About Raised Gardening Bed

Are you interested in growing your own food but don't have the yard space for a traditional garden?  Or maybe you have bad knees or can't be outside in the sun.  Or maybe you're just not very handy.  That's okay! Just a few of the reasons you might want to try loft bed gardening. I'll try to make it very simple for you. You can even get the ones I use for raised garden bed.

Why use raised garden beds

1. Save space, but garden more.

The first reason you might be interested in a loft bed garden is that you can save a lot of space using a loft bed. You can make raised beds, no matter how big or small. Place POTS in areas where you might not be able to farm and use them in regular traditional gardens. It really helps, and you may not have realized or thought you could do it.

2. You can use better soil to grow crops.

Another reason you might want to use a raised bed is because the natural soil you live in is not suitable for a garden. Thus, by using and introducing the elevated bed frame and adding soil to it, you can choose the type of soil to place in the elevated bed. You can build the frame and make it any shape and size you want, and then add really high quality soil to it later.

3. Rescue sore muscles

The third reason you might be interested in a raised bed is that maybe you don't want the back of bending over and pulling weeds to ruin the job, maybe you just want to stay upright and be able to do so.

I can tell you from experience that gardening and garden management with raised beds is much simpler than traditional gardening and bending over. If you're older, or if you have back problems or sore muscles, then elevated bed gardening, may be the way to go. It's really not labor intensive, and you can still pull weeds and care for your crops there.

I see a couple of main reasons why people go for a loft bed, you know, time is a huge factor, space and resources, but your reasoning could be completely different. There's a lot to love about loft beds. If you've made up your mind, let's find out how to design and create your elevated bed.

How to make a raised bed

The first thing you need to know is how much space you have and how many different raised  beds you want. I totally love frugal loft bed gardening, which is also functional.

You can provide a raised bed for certain crops you want to grow. For example: one for tomatoes, another for lettuce, and another for carrots. You know, you plant at different rates, different crops and all the different elevated beds. This is a very good idea because when you do this with different vegetables, you can control the raised bed gardening soil nutrients and soil pH.

You want to choose a container that fits your space and needs.

I remember when I was growing up, we made bed frames out of wooden railroad ties from the railroad. I actually grew up not too far from the railroad tracks in north-central Kansas, so we asked for permission to pick up some old railroad ties.

Then, we made raised beds out of old railroad ties.

We also use old feed bunks and large tractor tires to make our elevated beds, which is really cool. I like to use tractor tires because the convex rise is round. Using the tops of beautiful purple beets to grow beautiful vegetables, like beets, is really neat.

Honestly, the types of containers you use are endless.

The possibilities are endless and you can use your imagination to create something really cool. You can use things that have been pre-treated or treated, but you want to make sure it's cost effective. The amount of soil you put in will add up.

Select the soil and fill your bed

Potting the mixture.

What is the best soil for a raised bed? If you have good traditional soil, but perhaps you don't have space for a garden, I suggest asking a neighbor or friend who has good garden soil. If they can bring some in and fill your pot.

This will be the cheapest way to fill POTS. Now I don't know what the cost is for you to do that. It could just be a negotiation between you and this person. Better yet, they can do it for free.

The most expensive route is to buy potting soil from the garden.

Our garden center puts organic bark potting soil in dumpsters and waits for people to fill their trucks. Or you could fill a truckload. It will cost you quite a bit of money. Again, I don't know the amount, but every garden center is different. You just have to shop around.

One way to meet in the middle is to make half potting soil and conventional soil. You can get some and mix them up and then fill your pot that way. It's a great medium for happiness.

Some of my POTS I've had for a few years and the soil has settled. We're just using some traditional soil from our main garden. We just fill up the tractor and dump it in. Over time, the soil settles and we need to fill it up again. You can take some potting soil and fill it up to the top. We felt that was the easiest way for us to do it.

Choose the terrain for your bed

You want to keep the bed as flat as possible. You know, some of you live on very hilly land, and the terrain may be hilly, which leads you to garden on slopes. The best thing I can tell you is to maybe make a ramp at the bottom of your loft bed until the top of it is flat. This may cut into your planting area. But you want to keep the pot as flat as possible. This will help prevent your plant from tilting or draining water from it each time you water it.

You want fluffy soil in your pot. So using a mixture of potting soil and conventional soil will help you do just that.

What's growing on that loft bed right now. The truth is, you can really grow anything you want there. I grow a lot of root crops on raised beds because I believe root crops grow better in the fluffiest soil. These include:

Carrots, beets, radishes

-- Potato

-- Onions.

I think the more space the root crops have to move, the better and bigger they're going to be. This is right for me. I've had very, very good success with carrots. The Onions and beets did well.

One thing you have to remember is watering.

Raised beds tend to dry faster. It all depends on the soil, too. Keep this in mind and check the dryness of the soil with your fingers to see how dry it is.

If it cracks, it doesn't necessarily mean it needs water. You still need to check because there may still be some moisture down there. You don't want to give it too much water. Plants can drown, or you can dry them.

You want to stay in that happy medium and let the plants get enough plants. Usually, it looks a little cracked. Especially if it starts getting hot, super hot. This can cause the top to crack. You can take a tool, like a small spade, and break up the top of the soil. Just make sure you don't hurt any of the plant's roots when doing so.

As I mentioned, elevated bed gardens are a great way to realize your gardening dreams. You can grow vegetables anywhere with limited space, resources, or energy. Whether you're growing a garden for your family or supplementing your produce business, the choices are limited to your imagination.

These beds are some of my favorite because they are easier to care for and my daughter can be more involved in the process. We even grow herbs for our home on a loft bed.

I hope this episode will inspire you and make you consider a raised garden bed for your own garden.