Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening

Implementing raised bed vegetable gardening into your backyard landscaping design is probably a lot easier than you think it is, and may have even greater effects on the quality of your plants and vegetables than you realize!

I'm not the kind of gardener who goes around testing my soil to determine it's alkalinity vs. acidity, or clay vs. sand. I'm the kind of gardener who puts my shovel in the soil and can tell you, "Yep...there's a lot of clay in this soil!" or "Yep...there's a lot of gravel in this soil!" (I hope I'm not confusing you with my scientific jargon! :)

If you've ever put your shovel into the dirt around your home, you already have a general idea of the type of soil you're dealing with. I think that most gardeners would agree that the soil that already exists in most of our backyards is not optimal for producing high quality plants. This is where raised bed vegetable gardening comes into play. Building up the soil as part of your vegatable gardening design will create a rich, nutritious bed for your plants to take root.

Raised bed vegetable gardening does not need to be a great deal of work for you. One of the easiest methods I've seen for creating a raised bed is from Scenery Solutions (opens new window). Raised beds for vegetable gardening, perennial gardens, border gardens and childrens' sandboxes can be purchcased from this site. Scenery Solutions (opens new window) has several videos available that demonstrate, step by step, how easy it is to assemble and establish these raised beds in your yard. Once the bed is assembled, you only need to add the soil and plants to create an instant garden.

My parents use a rectangular design, which is essentially 4 2x8's fastened together to form a rectangle. They then placed the rectangle on the grass, and added 8 inches of top soil. Voila! A raised garden bed!

The only concern I have with this vegetable garden design is when it comes to lawn care maintenance. I don’t want to do any edging at all, and placing the wood form on the grass will require edging. Take this into consideration when planning your raised bed vegetable gardening design, and consider adding plants around the edge of the design. This will create a barrier between the lawn and the raised bed vegetable gardening design, elminating the need for edging.

One approach to creating a raised bed that I've used is skipping the form altogether and simply placing a mound of dirt about 8-12 inches high where I wanted my vegatable gardening design. I also mixed it with compost initially (and on a yearly basis) to build up the nutrients in the soil. This mound of top soil has the same effect as the raised bed vegetable gardening design that my parents use – water drainage is more efficient, gardening becomes easier with a raised bed, and adding nutrients such as compost improves the quality of the soil.

So, once you have your raised bed vegetable gardening design in place, how do you organize your plants? My method for gardening in general is a whole hodge-podge of miscellaneous perennials, annuals and vegetables.

When I created my vegetable garden design, I knew that I wanted a place that I could plant some of my favorite vegetables like zucchini, pumpkin, tomato, cucumbers and potatoes, but I didn’t want an unattractive plot that didn’t fit well into my overall landscaping design.

Sidebar: Zucchini is a very, VERY reliable vegetable for the garden! Consider planting zucchini in a childrens garden! Because of their low-maintenance, fast growing habit, this is definitely a vegetable that children can have lots of fun with growing. And because of all the things that you can do with zucchini - fried zucchini, zucchini bread, zucchini cake, frozen zucchini, grilled zucchini, zucchini on a stick, zucchini on crackers, zucchini and dip - your kids will get a big kick out of harvesting and eating something they actually grew themselves!

When I created my "kidney-bean" shaped planting area with a raised bed of soil, I actually didn’t start out with a plan to add any soil to the design. Unfortunately, I found myself with this huge mound of soil left over from when my swimming pool was installed. (You’d be surprised at how much soil needs to be removed to put in an “above ground pool!” I only wish I’d have taken a picture of it!)

I needed a place to put all that dirt, so I figured that it would be a good idea to start raised bed vegetable gardening. Which it was actually! It gives the vegetable garden design a distinctive sort of appearance, and helps with the drainage of water following heavy rains.

Sidebar: I actually don’t recommend that you merely “replace” the soil in your yard from one location to another to accomplish your raised bed vegetable gardening as I did. I have clay soil, so it wasn’t the best move. However, I will say that the actual moving of the soil helped aerate it and made it less compact. Adding the compost on a yearly basis has also helped improve the condition of this soil. The best method for raised bed vegetable gardening, is to purchase good quality “top soil”. You can look up “top soil” in the yellow pages for local companies that do delivery of such, or ask others in your area where the best place to go is. Do some research with this before ordering. You want to move good quality soil into your yard, not poor quality. Also be aware that many companies have a minimum number of cubic yards of soil that can be ordered to qualify for delivery. Take close measurements of the area before placing your order, and only purchase what you need.

When I actually began my raised bed vegetable gardening, I started adding some of my favorite plants to the area to create visual interest. I had 3 zebra grasses that I had planted along the patio that weren’t doing very well in that area. I relocated them to the garden, and they are now doing fabulously! I think the increase in sun, the richness of the soil, and grouping them together in an off-center type of structure, really added to their appeal.

I also received a piece of my neighbor’s butterfly bush (opens new window) and planted that between 2 of the zebra grasses. Those plants together – which all grow to about 5-6 feet tall, created a stately, sort of elegant look to the garden.

I also like adding some pumpkin plants around the edge of the garden. Pumpkins are another relatively easy to grow vegetable, and produce long, winding vines with large leaves. The long rows of huge leaves sweep around the garden creating a very vibrant, healthy appearance.

I also add a few tomato and pepper plants, along with basil and other spices. Other plants that I've added have been a bachelor button annual in the center, chives and a day lily on the outside. I also just added a peony bush (opens new window) on the opposite corner, which gives a nice splash of color to the garden.

I will add a design of my garden to this site as soon as I am able to, along with other raised bed vegetable gardening designs.

I think it’s important when gardening or landscaping in general, to keep an open mind and try some alternative measures on occasion. My parents, for example, have a shed in their backyard. On one side, they have their compost bin, around which they have planted pumpkins and peppers. On the other side of the shed, they’ve planted other vegetables, next to which they do their raised bed vegetable gardening which is approximately 12 feet by 4 feet.

They've also worked on gardening combinations, such as mixing perennial plants and annual flowers, along with a vegetable plant or two. This picture was taken from their front yard. Notice the tomato plant in the midst of the other plants.

Many people do not have a large, sunny location to establish a traditional garden, and therefore have to think creatively about where to plant their fruits and vegetables. There's nothing wrong with adding a vegetable plant or fruit tree in locations that seem non-traditional. I have recently added my miniature apple tree and blueberry bush next to my pool filter. Not your typical garden location, but certainly a sunny spot, and a spot that is currently under-utilized. Check out more ideas at diy tips for gardening.

Get creative and as always, enjoy the process!

For quick and easy raised bed vegetable gardening kits that can be placed virtually anywhere, take a look at Scenery Solutions (opens new window). These raised bed vegetable gardening kits can even be placed on concrete, or other "non-soil" surface if you're short on space.

I've ordered many of my vegetable seeds from Gurney's Seed and Nursery (opens new window) and they have always produced reliable, healthy plants. This is a particularly good option when you're looking for unique or specialty items, like popcorn seeds!