How Raised Beds Make Gardening Less Pain and Strain!

by Tom Johnson

I’m a card carrying member of the baby boomer generation and I know what it’s like to find you can’t manage some of the things you used to do, or you can, but you do them a lot slower. My gardening ability comes to mind as an area that now requires some extra thought, a little bit of adjustable thinking can produce some cunning ways of getting around some problems. One of the best ideas to help the gardener with age or handicap related problems is to make good use of raised beds.

To allow for easy reach you need to build your bed to about 2 feet high and 3 feet wide, this is easily done with a timber frame. This eliminates any kneeling and decreases bending for us as we get older, more importantly it also gives anyone confined to a wheelchair the opportunity to enjoy doing some of the light maintenance work in their garden.

What other benefits do you get from this form of gardening? Let’s see… there’s the removal of soil problems, greatly improved pest and weed control, the above mentioned ease of access and the increase in your crop harvest.

You’re not restricted to just growing vegetables of course, you can grow just about anything in your raised beds. There’s different types of fruit, the huge variety of herbs and the even larger number of flowers. Any plant that needs a well drained soil is a candidate for your new garden.

The plants in raised bed gardening are planted much closer together than the plants in a traditional garden. This allows the plants to conserve moisture and also help block the sun from allowing weeds to germinate and grow.

Raised beds can be used to extend the growing season, making it easier to start seeds outdoors earlier, and grow later in the season. This is a great way to get even more produce out of the area in a season.

You’ll be able to use rich, well composted soil in your raised beds, so any type of soil problems you’ve had in your garden become a thing of the past. This way of gardening allows you to overcome any shortcomings you have in your soil.

Another great benefit of raised bed gardening is the fact that the gardener doesn’t walk on the soil in which the plants are growing. This helps prevent the soil from being packed down, so the roots can grow through the soil more readily.

A lot of pests and diseases will become a thing of the past because of your ability to select good quality soil for your garden beds. Another advantage that will lead to an increase in your harvest and superior quality of your crops.

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