Schlatter Family Site

Raised Beds
for
Herbs and Veggies

Our raised bed garden

Some of the material on this page repeats what is on a preceding page that describes our garden.  This page describes our raised beds.

Raised beds are exactly what the name says -- garden beds that are raised above the level of the garden area -- the pictures explain better than I can.

•  The bed in the foreground will be our herb garden.  It is made of 2X12's cut into 6-foot lengths and shaped into an octagon -- makes a bed that is 15X15 feet.
• The other two beds beyond the octagonal herb garden are 12X12 feet and will hold various veggies
• Next to the black wheelbarrow is a 3X12 foot bed for asparagus.
• The structure at the end of the garden is a compost pile where I pile grass clippings, vegetable waste from the kitchen, and other compost material.
• I purchased 10 cubic yards each of composted straw and horse manure (the black stuff under the blue tarp in the distance) and topsoil (the stuff under the silver tarp in the distance).  I then used my wheelbarrow to fill each bed half and half, topsoil and compost -- took about 15 wheelbarrow loads of each to fill each bed -- that's about 30 wheelbarrow loads per bed.  Took two days to fill the beds.
• Then, I ran my Troy-Bilt tiller back and forth and back and forth over the topsoil-compost mixture in each bed to thoroughly mix the soil.

Here's one of our raised beds -- on 20 March 2009 we set out two rows of broccoli, one row of Brussels sprouts, and five rows of onions (red and yellow sweet onions).

We used pressure-treated 2X12 lumber to build our beds.  You can use the same lumber, or, you can use various landscape timbers.  Some people use old railroad ties but I am cautious about using railroad ties because of the creosote with which they are impregnated.

Why raised beds?

Why did we go to all the trouble of building boxes and filling them with soil?  Raised beds have certain advantages.

Control the soil.  By filling the bed with soil, you control the quality of the soil.  Our soil is heavy clay with little organic matter, so, by using raised beds, we are able to fill them with very good growing medium -- light topsoil with some sand, compost, and other organic matter.

Less bending over.  Our beds are almost one foot high.  We can sit on a low stool and reach into the beds for weeding, thinning plants, and the like.  If you make your beds 3 or 4 feet wide, you can reach all the way across the bed from either side.  With our 12X12 beds, we can reach 3-4 feet into the bed while we are seated on the edge of the bed.

Good drainage.  Garden soil needs to drain -- you don't want water standing in the garden because that will cause your veggie plants to rot.  With good, porous soil in the bed, water will not stand in the garden.