Boost your garden this year by adding one, two, or even ten raised garden beds. Raised beds are great for adding extra growing space to your outdoor space without all the commitment of an in-ground garden.
They can add a pop of color and offer a minimal maintenance option for any size space. The best benefit of raised beds is that they add extra accessibility to your garden all season long.
How to Choose the Right Bed for You
There are tons of options for how to build raised beds these days. The most common are metal and wood. There are also fabric, composite, and plastic options available. Vego garden beds are an excellent choice for your raised beds. They come in assorted colors and configurations, take less than an afternoon to build, and can last up to 20 years. When choosing, make sure you are choosing the right size for your needs. The raised bed should be at least 12” in depth for most crops, but we prefer a taller height of 17” because it’s much easier on your body during planting and harvesting.
How to Fill Your Raised Bed
What you put in your raised garden bed is a very personal choice based on your needs and budget. If your raised bed has an open bottom, line clean cardboard at the bottom of the bed to prevent weeds and to start the season with a clean slate. A great and easy choice for filling your raised bed is Espoma® Organic Raised Bed Mix. It is packed with everything you need to start the garden off right. It is enhanced with earthworm castings, feather meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, yucca extract, and Espoma’s mycorrhizae. Another option for larger installs or for bulk is Lurvey’s Planters Mix. Always choose a high-quality mix for your beds initially, it is an investment that will pay dividends for many years to come.
What to Plant in Your New Beds
What is your motivation for adding raised beds? Do you want to add fresh vegetables and herbs to your
dinner every night? Are you looking to attract more pollinators to your garden? A fantastic addition to any garden is adding a Kitchen Garden close to your home. Start with a raised bed filled with fresh herbs
like oregano, chives, and mint for a quick cocktail. Add kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers to the
mix and you can have fresh salad level-up your yard every night. A pollinator garden with milkweed, alyssum, beebalm, and sunflowers would add a liveness to any spot in your garden.
Balsamic Cucumber Salad
- 1 large English cucumber, halved and
sliced - 2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 medium red onion, halved and thinly
sliced - 1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette
- 3/4 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese
In a large bowl, combine cucumber, tomatoes and onion. Add vinaigrette; toss to coat. Refrigerate, covered, until serving. Just before serving, stir in cheese. Serve with a slotted spoon
How to maintain your raised bed
Start with an excellent quality raised bed mix as the base for your plantings. Adding fertilizer like Espoma Garden Tone as you are setting up your Healthy Straw is a smart choice for top dressing your beds after planting. It will help prevent weeds from germinating, adding organic matter over time, and reduces watering. Before you put your beds to sleep for the winter, add Wiggle Worm Castings a couple inches thick over the top of the soil and let that sit until you rototill it next Spring.
See our Know & Grow Raise Bed Calculator on Lurveys.com for help calculating your soil needs.
