Perhaps one of the biggest and most prominent advantages of raised garden beds is the fact that they make vegetable gardening a lot easier without putting undue strain on the back. People don’t need to bend as much to reach their plants which happens to be great for people with bad backs. With much easier access and obviously less pain you will be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor quite literally and your harvesting, tending and planting will be a lot more effective.
Other benefits of raised gardens
Raised garden beds are the best for smaller spaces as opposed to a conventional garden row. These are also great for poor, abused and rocky soil. The other advantage according to many organic gardeners is the fact that they produce a much better yield for the overall area that they occupy, this is thanks to much better drainage and the ability for the roots to go deeper.
It also allows for much longer growing seasons since it is possible to work the soil early in spring in places where that time of year usually means that the soil is frost hardened. Finally, people who don’t want to be troubled with weeds should also use raised gardens.
Building raised garden beds
Timber is the most commonly used materials to build garden beds but most readymade beds are made from metal and other materials. However, in order to properly support timber beds you need to place a few wooden stakes at every side as well as every few feet for much longer beds. These have to be placed on the inside of the bed so that these stakes are not easily visible.
The stakes will have to be driven around 60% or around 2 feet into the ground with the rest left exposed above the surface. The stakes will also need to be kept level so that they are all in the ground roughly at the same height or you may end up having an uneven or slanting bed to deal with. The lowest boards can be a few inches above the ground and use a levelling tool to check if they are straight.
Finally when fixing the boards with the stakes it is best to use galvanized nails since they don’t easily rust and are lot more sturdy than just iron. Add all additional boards in rows to the stakes.