Raised beds key to vegetable garden success
January 18, 2011
Norman Winter
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
There’s a good chance you are among the multitude that’s considering planting a vegetable garden in 2011. If so, you may find yourself wondering where to start. Over the years I have humorously said that the key to the green thumb is how brown it gets first in soil preparation. To be honest soil and soil prep is everything when you are growing flowers or vegetables.
The winning formula for success, whether it’s heavy muggy clay or a sandier soil that drains in mere minutes, is to grow the garden on raised beds. Roots of bedding plants have to penetrate soils quickly, anchor plants, and absorb water and nutrients, often under adverse conditions.
What many don’t realize is that in addition to water and nutrients the plants also need oxygen for proper growth. Soil texture plays the most important role in determining whether or not those three needs are met sufficiently to allow the plant to become established and perform to expectations. Desirable soil holds water while allowing for proper drainage. It also provides adequate oxygen for root growth. The raised bed is the best way to meet these needs.
If you are buying into the concept you may be asking, well OK, what do I put into the raised beds. The best gardener I know uses one-third topsoil, one-third sand and one-third compost. I have actually had the luxury of bringing in a truckload of my own prepared mix that was basically the same although it had a good quantity of fine pine bark (pieces less than ½ inch).
There are many companies who compost either tiny bark pieces mentioned above, mushroom or cotton burr compost, incorporating with sand and topsoil to give you an excellent planting medium. They sell this material in bags or bulk to garden centres, which in turn, sell it to landscapers and/or to you. If you are able to buy a sufficient amount they will sell bulk to you the same way they do garden centres.
The raised beds do not have to be enclosed but it certainly makes things easier from the standpoint of weed control or turf encroachment. A rock, brick or concrete border is considered the ultimate but I really like using 2 x12 lumber for the frames. You can build your own frames and have the soil mix dumped in the boxes or in proximity.
I have made large boxes and series of smaller ones. Smaller boxes offer you the opportunity to tend or hoe from each side without actually walking in and compacting the soil with foot traffic. Another winning trait I have watched over and over is the utilization of cages for both tomatoes and peppers. These two vegetables always rank high in popularity.
The cages made from concrete reinforcing wire allow the tomatoes and peppers to grow up vertically, keeping the plants sturdy and upright. The canopy of foliage protects ripening fruit from sunscald and even small-sized hail. With the addition of plastic, the cages can also become like small greenhouses should young plants be threatened by late frosts.
More than likely it’s not planting season where you live but it is awfully fun to start the planning process and decide where to put your raised bed garden. The best reason of all to grow a vegetable garden is the sheer delight in harvesting and tasting the vine-ripened produce.