If you have struggled with poor soil conditions, switching to raised garden beds may be the solution you have been looking for. Find out all the benefits to growing in raised beds.
Also see The Best Wood to Choose for Raised Garden Beds when you are ready to build.
10 Smart Reasons to use Raised Garden Beds
1Raised beds offer more options for growing locations
- With raised beds you have more flexibility to choose the location you want despite obstacles like slopes, trees or bad soil.
2Raised beds make the best use of your soil
- Most gardens could benefit from better soil. Good compost and humus will either take time (to make your own) or money.
- With raised beds it goes right where you need it.
- Also, raised bed growing is a much safer option if you are uncertain of the health or safety of your existing soil.
3Raised beds can help with mobility issues
- Back, knee, or other mobility problems? Tall, narrow raised beds make it easier to reach.
- You can also build a box on legs if bending is not an option.
- You can find more tips for a back and knee-friendly garden here.
- This DIY tall raised bed is perfect for flower pots and winter sowing bins.
4Raised beds provide a weed and pest barrier
- Snails and slugs don’t want to climb those walls! And nearby weeds will find it harder to invade.
- The carrot fly (Chamaepsila rosae) is believed to only be able reach 18-inches above ground so growing carrots, parsnips, parsley, and celery—all crops it can destroy—up in a tall raised bed or other container may help protect the crops.
5Raised beds can solve drainage problems
- Some gardens retain too much water, in others it just washes away. A raised bed with good soil and mulch on top manages water very nicely.
6Raised beds prevent soil compaction
- A well-built raised bed can provide a level growing area despite a slope, allows better drainage (without too much run-off), and, you can avoid having compacting soil (by making it just the right size to reach into without standing in it).
- Most how-to articles recommend a bed not greater than 4 feet wide. I find them easiest to manage at 3 feet wide x any length you like.
Related: 10 Best Vegetables to Grow in Containers
7Raised beds prevent soil erosion
- Got slopes? Add raised beds to provide level, contained growing space.
8You can plant more in raised beds
- The richness and depth of the soil in a good raised beds allows much denser planting conditions.
- Where I would normally follow the guidelines on seed packages in an in-ground bed, a raised bed can accommodate more crowded conditions and produce higher yields.
9Raised beds extend the growing season
- Soil in raised beds warms faster in the spring and maintains warmth longer in the fall.
- Use the frame to attach cold frames or other weather protection.
10Raised beds are beautiful
- Yes, I think so! And there are so many options for materials and design from rustic to industrial. It’s functional art!
- You can see more examples here on my Pinterest board: Garden Veggie Beds.
- And no, you don’t just have to grow veggies in them. Anything grows!
Tell me I have convinced you to give them a try!
Dealing With Poor Quality Soil
My first garden was an incredible challenge. Not only was I brand-new to gardening (very green!) but (I later learned) I was starting out on a nearly impossible piece of land.
Our property was built on one massive, solid block of clay. Not just heavy clay soil but, in most spots, all clay. Clay so pure I could (and did) make little pottery items with it. Great for making dishes: an incredible challenge for growing.
I should have had a clue when I could not even dig without putting my full weight on the shovel and hopping on it like a pogo stick.
Adding a tray of plants would take an entire afternoon. And, despite my efforts, few would thrive or perhaps even survive.
And how could they? A healthy garden is all about healthy soil—some combination of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter. Not clay-clay-clay. And a place for all the life-givers including microbes, worms, and much more, to do their thing.
Perhaps your soil is not this bad, but it’s a safe bet that most of us have soil conditions that could use some improvement and ongoing amendments.
Everything I learned about managing that block of clay known as my former garden I now apply to my current garden which is pure sand.
Here’s an easy way to understand the composition of your garden soil.
And, this has ideas for filling a large raised bed without spending a fortune on soil.
Does Double Digging Work?
Any gains made by double digging are temporary.
Through these years of struggle, experienced gardeners would advise me to double dig.
The basic idea is, you dig deep trenches in the soil, add ingredients your soil is lacking (in my case, everything!), turn everything over, and reform the garden bed.
It sounds all good and fine, and the immediate results seem promising but nature is not so easily changed.
Over time, the underlying characteristics of the soil take over again. The clay or sand (or whatever imbalance you have) remains dominant and all that money spent adding soil amendments washes away.
After several failed double-digging trials, I basically gave up and accidentally caused the solution I was looking for.
Instead of amending deep down in the soil, I started adding things like good compost on top of it and confirmed that no-dig (whenever possible) seems to be best.
More and more and more of it.
Ta-da!
I also learned later on that there’s good science behind this: soil is a living thing with a specific structure. The less we disrupt that structure, the better it is.
That’s when my garden started to really grow. No more double-digging for me. It was all about building up new layers of healthy soil. The clay would remain deep down below. The life-filled soil would become the top six inches of the garden—and the key to healthy growth.
So what does this have to do with raised garden beds?
With raised beds, you put your best soil in one place saving money and giving plants their best chance at success.
Empress of Dirt
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~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