My raised beds are about as tall as yours. Aside from all the benefits you mentioned, one of my favorite things is that I've alway got a seat for weeding or harvesting...no more getting down on my hands & knees, lol.
Love this! I've been going over to raised beds for a couple years now and since I have heavy red clay native soil here in Tennessee it has been a vast improvement on what I can grow without amending my natural soil constantly! :-) Thanks much for so much info :-)
Exactly live in OK, same problem luckily have a free compost recycling center in my city and fill my raised beds for free and top with bought gardening soil, so far it's worked & much cheaper option too.
I'm glad, I have them. I decided to get a couple of rose bushes to put in containers and decided I'd bury the containers in my raised vegetable beds overwinter, to insulate them for the cold. I don't think they'd survive how cold it gets, staying on the patio or even in my shed. Looking forward to the experiment this year! Who knew raised beds could be so versatile?
Modern raised bed costs for lumber would be very expensive. For three treated 2x10x10's it cost me $70. That comes back to a very expensive Potato in my case. My in ground beds are raised from years of amending. The garden is also set in smaller sections with carpet walkways to keep the mud from adding to my height. I like my flower beds to have distinct borders too.
I have 12 large and 4 small raised vegetable beds, a raised parterre garden and raised small borders. I'll be making a larger pottager garden with 19 more beds from varieating sizes. I love the look, it makes it easy, great soil and I just love the look of it. It makes it more interesting even when the garden is near bare.
Regarding weeds: Another advantage is that it's harder for weeds that spread via rhizomes to find their way into a raised bed. Lots of good points in this video. I especially love the tip about crop rotation.
We've gardened where we live for 45 years. About 12 years ago, we started building raised beds.If I was to make a pros list it would easily match yours. We have very sandy soil and it was difficult always amending it.
In my area, high desert, I have lots of clay and volcanic ash, very hard soil. My property has a slight slope and I constantly battled water running off. I added borders to the downslope and have been top dressing for a few years now as well as no till. Now the water soaks right in and everything grows much stronger.
Charles, yourself and I, have far different terrain. I deal with usually a 20inch rain and shin-deep water, at least once in spring. raised beds are IT!
Very well. 11 th advantage is its much better protected from flooding and snow and the 12 th and most important is you can make it Hugelkultur and this would be great! Cheers!
I agree! I love my raised beds.So much easier to garden for me! I don't have to get on my knees with raised beds. I did have a problem with redwood tree roots invading a raised bed and I had to move that bed.
Yes I could not prevent the tree roots..populars, choke cherry, ceders, ponderosa pines..all on the 2 neighbours fence line..I finally had to go to horse troughs, drainage holes, but still on pavers with gap from the ground..or the roots went right up the holes.
I count 14 defined vegetable growing beds in my backyard. Of these, 10 beds have raised bed characteristics, from 2 that are in ground with a 3" high border up to 2 that have 28" high retaining wall on the south side. Even my in ground beds are designed for being easily tended without compacting my clay soil. I also used a modified SFG concept in how I plant my gardens.
Hey Gardener Scott! I just wanted to share that I have made raised beds out of very large diameter agriculture pipe which I then wire together and stand on their end. You can get drainage through the seep holes and get it high enough so you don't even have to bend over. I also use the hugelkultur method to fill the lower third to half. They are tough, light and I have grown potatoes and leeks in mine so far. Cheers mate!
We tried putting in wooden sides once, but we like having open spaces. We do greatly value height differences in the garden beds, for guiding water and having places that do well in drought/flood. In your hilltop area in an arid region, your plants would do far better with sunken garden beds and a little shade.
Good Morning! I have a question? I built 8 raised beds last fall using the Hugelkulture methods? All new to me for this year-so I covered them with straw for the winter-so far so good-the question is, do I remove the straw? Or do I plant around it and use the straw as a mulch and add additional straw as I go? Any help from the you or the group is most welcome! Have a wonderful day! K
I remove the straw for beds to warm in spring and to sow seeds. Then I replace the straw as mulch. For transplanting, I just pull the straw aside and leave it in place.
