Five Time-Saving Gardening Skills of Raised Garde Beds for Vegetable Gardeners

As a gardener with 20 raised garden beds and vegetable beds, I learned a lot of time-saving gardening skills. I like working in my garden, but I also want to enjoy the space. I don't want to weed and water all the time, but I want to spend time watching hummingbirds, bees and butterflies, and occasionally taste outdoor meals in the dining area near the garden we recently installed - talking about the garden to the table! Therefore, I became a smart gardener. She knew that working smarter doesn't mean working harder. Here are some of my best gardening techniques to save time.

5 time-saving gardening techniques:

1) Raised garden bed garden – Raised garden bed has many advantages; The soil warms in the early spring. They provide an excellent drainage system. They allow you to garden in areas with poor soil or rocky soil. They are convenient for using season extenders such as mini hoop tunnels. You can plant intensively in them, which means you can get more food in less space. This spring, inspired by Tara's best-selling book The Revolution of Raised Garden Beds, I transformed the whole garden and installed 20 new raised garden beds.

2) Picking vegetables that are easy to grow – experienced vegetable gardeners know that some crops take more effort than others. For example, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are plagued by cabbage worms, while carrots, one of the most common garden crops, may be notoriously difficult to sprout. Instead, choose vegetables with low maintenance costs, such as cassia beans, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, potatoes and salad vegetables.

3) Covering – One of the reasons why the maintenance cost of my garden is so low is that I pair the raised garden bed with a layer of covering; Usually chopped leaves or straw. The mulch should be added at the end of spring after planting, preferably after rain. This helps to maintain soil moisture and reduce the demand for water. In addition, mulch can prevent weeds - win-win!!

4) Put a pile early – sometimes, in the rush of planting in spring, I don't put a pile of my tomatoes immediately. When I returned to the task, plants had begun to spread and tangle together. Oh dear! Lessons learned; A well-laid garden can save valuable time, look clean, produce healthier plants (because they will not sit on the soil where soil-borne diseases may spread), and can be harvested quickly and easily. There is no need to try to find tomatoes hidden under a pile of vines.

5) Try some perennial crops – the easiest food to grow is those that come back every year. Try to put perennial plants such as rhubarb, sorrel, asparagus, Lovage, "universe" kale or thyme, sage and lemon balm into and around the garden. Or, create a "perennial" bed for these hardy crops, so you don't have to worry about accidentally damaging them when planting annual vegetables.