind of material to stop animals such as rodents from eating your vegetables. Birds also like to eat veggies and fruits, so you can consider placing bird netting over your raised beds.

To avoid problems with weeds, make sure to mulch your raised beds. An organic bark mulch will work well, and black plastic mulches or weed guards are another option for added protection against weeds. In general, you’ll find that weeding your raised beds is much easier than a traditional garden bed.

If your plants are hit by a soil-based disease, you can change out the soil in the bed and continue gardening. This is quite different than with traditional garden beds, where you need to let the bed rest for sometimes up to two years to let the risk of disease to dissipate.

Raised beds are very easy to irrigate, and they will help cut down on your water bill. You will only need to water where you plants are growing, and not the spaces between the rows or areas for walking around and working in your garden. There are a number of irrigation systems appropriate for your raised beds. For example, soaker hoses and drip irrigation are ideal. These systems will ensure that your plants get a good deep soaking and that the foliage stays dry.

Overhead watering with a hose may cause your plants to become more susceptible to disease as foliage that stays moist too long can be a host of fungus and other diseases. Collecting water with rain barrels is one eco friendly way to keep your garden irrigated without using city water.

Note that the sides of your raised beds may heat up in the summer and cause the soil to dry out a little quicker. Simply monitor the soil in your raised beds during the hottest months of the year so that your plants stay healthy and aren’t stressed. Note that this same characteristic of raised beds allows them to heat up faster in the spring and fall, which means you can cultivate your plants earlier in the growing season.

This site from Colorado State University has tips on watering and using your raised bed.

In addition to traditional gardening with your raised beds, you can easily modify them to further enhance the gardening experience. For example, you can quickly transform your raised beds into a kind of greenhouse if you place a simple plastic structure around them to hold in the heat during colder months. This is a simple kind of green house called a cold frame. You can be as elaborate as you want with your cold frame, and can design them so you can remove the plastic liner or break down the entire structure during the summer to allow easier access to your raised beds. For more information on building a cold frame, see this site from the University of Missouri.

Maintaining Your Raised Bed Garden
Maintaining your raised beds is easy. All you really need to do is work the soil periodically and add organic matter. It’s best to add organic compost in the early spring before you plant so that your soil will have adequate nutrients throughout the growing season. When you’re resting your raised bed for the winter, you can also add a thin layer of crushed leaves or other garden waste to the top of the raised bed.

In the rare case that your plants have suffered from a soil-borne disease, you may need to remove all the soil from the bed and replace it will fresh soil. Also, keep track of soil drainage after several growing seasons, as you may need to add more sand or organic material and rework the soil.

You’ll also need to monitor the conditions of the building materials for your raised beds. Woods like cedar are very sturdy and should be fine for many growing seasons. If you’ve built your raised beds from concrete blocks or bricks, periodically check the mortar and make sure the structure is still sturdy.


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