The one big drawback that keeps me from doing raised beds is something you actually mentioned. At 7:16 in the video you mentioned your "daily watering". Raised beds do require more water because they dry out quicker. Some people may enjoy watering their garden. Many do not. And for many of us, water isn't free. Even well water isn't entirely free. You have to pay for the energy to pump the water out of the ground. I recognize that for some gardening is more a hobby, so the extra effort and expense of watering is just a part of what they enjoy. And that's kewl. My motivations aren't hobby related. We all need food. And I prefer to grow as much of it as I can, hopefully more cheaply than buying it. If I had to water every day it would defeat the purpose for me and make it a worthless endeavor; both in expense and the time involved. For me, the greatest benefit of growing in a raised bed would be accessibility. It's definitely easier than bending over. And for many that might be a necessity. Thankfully, it's not actually a necessity for me. It's more of a convenience. But the watering element more than cancels that out for me.
I grew in four 4' x 8' x 18" raised beds last year. I live in Mid-Misery.....I mean Mid-Missouri so we do get rain, but we have droughts as well. I used grass clippings as mulch to help with the water retention. Only in the really HOT summer did I have to water regularly. Even then, I averaged watering twice a week. Outside of summer, I watered on average once a month. If I watered every day, my plants would not have grown from over watering. I guess it just depends on where you live as to what your water needs will be.
I garden in a spot that the property manager of my apartments asked me to move my porch container garden to. To respect the fact that this isn't my property, I garden in a way that I have an exit strategy. My containers will be the easiest to remove when that day comes, but my no dig beds will also be relatively easy to scrape up, remove, and put grass seed down after. I'm now thinking that some raised beds would be equally easy to remove, and would be better able to contain the volume of organic material I'm piling on top of the clay soil. There would be a greater upfront cost in building them, but maybe the increased yields that deeper beds can bring would be worth the investment. I have one planned already, and I might go down the line over the next few years replacing simple no dig beds with raised beds.
That is on my list for my next video -- raised beds can be moved/disassembled. It's a lot of work but you touch on a good point... the increased productivity can make it worthwhile.
I have two raised beds. I also have the large planter bags that I have tomato plants in. I’m wondering if zucchini and cucumber would do well in raised beds? My beds are taller than the ones I see in your video.
I did cucumbers, spaghetti squash & watermelons in my raised beds last year. I LOVE to grow things vertically & raised beds help with that a LOT! I got great results from all 3. I added cattle panel trellises for this year & I can't WAIT to grow more vertically!
I have a high raised bed rougly 7x3ft in size. Filled to the brim with organic matter, 3 inches of store bought compost on top, left to rest with a cover crop of spinach for 6 months over the winter. This spring I planted a variety of lettuces, onions, garlic carrots and some brassicas, and did the same directly in the ground about 3 yards away from the raised bed. Same irrigation, same basic fertilization with a bit of manure pellets. Literally everything in the raised bed, except the onions and garlic, was absolutely annihilated by various pests, whereas the other bed remained 90% intact and continued to grow well. And I’m talking slugs the size of SUVs targeting specifically the raised bed, and not the in-ground plants. That’s been my experience unfortunately. I wonder what might have gone wrong.
You mentioned rotating your garlic. But I thought you mentioned previously that you don't have to rotate crops in backyard raised beds. Did I misunderstand something?
I don't have to rotate my garlic but I do it so that I can plant more crops in that bed. I usually can grow cucumbers, squash, and salad crops in the same bed after I harvest the garlic in summer. Whichever bed is ready at garlic planting time is the one I go with.
I'm planning on planting 10 2year asparagus crowns, what size bed (HxWxD) would you recommend and any tips for the soil makeup?. I'm truly addicted to your channel 🙂 and have learned SO MUCH from you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge Gardener Scott!! Everyone stay safe and God Bless you and your family from middle GA 🙏 Kendra
Honesty it seems a little one sided, some of the advantages are a bit of a stretch, and I think Charles Dowding would be considered in ground even if his soil is a little higher than the surrounding ground. I think you owe in ground a bit of an apology, and maybe to express some of those advantages. I have both, my in ground is “raised” above adjacent, and both grow great vegetables.
