What To Add To Raised Garden Bed After Plants Are In

Filling raised planting bed with soil — Raised bed gardening can make a great family activity.

Watch the previous or next video in our series of tips for your yard.

Building a raised planting bed is a great way to grow vegetables or flowers. Advantages include:

Control over soil quality.
Better soil drainage.
Easier to work in the garden.

Raised planting beds can be constructed using wood, block, or brick; with heights ranging from a few inches off the ground to several feet.

Here's how Allen constructed the raised planting bed for his yard:

Wood Frame: Built 5'x10' frame from 2"x6" treated pine lumber.
Line Frame: Covered inner sides of the wood frame with black plastic sheeting to prevent preservative from leaching into the soil.
Weed Barrier: Covered the ground with cardboard boxes to prevent weeds and grass from coming up through the soil.
Soil Layer: Added bottom layer of soil to raised planting bed.
Irrigation: Ran soaker hose through a hole drilled in the frame, then back and forth in the planting bed to provide easy irrigation.
Add Soil: Added another layer of soil on top of the soaker hose.
Weed Cloth: Covered raised bed with weed cloth stapled to the top of the raised bed frame.
Planting: Cut a hole in the weed cloth for each plant, and planted vegetables or flowers.

Watch this video to find out more.

Further Information

Raised Vegetable Bed (video)
Raised Bed Gardening (video)
Raised Bed Gardening FAQ (article)
Advantages of Raised Planting Beds for Your Garden (article)
Vegetable Garden: Planning and Layout (article)

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Danny Lipford: Another topic that draws lots of questions is raised vegetable gardens.

Julie Day: Hey, Allen.

Allen Lyle: Hey, Julie! I heard you were in town.

Julie: I heard you had quite an experiment going on here.

Allen: Yeah it's a test, I don't know if it's going to work or not. I wanted a raised bed.

Julie: OK.

Allen: I got some fruits some vegetables. Here's the experiment: a little layer of dirt and then I weaved in a soaker hose.

Julie: OK.

Allen: And then covered more dirt. So now I've got instant water under there.

Julie: Right to the root.

Allen: Right. And then covered this with a weed cloth. And I'm thinking this is going to work, but I was hoping you might give me an honest opinion.

Julie: I think this sounds very well thought out. You're a man who was pulled many of weeds in his life.

Allen: Yes.

Julie: And you want to make sure it doesn't happen again. And this weed blocker fabric should help keep anything that might want to sprout in here from having a chance.

Allen: Now I know the big issue of course after this is going to be trying to keep the birds and the critters away.

Julie: Sure, but with the raised bed you have something right here you can attach a frame if you need to.

Allen: Oh, yeah.

Julie: You can do trellis, you can do bird netting, anything you want. Just attach it right to the frame.

Allen: So you going to help me plant these?

Julie: Looks like I'm going to need my gloves.

Allen: Then at the end of the harvest season I'm thinking fish frying, fresh vegetables.

Julie: I'll wait for my invitation.