The First-Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening

All the know-how you need to build and grow a raised bed garden

CaliKim

• Publisher: Cool Springs Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780760372753
• eBook ISBN: 9780760372760
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Horticulture
• Index: Biological Sciences

Setting up your first raised bed garden? With help from YouTube gardening star CaliKim, you’ll soon be growing your own fresh, organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers like a pro.

Whether your yard is big or small, raised beds are the perfect fit. They allow you to create a controlled growing environment, filled with fertile soil, where plants thrive. Raised beds help gardeners overcome rocky or less-than-ideal soils, there’s little to no weeding involved, and they can be as large or as petite as you’d like. You can even use an elevated or mobile raised bed if the only sunny space you have to grow is on a patio, deck, or driveway. In The First-Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening, you’ll learn how to select the best raised bed for your space, what to fill it with, and tips for staking and trellising plants to save space and improve yields.

Additional advice found inside includes:

• DIY plans for building quick-and-simple beds
• Info on the best soil mixes for filling raised beds
• How to mulch, water, and fertilize your new garden
• Illustrated planting plans to help you determine how many plants fit in each bed
• Step-by-step project plans for unique raised bed trellising systems
• The best beginner-friendly crops to get you started
• How to maximize production from a small raised bed garden
• Tips to get growing in a way that won’t leave you feeling overwhelmed halfway through the season

Raised bed gardening is perfect for beginners, as long as you have a pro like CaliKim sharing her essential know-how and cheering you on to veggie-growing victory.

This book is part of The First-Time Gardener’s Guides series from Cool Springs Press, which also includes The First-Time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers and The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables. Each book in The First-Time Gardener’s Guides series is aimed at beginner gardeners and offers clear, fact-based information that’s presented in a friendly and accessible way, including step-by-step instructions and full-color illustrations throughout.

1

Getting Started

Now that you’ve decided to jump in and garden with raised beds, you might have a myriad of questions such as:

• How much space will I need?
• How many raised beds should I plant for my family?
• How do I know where to place my raised beds?
• How big do I build each bed?
• How deep should the raised beds be and what shape is best?
• Do I need pathways between the beds?

The Best Journey Starts with a Plan

Before I help you answer these questions, think back for a moment to your first road trip. What did you do first? You made a plan. You mapped out where you were going, filled up your gas tank, packed snacks and water, and planned stops along the way. You got up early and set out for your destination. Perhaps you saw some beautiful sights along the way, or maybe the scenery was humdrum. You may have gotten lost a few times, hit a few detours or roadblocks, and maybe you even ran out of gas. In spite of these glitches, you found your way and arrived at your destination safely, all in one piece. And I bet you felt like you conquered the world!

The best journey starts with a plan. You’ll undoubtably run into some bumps along the way as you head down the metaphoric road to growing your own organic vegetables. Rest assured, there are no failures here, the bumps (forgetting to water, having plants die, or packing too much into your raised bed) are all part of the journey. Expect to learn tons along the way as you plant and grow. The key to enjoying the trip is planning out your raised bed garden, figuring out some of the answers to the previous questions before you start, keeping it simple, and managing your expectations.

Planning your raised bed garden is key to successfully growing (and enjoying) many tasty harvests.

Installing a raised bed garden will most likely mean a re-arrangement or even a total makeover of your outdoor space. Taking into consideration the size of your family, how much of your own food you want to grow, and your available time, space, and budget will help you decide the size of your raised beds and how many you should build. Where you place your raised beds in your outdoor space will determine how much sunlight, drainage, water, and air circulation your garden will receive—which will in turn affect the type of vegetables you grow and how productive your garden will be. This chapter will not only help you think through these questions up front before you start but will also give you the plan and know-how you need to make your dream of growing your own garden grocery store using raised beds a reality.

If this is your first time growing in raised beds, I’ll be with you, providing lots of inspiration and guidance, every step of the way from planning to building, filling, and planting your beds. The goal isn’t to have perfectly planted and maintained raised beds, but to have fun and enjoy the journey. When you get to where you’re growing—a harvest of your very own vegetables that bursts with freshness and flavor—you’ll feel incredibly satisfied. You’ll proudly say, “I grew this!” and will want to garden in raised beds season after season. Let’s head down the road together. Are you ready to hit it?

Raised Bed Journey Question #1: How Much Space? How Many Beds?

First things first. There are six key factors when planning your raised bed garden space and determining how many beds you’ll need.

Factor #1: How much time do you have to devote to growing veggies?

A garden is a blessing and a joy but can also leave you feeling overwhelmed and worn out if you plant more than you have time to maintain. A small garden with 3-5 raised beds may take just a few hours a week to keep up, whereas a larger garden with 5-15 raised beds can take a significant chunk out of your weekly schedule. Plan accordingly for your lifestyle—but remember you don’t have to do it all by yourself. Get the whole family involved and enlist the help of friends or neighbors who might want to grow along with you! One of the rewards of gardening is sharing your passion (and your harvests).

Factor #2: How much space do you have?

If you live in an apartment or condo and have a small space to grow in—you can still grow your own food. There are a ton of fruits and veggies you can grow, even with little or no backyard space on a patio or balcony. Raised beds are a perfect solution. With a small growing space, you’ll need to plan and measure carefully in order to maximize the space you do have and install your raised beds accordingly.

Determining how many raised beds you’ll need is an important step in planning your garden.

Raised beds are a perfect solution for growing your own fruits and veggies on a deck, patio, or balcony.

Smaller crops such as herbs, salad greens, beans, peppers, and radishes will take up less space than larger sprawling and/or vining vegetables like eggplant, tomatoes, squash, watermelon, peas, and cucumbers. Many of these larger, vining vegetables can be grown vertically on trellises and supports to make the most out of every square inch.

If you have a large outdoor space, you’ll need to determine how much of it you’d like to designate to your garden, as well as the best location where you can grow the most food. (There will be more on where to locate your beds later in this chapter.)

Factor #3: Is your goal for vegetable gardening to supplement or be self-sufficient?

If your gardening goal is to grow your own tasty, fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs to supplement what you purchase from the supermarket, a kitchen garden is the way to go and will require much less space than if your goal is to grow all your produce and have a self-sufficient garden.

Typically, a kitchen garden is relatively small in size and for easy access is positioned in close proximity to the house. Kitchen gardens are usually planted in containers or raised beds. I love nothing better than stepping outside my back door for a quick visit to my own kitchen garden gro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Getting Started
• 2 Building Your Raised Beds
• 3 Filling Your Raised Beds
• 4 Planting and Growing in Your Raised Beds
• 5 Layouts and Planting Plans for Your Raised Beds
• Conclusion
• Resources
• About the Author
• Index
• Dedication
• Copyright