@@GardenerScott fair enough. I do think equating Dowding with raised beds is disingenuous, maybe a little bit of a hybrid, but mostly in my mind equated with the benefits of in-ground. Your advice is mainly on target from what I have seen, so thanks. No matter how experienced you are, there is always something new to learn! One of the things I have not seen you discuss much is hail protection, surely in your area this is a primary concern.
There are LOTS of other materials you can use to make raised beds with. Pallets work well, logs can work well, corrugated metal roofing, cinder blocks, bricks.... Just have to find what works best for you. Gardener Scott has a video on other materials as well if I remember right. 😉
My raised beds are about as tall as yours. Aside from all the benefits you mentioned, one of my favorite things is that I've alway got a seat for weeding or harvesting...no more getting down on my hands & knees, lol.
That's one of my favorite benefits too.
My whole garden it’s made out of 12 raised bed which is the only way for an urban garden in central London 😂
💚 # 11 raised beds for the somewhat handicapped! Win, win. Gardening is so easy now. Thank you!
Absolutely. I mention that in my first video about the benefits of raised beds.
Love this! I've been going over to raised beds for a couple years now and since I have heavy red clay native soil here in Tennessee it has been a vast improvement on what I can grow without amending my natural soil constantly! :-) Thanks much for so much info :-)
Exactly live in OK, same problem luckily have a free compost recycling center in my city and fill my raised beds for free and top with bought gardening soil, so far it's worked & much cheaper option too.
I'm glad, I have them. I decided to get a couple of rose bushes to put in containers and decided I'd bury the containers in my raised vegetable beds overwinter, to insulate them for the cold. I don't think they'd survive how cold it gets, staying on the patio or even in my shed. Looking forward to the experiment this year! Who knew raised beds could be so versatile?
I used raised beds as a quick jumpstart to gardening. Once I find more time I will try some in ground plots.
Modern raised bed costs for lumber would be very expensive. For three treated 2x10x10's it cost me $70. That comes back to a very expensive Potato in my case. My in ground beds are raised from years of amending. The garden is also set in smaller sections with carpet walkways to keep the mud from adding to my height. I like my flower beds to have distinct borders too.
Great video Scott. I have found it easier to adjust the soil conditions match my plans in raised beds. Harder to do in my native soil.
I have 12 large and 4 small raised vegetable beds, a raised parterre garden and raised small borders. I'll be making a larger pottager garden with 19 more beds from varieating sizes. I love the look, it makes it easy, great soil and I just love the look of it. It makes it more interesting even when the garden is near bare.
Regarding weeds: Another advantage is that it's harder for weeds that spread via rhizomes to find their way into a raised bed. Lots of good points in this video. I especially love the tip about crop rotation.
We've gardened where we live for 45 years. About 12 years ago, we started building raised beds.If I was to make a pros list it would easily match yours. We have very sandy soil and it was difficult always amending it.
In my area, high desert, I have lots of clay and volcanic ash, very hard soil. My property has a slight slope and I constantly battled water running off. I added borders to the downslope and have been top dressing for a few years now as well as no till. Now the water soaks right in and everything grows much stronger.
Charles, yourself and I, have far different terrain. I deal with usually a 20inch rain and shin-deep water, at least once in spring. raised beds are IT!
Very well. 11 th advantage is its much better protected from flooding and snow and the 12 th and most important is you can make it Hugelkultur and this would be great! Cheers!
Thanks for the advice. You are convincing me to garden in raised beds now!
I agree! I love my raised beds.So much easier to garden for me! I don't have to get on my knees with raised beds. I did have a problem with redwood tree roots invading a raised bed and I had to move that bed.
Yes I could not prevent the tree roots..populars, choke cherry, ceders, ponderosa pines..all on the 2 neighbours fence line..I finally had to go to horse troughs, drainage holes, but still on pavers with gap from the ground..or the roots went right up the holes.
