Alex hopes to treat his friends with bloody Mary, with red organic tomatoes and chilies grown above his bar! Thanks to the idea of raised bed gardening, Alex has now become a successful gardener growing flowers, vegetables, herbs and even perennials at his small little backyard Oasis.

So, what are raised beds?

Simply put, a raised bed is typically an above the ground planter, with high walls ranging from six to twenty five inches. Usually these are encased in wood, concrete or stone frames and can be used for growing just about anything. Sure your raised beds make excellent vegetable planter and can also stand as an incredible way of displaying your home gardening ideas, creativity, style and gardener’s instinct. Ideal choice for fruits, herbs, flowers and shrubbery, gardening on raised beds can create that ultimate fusion of color, texture, drama and practicality to your outdoor innovations.
It may seem that this type of gardening is typically restricted to small scale home gardeners; however, homesteader as well as the small farmers also finds it pretty beneficial for larger scale production

Advantages of raised bed gardening

If you have rocky or poor soil, if you live in an area with considerable higher water table or if your living area gets obsessive rainfall, gardening on a rather raised platform with customized soil can solve all those drainage problems and fertility issues of the soil.
Another significant point is that, raised bed allows soil to warm rather quickly in spring time. Moreover, the soil on a raised bed is hardly walked on hence it never gets compacted. The best part is, weeds can also be much less of a problem with a raised bed.
The best part is you can simply grow just about any plant. Sure you can grow fruits like tomatoes, raspberries, cherries, blueberries, herbs, flowers, vegetables and even much more.
With a raised platform you can get planting much sooner. This is typically because the soil in them warms as well as dries out pretty quickly in the spring thus offering you the ultimate flexibility to plant much sooner.

Tips to ponder on for raised bed gardening

Tip 1: Never ever walk on the soil. The light and fluffy, non compact and perfect soil is its biggest advantage. When you build a raised bed, make sure that you are able to reach every part of it, without standing on the soil. And in case if you find no other option but to walk on the bed, then place boards or patio pavers and only walk on them.
Tip 2: Mulching is important after planting. Mulching with grass clippings, straws or wood chips is beneficial in keeping the soil moist.
Tip 3: Carefully plan the irrigation system. Either employ soaker hose or use drip irrigation system for watering your raised bed garden. Honestly, planning is definitely the key and if you plan the irrigation system ahead of time, you can save yourself lot of hard work.
Tip 4: Top dress the soil periodically with compost. To be honest, raised bed gardening is more like gardening in a really large container. And as with any container garden, the top soil will get depleted as time goes on. The same happens with your raised bed garden as well. So, add a layer or two of compost annually before starting with the plantations.

Happy gardening!