When we bought our first house around 40 years ago, we immediately picked a location for our very first real garden. There was a little buzz about a new way of gardening, something about raised beds. “Grow twice as much in half the space”! Before that, we used to garden in rows: a row for plants, a row to walk down, a row for plants… You get the picture. It seemed quite organized, but half of the garden consisted of paths. And the paths were trampled down and very compact.
There was no internet or gardening channel on tv, just word of mouth, newspapers, and magazines, so I sent away for information. A brochure arrived just in time. We had already removed the sod and started turning the soil. Basically, we just dug a path every 4 feet, piled the soil onto the area between paths, and then raked the beds flat. It was exciting! The paths weren’t nearly wide enough, but the planting areas were beautiful. My garden did quite well, for my first attempt. I’ve used raised beds ever since.
Gardening certainly has changed a lot since then. Raised beds and container gardening are very common now, and for good reason. You only walk in the paths between the beds, so the soil stays loose, drains well, and there is plenty of space for good root development.
Our first garden in our “new” house (we moved in in 1986!) was created just the same as that first garden before it. It borders our garage at the back, and we built a stone block wall across the front. The beds now have boards bordering the paths which form the sides of the beds. My garden paths are 14″-16″ wide because I wanted to give myself as much planting space as possible. That’s how I originally set it up. I am used to the narrow paths, but it can be challenging to maneuver at times. You should take this into consideration when setting up your garden area.
There are all kinds of raised beds and containers available. Many people choose to build their own, as commercially available beds and kits can be very expensive. I’ve seen some very beautiful garden beds bordered by rocks or segments of tree trunks. I’ve even seen gardens bordered by cinder blocks with plants in each of the block’s holes. And lots of gardeners simply build garden boxes.
If you are going to build your own, you’ll have to decide what kind of lumber to use – pressure treated or plain pine. This is a very good link to read: homegardenjoy.com/site/2017/10/is-it-safe-to-use-pressure-treated-lumber-in-the-vegetable-garden.html. Some of my beds are made from PT lumber, some from post-consumer plastic, and one bed from a kit that used composite boards. If you make beds made from the current pressure treated lumber, they are considered safe. They are not, however, “organic”. Ultimately, it’s your choice – it is a good idea to be as informed as possible.
My last recommendation is this: put some kind of barrier, like hardware cloth, under your bed to keep pests out. The chipmunks have completely taken over one of our beds. Although we manage to peacefully co-exist, they always get the better share of our strawberries! Last year we built 2 boxes primarily for our garlic – we stapled hardware cloth to the bottom and lined the boxes with landscape fabric. You could say we’ve definitely learned our lesson!
