How do I Build a Raised Garden?

People who have limited space to cultivate flowers or vegetables will often build a raised garden. Raised gardens offer a number of advantages, ranging from easy care to being more accessible for people with limited mobility. If a traditional garden is not feasible for any reason, here is how you can create and enjoy your own raised bed garden at home.

Your first task is to choose a location for the garden. Keep in mind that since there is no digging or tilling involved, you can easily choose a spot such as the corner of a patio or a section of the yard that is not used frequently. Just make sure the location is level, gets plenty of sunlight and can easily be reached by any member of the household who will be involved in the care of the raised garden bed.

With your location selected, you can begin to build a raised garden by choosing what materials will function as the retaining wall for the garden. The selection is limited only by your imagination. You can choose to go with stacked bricks or blocks, an old tractor tire, or even sections of beams you salvage from a building site. The idea is to build an enclosure that will hold the contents of your garden while still being the right height for you to work the garden in relative comfort.

Once your enclosure is set in place, you can begin to build a raised garden with ease. For the first layer in your bed, use salvaged materials like cardboard. Make sure the layer is more or less flat. You can also make use of compost such as grass clippings or leftovers that you have saved in a compost heap. Don't worry about digging up grass in the enclosure if you are building the garden on the lawn. The first layer will effectively kill the grass and leave the ground surface free of anything that would threaten your plants.

The next step you will follow to build a raise garden is to moisten that first level thoroughly. This will help expedite the decomposition of the bottom layer materials, and provide nutrients for your plants as the garden grows. Cover the moistened layer with soil from a nursery or that you obtained from some other source. Make it a point to moisten the soil as well.

For your last step in the process to build a raised garden, plant the seeds or the young garden plants you obtained from the nursery. This can be accomplished by simply using your fingers to dig out a small hole. Place the seed in the hole, then cover it lightly with the surrounding soil. With young plants, make sure the hole is deep enough to accommodate the roots.

After you build a raised garden, the fun part is caring for the plants each day. Rather than having to get down on hands and knees, it is usually possible to place a chair next to the enclosure and work the garden in relative comfort. This is one reason that a raised vegetable garden is ideal for gardeners with arthritis or some other ailment that limits their mobility.