I count 14 defined vegetable growing beds in my backyard. Of these, 10 beds have raised bed characteristics, from 2 that are in ground with a 3" high border up to 2 that have 28" high retaining wall on the south side. Even my in ground beds are designed for being easily tended without compacting my clay soil. I also used a modified SFG concept in how I plant my gardens.
Hey Gardener Scott! I just wanted to share that I have made raised beds out of very large diameter agriculture pipe which I then wire together and stand on their end. You can get drainage through the seep holes and get it high enough so you don't even have to bend over. I also use the hugelkultur method to fill the lower third to half. They are tough, light and I have grown potatoes and leeks in mine so far. Cheers mate!
Great video! Do you have a video about the "copper tape" as a deterrent to snails?
I mention it in a few videos but don't have one dedicated on slugs yet.
Yea that copper tape idea I have never heard. I seem to see slugs in my raised beds but they havnt hurt my Romainelettuces, kale, or Swiss chard.
I use heavy quarter inch screen under my raised bed to keep moles
from eating and wrenching under my bulb garden
Good idea. I have mesh screen under all my beds to keep out gophers.
We tried putting in wooden sides once, but we like having open spaces. We do greatly value height differences in the garden beds, for guiding water and having places that do well in drought/flood. In your hilltop area in an arid region, your plants would do far better with sunken garden beds and a little shade.
Good Morning! I have a question? I built 8 raised beds last fall using the Hugelkulture methods? All new to me for this year-so I covered them with straw for the winter-so far so good-the question is, do I remove the straw? Or do I plant around it and use the straw as a mulch and add additional straw as I go? Any help from the you or the group is most welcome! Have a wonderful day!
K
I remove the straw for beds to warm in spring and to sow seeds. Then I replace the straw as mulch. For transplanting, I just pull the straw aside and leave it in place.
Great! Thanks so much!! Awesome videos and advice! So welcome!
The one big drawback that keeps me from doing raised beds is something you actually mentioned. At 7:16 in the video you mentioned your "daily watering". Raised beds do require more water because they dry out quicker. Some people may enjoy watering their garden. Many do not. And for many of us, water isn't free. Even well water isn't entirely free. You have to pay for the energy to pump the water out of the ground. I recognize that for some gardening is more a hobby, so the extra effort and expense of watering is just a part of what they enjoy. And that's kewl. My motivations aren't hobby related. We all need food. And I prefer to grow as much of it as I can, hopefully more cheaply than buying it. If I had to water every day it would defeat the purpose for me and make it a worthless endeavor; both in expense and the time involved. For me, the greatest benefit of growing in a raised bed would be accessibility. It's definitely easier than bending over. And for many that might be a necessity. Thankfully, it's not actually a necessity for me. It's more of a convenience. But the watering element more than cancels that out for me.
If you put rotting wood and sticks in the bottom of the raised bed it helps with the moisture, also corn cobs.
I grew in four 4' x 8' x 18" raised beds last year. I live in Mid-Misery.....I mean Mid-Missouri so we do get rain, but we have droughts as well. I used grass clippings as mulch to help with the water retention. Only in the really HOT summer did I have to water regularly. Even then, I averaged watering twice a week. Outside of summer, I watered on average once a month. If I watered every day, my plants would not have grown from over watering. I guess it just depends on where you live as to what your water needs will be.
Thanks for sharing sir...
I garden in a spot that the property manager of my apartments asked me to move my porch container garden to. To respect the fact that this isn't my property, I garden in a way that I have an exit strategy. My containers will be the easiest to remove when that day comes, but my no dig beds will also be relatively easy to scrape up, remove, and put grass seed down after. I'm now thinking that some raised beds would be equally easy to remove, and would be better able to contain the volume of organic material I'm piling on top of the clay soil. There would be a greater upfront cost in building them, but maybe the increased yields that deeper beds can bring would be worth the investment. I have one planned already, and I might go down the line over the next few years replacing simple no dig beds with raised beds.
That is on my list for my next video -- raised beds can be moved/disassembled. It's a lot of work but you touch on a good point... the increased productivity can make it worthwhile.
