Raised bed gardening - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Raised bed gardening is a form of gardening

Gardening

Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...

in which the soil is formed in 3–4 foot (1.0–1.2 m) wide beds, which can be of any length or shape. The soil is raised above the surrounding soil (6 inches to waist high), sometimes enclosed by a frame generally made of wood, rock, or concrete blocks, and enriched with compost

Compost

Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming. At its most essential, the process of composting requires simply piling up waste outdoors and waiting for the materials to break down from anywhere...

. The vegetable

Vegetable

The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....

plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

s are spaced in geometric patterns, much closer together than conventional row gardening. The spacing is such that when the vegetables are fully grown, their leaves just barely touch each other, creating a microclimate

Microclimate

A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...

in which moisture is conserved and weed growth suppressed. Raised beds produce a variety of benefits: they extend the planting season; they reduce the need to use poor native soil; and they can reduce weeds if designed properly. Since the gardener does not walk on the raised beds, the soil is not compacted and the roots have an easier time growing. The close plant spacing and the use of compost

Compost

generally result in higher yields with raised beds in comparison to conventional row gardening. Waist high raised beds enable the elderly and the sick to grow vegetables without having to bend over to tend them.

Raised beds lend themselves to the development of complex agriculture systems that utilize many of the principles and methods of permaculture

Permaculture

Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...

. They can be used effectively to control erosion and recycle and conserve water and nutrients by building them along contour lines on slopes. This also makes more space available for intensive crop production. They can be created over large areas with the use of several commonly available tractor-drawn implements and efficiently maintained, planted and harvested using hand tools.

This form of gardening is compatible with square foot gardening

Square foot gardening

Square Foot Gardening is the practice of planning small but intensively planted gardens. The phrase "square foot gardening" was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in a 1981 Rodale Press book and subsequent PBS television series. A full-length companion DVD, Square Foot Gardening , was recently released...

and companion planting

Companion planting

Companion planting is the planting of different crops in proximity , on the theory that they assist each other in nutrient uptake, pest control, pollination, and other factors necessary to increasing crop productivity...

.

Circular waist high raised beds with a path to the center (a slice of the circle cut out) are called keyhole gardens. Often the center has a chimney of sorts built with sticks and then lined with feedbags or grasses that allows water placed at the center to flow out into the soil and reach the plants' roots. The charity Send a Cow

Send a Cow

Send a Cow is a Bath, UK-based international development charity that works with poor African farmers to allow them to become self-sufficient by growing enough food to feed their families, sell produce and develop small businesses that last....

is promoting the creation of these in Africa.

Vegetable garden bed construction materials should be chosen carefully. Some concerns exist over the use of timber such as treated pine

Wood preservation

All measures that are taken to ensure a long life of wood fall under the definition wood preservation . Apart from structural wood preservation measures, there are a number of different preservatives and processes that can extend the life of wood, timber, wood structures or engineered wood...

that was traditionally treated using chromated copper arsenate

Chromated copper arsenate

Chromated copper arsenate is a wood preservative used for timber treatment since the mid-1930s. It is a mix of chromium, copper and arsenic formulated as oxides or salts. It preserves the wood from decay fungi, wood attacking insects, including termites, and marine borers...

or CCA, a toxic chemical mix for preserving timber that may leach chemicals into the soil which in turn can be drawn up into the plants, a concern for vegetable growers, where part or all of the plant is eaten. If using timber to raise the garden bed, ensure that it is an untreated hardwood

Hardwood

Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...

to prevent the risk of chemicals leaching into the soil. A common approach is to use timber sleepers

Railroad tie

A railroad tie/railway tie , or railway sleeper is a rectangular item used to support the rails in railroad tracks...

joined with steel rods to hold them together. Another approach is to use concrete blocks, although less aesthetically pleasing, they are cheap to source and easy to use. On the market are also prefab raised garden bed solutions which are made from long lasting polyethylene

Polyethylene

Polyethylene or polythene is the most widely used plastic, with an annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons...

that is UV stabilized

UV Stabilizers in plastics

UV light stabilizers are used frequently in plastics, including cosmetics and films. The primary function is to protect the substance from the long-term degradation effects from light, most frequently ultraviolet light...

and food grade so it will not leach undesirable chemicals into the soil or deteriorate in the elements. A double skinned wall provides an air pocket of insulation that minimizes the temperature fluctuations and drying out of the soil in the garden bed.

External links

The Synergistic Garden—A video by Emilia Hazelip
Emilia Hazelip
Emilia Hazelip was a Catalan organic gardener, former Merry Prankster, and pioneer of the concept of synergistic gardening. Her farming methods were inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka after reading his book; "The One-Straw Revolution" in 1977 after it was first translated into English.-References:...

, which provides very thorough practical information on how to garden with raised beds.
Appeal: Keyhole gardening saves lives in world's most eroded land
http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/pressure-treated-wood-in-beds.aspx
www.woodblocx.co.uk
Raised garden beds plans

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

See also

External links