![Hochbeet Vordermühle 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Hochbeet_Vorderm%C3%BChle_1.JPG)
Raised-bed gardening is a form of
gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits ...
in which the soil is raised above ground level and usually enclosed in some way. Raised bed structures can be made of wood, rock, concrete or other materials, and can be of any size or shape.
[ ] The soil is usually enriched with
compost
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant, food waste, recycling organic materials and manure. The resulting m ...
.
[ ]
Vegetable
Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...
s are grown in geometric patterns, much closer together than in conventional row gardening.
The spacing is such that when the vegetables are fully grown, their leaves just barely touch each other, creating a
microclimate
A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...
in which weed growth is suppressed and moisture is conserved.
Overview
Raised beds lend themselves to the development of complex agriculture systems that utilize many of the principles and methods of
permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principle ...
. They can be used effectively to control
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
and recycle and conserve water and nutrients by building them along contour lines on slopes. This also makes more space available for intensive crop production.
They can be created over large areas with the use of several commonly available tractor-drawn implements and efficiently maintained, planted and harvested using hand tools.
This form of gardening is compatible with
square foot gardening
Square foot gardening is the practice of dividing the growing area into small square sections, typically on a side, hence the name. The aim is to assist the planning and creating of a small but intensively planted vegetable garden. It results ...
and
companion planting
Companion planting in gardening and agriculture is the planting of different crops in proximity for any of a number of different reasons, including pest control, pollination, providing habitat for beneficial insects, maximizing use of space, and ...
.
Circular raised beds with a path to the center (a slice of the circle cut out) are called
keyhole garden
A keyhole garden is a two-meter-wide circular raised-bed gardening, raised garden with a keyhole-shaped indentation on one side. The indentation allows gardeners to add uncooked vegetable scraps, greywater, and manure into a composting basket that ...
s. Often the center has a chimney of sorts built with sticks and then lined with feedbags or grasses that allows water placed at the center to flow out into the soil and reach the plants' roots.
A self watering raised bed known as a
wicking bed A wicking bed is an agricultural irrigation system used in arid countries where water is scarce, devised by Australian inventor Colin Austin. It can be used both in (arid) fields as in containers. Besides use in fields/containers outdoors, it can ...
is particularly beneficial in dry climates and are often made by converting
Intermediate bulk container
Intermediate bulk containers (also known as IBC tank, IBC tote, IBC, or pallet tank) are industrial-grade containers engineered for the mass handling, transport, and storage of liquids, semi-solids, pastes, or solids. The two main categories of I ...
(IBC's).
Materials and construction
Lumber is the most common construction material for making raised beds.
If using lumber
treated with
chromated copper arsenate Chromated copper arsenate (CCA) is a wood preservative containing compounds of chromium, copper, and arsenic, in various proportions. It is used to impregnate timber and other wood products, especially those intended for outdoor use, in order to pr ...
or CCA (though uncommon since 2004 in the USA and Europe), it is recommended to use a plastic liner between the wood and soil if the raised bed is intended for growing edibles.
Another material commonly used are
railroad ties
A railroad tie, crosstie (American English), railway tie (Canadian English) or railway sleeper (Australian and British English) is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer ...
, also known as sleepers, joined with steel rods to hold them together. Another approach is to use
concrete blocks, although less aesthetically pleasing, they are inexpensive to obtain and easy to use.
On the market are also prefab raised garden bed solutions which are made from long lasting
polyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...
that is
UV stabilized
In polymer chemistry photo-oxidation (sometimes: oxidative photodegradation) is the degradation of a polymer surface due to the combined action of light and oxygen. It is the most significant factor in the weathering of plastics. Photo-oxidatio ...
and food grade so it will not leach undesirable chemicals into the soil or deteriorate in the elements. A double skinned wall provides an air pocket of insulation that minimizes the temperature fluctuations and drying out of the soil in the garden bed. Sometimes raised bed gardens are covered with clear plastic to protect the crops from wind and strong rains.
Pre-manufactured raised bed gardening boxes also exist.
There are variants of wood, metal, stone and plastic.
Benefits
Raised beds produce a variety of benefits: they extend the planting season,
they can reduce weeds if designed and planted properly,
and they reduce the need to use poor native soil. Since the gardener does not walk on the raised beds, the soil is not compacted and the roots have an easier time growing.
[ ] Waist-high raised beds enable the elderly and physically disabled to grow vegetables without having to bend over to tend them.
Gallery
File:Picardo Oct 03.jpg, Picardo Farm
Picardo Farm is a parcel of property in Wedgwood, Seattle, Washington, consisting largely of 281 plots used for gardening allotments. , Wedgwood neighborhood, Seattle, Washington: A community allotment garden
An allotment (British English), or in North America, a community garden, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening or growing food plants, so forming a kitchen garden away from the residence of the user. Such plot ...
with raised beds for the physically disabled.
