How to Prepare an Area for a Raised Bed Garden

Raised beds showcase your plants, making a beautiful display of your garden. There are several advantages to raised beds over conventional garden plots: they eliminate soil compaction; improve soil drainage; increase productivity; decreases soil loss from erosion; and make weeding and cultivation easier. Raised beds can be planted as simple mounds, or edging or walls can be built for more permanent beds.

Things You'll Need

• Spade
• Wall or edging materials (optional): rock, wood, cement blocks, railroad ties
• Soil additives (compost, peat moss, manure, sand)
• Plants
• Water
• Organic mulch (straw, hay, wood chips, pine needles, evergreen boughs, peat moss)

Instructions

1. Dig soil to loosen and encourage root growth. The best method for raised beds is double digging, where the first 6 to 8 inches of soil is removed and set to the side.

2. Turn over the lower layer with a spade, loosening soil to allow deeper root penetration which is a great advantage of raised beds.

3. Build edging or wall at this point, if desired. This step is optional, as raised beds work well when soil is simply piled into a mound. Edging and walls decrease soil erosion and add aesthetic value to the bed. Materials to make edging or walls include rock, wood, cement blocks or railroad ties.

4. Mix organic matter into the soil that has been set aside, especially if it is high in clay or sand content. Preferred sources of organic matter are compost, manure, peat moss, or a mixture of these. While peat moss adds humus, it adds little nutritional value to the soil. Manure adds high amounts of nitrogen and other nutritional content to the soil. Compost is the best soil additive of all, adding high nutritional content and humus to the soil. Soil with high clay content may require sand to be added, as well.

5. Return the mixed soil to the bed and turn once more to mix the soil layers together. For raised beds with deeper walls, extra soil may be required. Be sure to mix organic matter with additional soil, and mix all soil layers together well.

6. Smooth and level soil, making the soil even with top of edging, or round off soil mound if no edging is present.

7. Transplant seedlings or directly seed raised beds according to planting recommendations, as you would for a conventional garden plot. Water well and apply organic mulch to help retain moisture and keep down weeds. Good organic mulches include straw or hay, wood chips, pine needles or evergreen boughs or peat moss.

References

• Garden Guides: "How to Plant a Raised Garden Bed"
• "How to Make Loam With Sand & Compost"