The Yard Farmer

Raised beds are a wonderful way to create a whole new garden look. It creates an exciting dimension to your gardening experience and it is especially useful when there is limited space available for gardening. Raised beds work great even in small spaces where you can consider setting up small versions of these beds on your patio or porch. Raised beds can be used to grow tasty herbs and well as green vegetables and even ornamental flowers.

Raised beds are also the perfect gardening solution for gardeners with arthritis as raised beds can be built at an appropriate level to avoid bending or kneeling which is commonly needed for garden plots. With raised beds at a comfortable level, you can avoid all the aches and pains that come with squatting over a garden plot tending to a garden.

When someone says raised bed gardening, they are referring to plants that are grown above ground level. Most raised beds are achieved by building a wooden frame structure and filling it with soil which provides the base for gardening. Apart from wooden frames, gardeners also use concrete blocks, bricks, plastic casings and other materials that are raised bed friendly. You can either make you own raised beds or you can purchase ready made kits that only need to be assembled together.

If you are thinking about raised beds gardening, then it is important to plan what you are going to plant and come up with a good design for your beds. If you have outside space to start raised beds, then make a sketch of your yard and make sure to include areas such as patios and existing walkways. You can even grow small raised beds in these areas such as the turf and walkways. Use colored markers or pencils if you must to distinguish the yard area. Identify the potential area that you want to build your raised beds as well as the kind of plants you are keen on planting. Flowers work great for pathways whereas vegetables and herbs should be kept in more discreet areas. Flowers can light up the walkway and make your whole home ground look vibrant and colorful. Be sure to give these flowers beds extra attention though as wilted flowers only makes for an uninteresting front porch.

Most raised beds are portable but in some cases, raised beds can be large and they become permanent beds. This is why designing your yard comes in handy as you can determine where the portable beds go to and where the permanent ones should be. It is also essential to observe your yard for a full day as well as during different seasons so that you will be able to identify which areas have the most sun and which areas have shade. It also help you in planting as some plants need loads of sunlight whereas some can just be in the shade.

Once you have all these details out, you can write down the details of the plants that you want to grow after considering the size of your yards, the areas with the most sun light as well as which areas should have portable or permanent beds.