File:raised bed.jpg, Raised garden bed of lettuce
Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...
, tomato
The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...
es, basil
Basil (, ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' , also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also kno ...
, marigolds, zinnia
''Zinnia'' is a genus of plants of the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae. They are native to scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the Southwestern United States to South America, with a centre of diversity in Mexico. ...
s, garlic chive
''Allium tuberosum'' (garlic chives, Oriental garlic, Asian chives, Chinese chives, Chinese leek) is a species of plant native to the Chinese province of Shanxi, and cultivated and naturalized elsewhere in Asia and around the world.
Descripti ...
s, zucchini
The zucchini (; plural: zucchini or zucchinis), courgette (; plural: courgettes) or baby marrow (''Cucurbita pepo'') is a summer squash, a vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp (rind) are stil ...
.
File:Hochbeet aus Naturstein.jpg, Raised garden bed with natural stones of Salvia
''Salvia'' () is the largest genus of plants in the sage family Lamiaceae, with nearly 1000 species of shrubs, herbaceous plant, herbaceous perennial plant, perennials, and annual plant, annuals. Within the Lamiaceae, ''Salvia'' is part of the ...
, Chives
Chives, scientific name ''Allium schoenoprasum'', is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae that produces edible leaves and flowers. Their close relatives include the common onions, garlic, shallot, leek, scallion, and ...
, and Parsley
Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean region (Sardinia, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, southern Italy, Greece, Por ...
.
File:Green_lettuce_in_a_kitchen_garden.jpg, Raised garden bed with lettuce
Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...
in Don Det, Laos.
File:2010 WiseWords community garden NewOrleans 4855100893.jpg, Raised garden beds with painted wooden edgings at Wise Words Community Garden in Mid-City, New Orleans.
File:Preparing raised flower-beds 1.jpg, Preparing raised flower-beds in a private garden in Brastad
Brastad is a locality situated in Lysekil Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 1,846 inhabitants in 2010.
Sports
The following sports clubs are located in Brastad:
* Stångenäs AIS
Stångenäs AIS is a Swedish football and ...
, Sweden.
Sunken gardens
![Hampton-Court-F](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Hampton-Court-F.jpg)
A
waffle garden is the inverse of raised beds and is a gardening method by the
Zuni people
The Zuni ( zun, A:shiwi; formerly spelled ''Zuñi'') are Native American Pueblo peoples native to the Zuni River valley. The Zuni are a Federally recognized tribe and most live in the Pueblo of Zuni on the Zuni River, a tributary of the Lit ...
. In an arid climate, clay walls are built up around the planting area and plants are watered by filling the bed "cells".
The term
sunken garden usually refers to a formal traditional
English garden
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, JardÃn inglés), is a sty ...
where the garden is lower than the surrounding land, and may have multiple terraces around it and steps leading down to the garden.
The Victorian sunken garden
/ref>
See also
* Hügelkultur
Hügelkultur (), literally mound bed or mound culture is a horticultural technique where a mound constructed from decaying wood debris and other compostable biomass plant materials is later (or immediately) planted as a raised bed. Adopted by pe ...
: another type of raised bed
* Keyhole garden
A keyhole garden is a two-meter-wide circular raised-bed gardening, raised garden with a keyhole-shaped indentation on one side. The indentation allows gardeners to add uncooked vegetable scraps, greywater, and manure into a composting basket that ...
* Kitchen garden
The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...
* Square foot gardening
Square foot gardening is the practice of dividing the growing area into small square sections, typically on a side, hence the name. The aim is to assist the planning and creating of a small but intensively planted vegetable garden. It results ...
* Therapeutic garden
A therapeutic garden is an outdoor garden space that has been specifically designed to meet the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the people using the garden as well as their caregivers, family members and friends.
Therapeutic ...
* Waru Waru
Waru Waru is an Aymara term for the agricultural technique developed by pre-Hispanic people in the Andes region of South America from Ecuador to Bolivia; this regional agricultural technique is also referred to as ''camellones'' in Spanish. Funct ...
A traditional Quechua, pre-Inca system involving raised beds
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
The Synergistic Garden
€”A video by Emilia Hazelip
Emilia Hazelip (born Emilia Espinosa, Barcelona, Spain, 18 July 1937 - Carcassonne, France, 2 February 2003) was a Catalan organic gardener, former Merry Prankster, and pioneer of the concept of synergistic gardening. Her farming methods were i ...
, which provides practical information on how to garden with raised beds.
Appeal: Keyhole gardening saves lives in world's most eroded land
{{Permaculture
Agricultural soil science
Permaculture
Types of garden