Growing Vegetables in a Raised Bed

Raised beds provide ideal conditions for growing vegetables and also for growing fruit like strawberries and other soft fruit. They have many advantages, especially if you have a small garden, or like many of us, have increasing difficulty in reaching the ground – or your toes. Build one in autumn or winter and it will have settled down by spring and you could be enjoying succulent home grown vegetables all the summer.

Advantages of Raised Garden Beds

• It doesn’t matter if your garden has poor or rubble strewn soil; you just add good quality soil on top.
• Improved drainage.
• The soil warms up more quickly in spring.
• You don’t need to walk on the bed, so the soil doesn’t get compacted. This makes raised beds ideal for no dig gardening – just top up with a few inches of fresh topsoil each year.
• You can plant more closely than normal.
• It’s easy to protect the crop with clear plastic, protection fleece or anti bird netting.

… and all this means bigger and better vegetable crops.

Building a Raised Garden Bed

• Site it in any sunny position in the garden – even on or surrounding a patio if you provide adequate drainage.
• A bed should be not more than 4ft (1.2m) wide to allow easy access from the sides – or 2ft 6in (45cm) if you can only get at one side – at least a foot (30cnm) high and as long as you like.
• If possible set the long side to run roughly north-south, for the best growing aspect and exposure to the sun.
• Build the sides from any sturdy, rot resisting material. Railway sleepers are excellent, but make sure you anchor them firmly.
• Bricks and mortar or breeze blocks are best of all, but you’ll need concrete footings if you build over 4 courses high.

If you don’t fancy building one, you can buy small, self assembly raised garden bed kits in garden centres or from internet suppliers like Harrods Horticultural and the Raised Garden Bed Company in the UK. Prices range from around ¬£30, to ¬£200-¬£300 for sturdier larger longer lasting versions.

Soil Preparation

• When your walls are finished, fork a good load of well rotted manure or compost into the base soil before adding fresh topsoil or compost.
• If digging is difficult, or if the base soil is weedy, use a layer of newspaper or old carpet to smother the weeds.
• Top up with good quality loam or compost. If you buy in topsoil, make sure it’s been sterilised or you may import a crop of weeds.
• Let it settle for at least 3 weeks before planting, and fork in more manure or compost each winter.

Cultivation

You can sow or plant rather more closely than normal (reduce distances by around 20%), and block planting is normally more space-efficient than single rows. Otherwise cultivate as as normal.

Small raised beds are particularly suitable for crops like:

• Salad crops – tomatoes, lettuce, spring onions, radishes etc.
• Herbs.
• Root crops – carrots, beetroot, onions and parsnips.
• Small varieties of French, runner and broad beans.
• Cabbages, cauliflowers and spinach.
• Strawberries

For additional or larger beds, try crops like early potatoes, courgettes, peppers, cucumbers, peas, sweet corn, raspberries and other soft fruit.

Raised garden beds will also produce wonderful displays of flowers, either as ornamental beds or for cutting.

Finally, if you want to grow a crop in an even smaller space, or find building a raised bed too difficult, try using one or two growbags on a bench or breezeblock stand.