I have two raised beds. I also have the large planter bags that I have tomato plants in. I’m wondering if zucchini and cucumber would do well in raised beds? My beds are taller than the ones I see in your video.
I grow all of my cucumbers and most of my squash in raised beds. They do very well.
Thank you! Appreciate all the great information.
I did cucumbers, spaghetti squash & watermelons in my raised beds last year. I LOVE to grow things vertically & raised beds help with that a LOT! I got great results from all 3. I added cattle panel trellises for this year & I can't WAIT to grow more vertically!
I have a high raised bed rougly 7x3ft in size. Filled to the brim with organic matter, 3 inches of store bought compost on top, left to rest with a cover crop of spinach for 6 months over the winter. This spring I planted a variety of lettuces, onions, garlic carrots and some brassicas, and did the same directly in the ground about 3 yards away from the raised bed. Same irrigation, same basic fertilization with a bit of manure pellets. Literally everything in the raised bed, except the onions and garlic, was absolutely annihilated by various pests, whereas the other bed remained 90% intact and continued to grow well. And I’m talking slugs the size of SUVs targeting specifically the raised bed, and not the in-ground plants. That’s been my experience unfortunately. I wonder what might have gone wrong.
That's an interesting dilemma. It could be that slug predators like birds, snakes, and toads can access the in-ground bed better.
Gardner Scott, are most of your beds 4x8?
The vegetable beds are, but my arch and asparagus beds are 3x10. I have a new section that's not done yet that will be 2x24.
Great advice❤️
Great video, I love raised beds, 😁
You mentioned rotating your garlic. But I thought you mentioned previously that you don't have to rotate crops in backyard raised beds. Did I misunderstand something?
I don't have to rotate my garlic but I do it so that I can plant more crops in that bed. I usually can grow cucumbers, squash, and salad crops in the same bed after I harvest the garlic in summer. Whichever bed is ready at garlic planting time is the one I go with.
I'm planning on planting 10 2year asparagus crowns, what size bed (HxWxD) would you recommend and any tips for the soil makeup?. I'm truly addicted to your channel 🙂 and have learned SO MUCH from you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge Gardener Scott!! Everyone stay safe and God Bless you and your family from middle GA 🙏 Kendra
Here's my video on planting asparagus in a raised bed: ua-cam.com/video/2WCL8GucZ6Y/v-deo.html
@@GardenerScott Thank You Mr Scott ☺️☺️
NYC rats are a problem. Can you hang planters on a stone wall to keep rats away? Does that work?
Wall planters can be effective if properly mounted.
if you have alkyie soil do you need to put something under your raised bed to keep it from bleeding into your good siol
Alkaline soil really won't bleed into the soil in the bed. You don't have to worry about it affecting the good soil in your beds.
@@GardenerScott thank you love your videos
😍😊
Honesty it seems a little one sided, some of the advantages are a bit of a stretch, and I think Charles Dowding would be considered in ground even if his soil is a little higher than the surrounding ground. I think you owe in ground a bit of an apology, and maybe to express some of those advantages. I have both, my in ground is “raised” above adjacent, and both grow great vegetables.
I have other videos where I discuss problems with raised beds and discuss advantages of in-ground growing.
@@GardenerScott fair enough. I do think equating Dowding with raised beds is disingenuous, maybe a little bit of a hybrid, but mostly in my mind equated with the benefits of in-ground. Your advice is mainly on target from what I have seen, so thanks. No matter how experienced you are, there is always something new to learn! One of the things I have not seen you discuss much is hail protection, surely in your area this is a primary concern.
With wood prices where they're at - wood is out.
i just bought three 8 foot by 6 inch cedar boards at lowes for 45 dollars a piece, but its worth it
@@mococaboy17 those would cost me $127.65 CDN here at Home Depot today. So no, no it's not worth it. 🤢
There are LOTS of other materials you can use to make raised beds with. Pallets work well, logs can work well, corrugated metal roofing, cinder blocks, bricks.... Just have to find what works best for you. Gardener Scott has a video on other materials as well if I remember right. 😉