I love to see more people growing there own food and just gardening. But the popularity of raised beds sheds some concern for me. You go from a gardener a hoe and a patch of earth to something much more complex. Raised beds need wood and therefore deforestation. They require sterile potting mixes and therefore artificial plant food, and harvesting of invaluable peat bogs. Then comes the need for more water due to the reduced water retention as opposed to a healthy soil. I feel like a negative Nancy and wonder if there is other opinions out there. The ABSOLUTE first think I will admit, is that it hands down beats the alternative of conventional agriculture and supermarket distribution of food in individual plastic containers, by far.
Raised beds are only as complicated as you want to make them. I've been gardening in my back yard for over 35 years using raised beds that are made of native soil sculpted by using a digging fork and hoe. No wood or purchased soil material goes into them. The soil is amended only with compost made from yard material and kitchen scraps. I do use chemical fertilizers, but these could be dispensed with if I had a convenient source of manure nearby.
great answer, vitog! I have the reverse of your beds, sort of :) I bought wood and I enjoy the construction aspect. I put in a drip irrigation system so I can go away on holiday and my neighbour has a simple job - turn on the mechanical water timer. But, I have a ready source of local manure, so I use no other fertilizer and I don't dig or turn over the soil. "Raised beds are only as complicated as you want to make them". Yep. All you really need is a bit of sunny ground, a hoe, a shovel, a fork, manure/fertilizer, seed and water. Scrounge old pallets, bricks, rocks, concrete or w.h.y if you want to make a wall around them.
Oh thats great! I was just under the impression that if you filled them with garden soil they got compacted so you had to use soilless mixes.
Charles, one of the nice things about raised beds is that, by and large, you don't have to walk on the soil and compact it. So mine started out a couple of inches below the height I wanted and then with annual additions of compost and fertilizer they are now full. They are fluffed up and full of mole runs. I just scuff the organic matter into the top few inches of the soil with a fork in the Spring, weed just before planting and put in the seeds or seedlings. Not much work compared to the digging, double digging and working-in of soil amendments that many people still do. It works for me. ....everyone does it differently. To generalize what vitog said...my observation is that you can make gardening as complicated or simple as you want :)
One thing to consider is the type of soil that you have to deal with. Heavy clay soil compacts easily and probably needs more amendments to maintain proper aeration even in a raised bed. My soil is based on glacial till consisting mostly of sand and gravel; so I have excellent drainage and aeration (at the cost of poor fertility). I dig up my raised beds every year, some of them twice a year, mainly as a weed control and because I like the exercise that digging provides. That digging is done just before planting the bed; in addition vacant areas in the garden are regularly dug up to bury kitchen scraps. Right now, I no longer have a compost bin; so all compostable material is also being directly buried. I know that no-till gardening is all the rage, but all of this digging has vastly improved my garden's soil.
