Raised planting beds, in one form or another, have been in use for almost as long as humans have been cultivating plants – just think of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon….Whatever plants you intend growing, be they ornamental or culinary, these useful and highly adaptable garden features offer a remarkable range of benefits over growing directly in the ground and, so long as you’re not intending to create a new 8th wonder of the world, they can also generally be created simply and cheaply.
Simple but effective - a series of small raised beds awaiting filling.
Amongst the most immediate advantages are that you can cultivate all sorts of things that wouldn’t ordinarily be growable in your garden. Your garden might have soil that is too acid for vegetables, or too alkaline for ericaceous plants, for example, or your ground might be too stony, wet, quick draining etc. Going one step further, raised beds will allow you create planting areas where none currently exist at all, such as in a courtyard or rooftop, or simply make the very most of a small, or awkwardly shaped garden.
The extension of planting choices doesn’t stop at the soil itself however, as the actual sighting of the bed itself can open up new planting possibilities – a hot sunny location is perfect for a herb bed, for instance, and the extra drainage of the raised bed creates the perfect planting conditions too. On the other hand a spot in dappled shade, perhaps beneath the canopies of overhead trees, would be ideal for growing a collection of woodland gems that might otherwise get swamped in open ground.
The dramatically improved drainage afforded by a raised bed makes the ideal planting environment for alpines.
If your soil is thin, stony, infertile or full of subsoil clay – all of which are common problems for the gardens of many new build houses, amongst others – then the addition of garden compost, well-rotted manure or leaf-mould will allow you to immediately create rich, balanced and ideal planting conditions. Improvements of the garden soil itself could take many years or even decades to come close to providing the same quality of growing environment and annual additions and improvements will be maintained within the beds much more readily than they would in the open ground too.
Another key benefit is that the soil in raised beds is not walked on and so remains uncompacted. In order to create an optimum growing medium soil needs plenty of water and air moving freely throughout. Compaction progressively destroys the soil structure, prevents the movement and retention of both of these key elements and so seriously limits root growth. Crop yields from vegetables, fruit or flowers are all significantly better where compaction is avoided, and individual plants can also be spaced more closely together, further maximising the use of space.
Lots of veg packed in closely, making the most of the available space.
Even without any additional protection the improved drainage within raised beds means that the soil warms more quickly at the start of the growing season and the start of each day too. The leads to improved growth in general, but also allows Spring vegetables to be planted out earlier, and so the whole crop year is extended, which, once again leads to a more efficient use of space and time.
The benefits aren’t limited to simply extending planting choices, however. When properly sited and built to an appropriate level raised beds can dramatically increase the discomfort and/or pain of bending and kneeling to tend your plants as well as bringing smaller plants closer to eye level where they can be appreciated, tended or cropped, as appropriate. They can also allow access to planting areas that would be almost impossible to gardeners in wheelchairs or with limited mobility.
Raised beds can allow far greater access to soil and plants at a convenient height.
Once established raised beds will rarely, if ever need to be entirely dug over. The presiding principle is to add more nutrition at the surface and let the worms and other friendly soil beasties do the hard work for you, so, as a sub-section of no-dig gardening, working with raised beds requires much less physical work. General maintenance - watering, pest removal and particularly weeding – are also made easier since the soil level is closer to hands and eyes and the lack of compaction allows even the most stubborn weeds to readily be teased out.
Working with a fixed, raised frame bed also allows for the easy attachment of protective covers, when needed. Frost protection can be vital for getting seedlings and veg crops established in spring, and the solid boundaries of the bed can be purpose made to hold season-extending horticultural fleece, for instance. At the other end of the season fruit crops, in particular, can easily be protected from bird damage, by again using the frame of the raised bed as an attachment point for netting.
Highly beneficial though they are, raised beds needn’t simply be all about utility are crop-yields. From a design perspective, using raised beds in the garden is a bit like being given an extra spacial dimension with which to work, and can open up a whole new range of possible shapes, heights and effects that would otherwise be unavailable. It’s not simply a question of having plants higher than ground level either, as the sides of beds can be turned into cascading walls of foliage or the beds themselves used to divide up an otherwise open space, in turn helping to provide shelter, shade or just simply surprises-around-the-corner in any garden.
Raised beds can make for beautiful, as well as functional garden features.
Despite their great simplicity raised beds certainly are extremely valuable additions to any garden, and it’s no wonder that they’ve been a staple of worldwide horticulture for millennia. In my next blog I’ll be looking at how to create a raised bed and the different materials that can be used.
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