Grow your own vegetables more quickly, easily and with minimal work using a raised planter box. It’s faster, simpler and less time consuming than working in an actual garden plot.
Fill your garden beds with 50% screened topsoil made of healthy loam and 50% screened compost sourced from your own backyard organic matter or leafy green manure or mushroom compost.
Soil
An essential component of any vibrant garden is its soil, as this is where plants draw nutrients, water and air from. Good garden soil helps produce strong plants that resist disease and pests while also maintaining moisture for most vegetables.
Soil quality in a vegetable garden box is of great significance, particularly if you plan on growing multiple crops within one raised bed. To maximize production and meet local conditions and produce requirements, starting fresh or adding appropriate mix is recommended depending on what types of veg are planted in raised beds.
Vegetables require deep, well-draining soil that’s rich in organic matter for proper root development. Sandy or clay-like soil may prevent this growth and ultimately keep vegetables from reaching their full potential. Furthermore, soil health plays an essential role in how many nutrients your veggies receive.
Start off right by getting a soil test, which will show what pH and nutrient levels exist in your soil. From there, use organic soil amendments such as Bio-tone starter plus for new plantings, and Garden-tone for vegetable gardens to address any deficiencies in your soil. Espoma offers several natural soil amendment products including this.
By layering leaves, grass clippings, straw, wood chips, paper and more together you can create your own nutrient-rich soil for a vegetable garden using the lasagna method. Over time this mixture will deteriorate into rich compost which will nourish both your plants as it breaks down as well as yourself!
Home improvement stores carry bags of garden mix that you can purchase or make yourself, or you can build raised vegetable garden beds yourself as another solution. Either DIY project is quick and straightforward, saving time spent digging. Incorporating climbing vegetables such as herbs into the growing space with the addition of trellises will make watering manageable by hanging a soaker hose or drip tape from its branches to ensure all plants get enough hydration without over-watering them.
Water
A vegetable garden box allows you to cultivate produce in an easy and compact fashion, requiring much less effort or time for maintenance than an in-ground plot. However, water must still be provided evenly across the bed. When your soil dries out between watering sessions, heat stress may result in the eventual death of plants. To combat this problem, purchase a moisture meter from garden supply stores to detect when your soil requires irrigation. Furthermore, adding an automatic timer or soaker hose would eliminate guesswork when spraying vegetables while speeding up and streamlining irrigation processes.
Weeds
Weeds can be the bane of every gardener’s existence. Not only do their roots penetrate deeply into the soil and steal precious space from our edibles, but their roots also pull up nutrients that could otherwise benefit our plants. However, these pesky plants also reveal much about the health of the soil in which they’re growing – rather than trying to eliminate them all by pulling out every last one, we should embrace their presence to make our vegetable gardens even healthier!
Many weeds thrive in hard, compacted soils. Weeds with long fibrous taproots can penetrate beneath the surface to access minerals buried below and often indicate that nutrient levels in the soil are too low. To correct this situation, try avoiding heavy foot traffic, aerating the soil regularly, keeping tilling to an absolute minimum or adding soil amendments with high amounts of sand that allow water to drain freely or applying soil amendments with high concentrations of sand for easier drainage.
When choosing the location for your garden bed, take into account what kind of vegetables will be planted there and their space requirements. Vegetables that spread out, like beans, squash and cucumbers should be grown in beds that allow for their expansion; those which grow vertically, such as tomatoes and peppers should be planted in beds which provide sufficient room for their support without crowding out other plants.
Before creating your garden bed, start by layering cardboard or newspaper to prevent weeds from sprouting through the soil. On top of this layer should go organic material; using the lasagna method this could include leaves, grass clippings, straw, wood chips and cardboard which eventually becomes rich compost over multiple seasons.
Fill your vegetable garden bed with a combination of 50% screened topsoil made from healthy loam soil and 50% compost – whether homemade or store-bought; ideal combinations include manure from your own rotted manure pile, mushroom waste and organic materials like fish compost for extra nutrients.
Maintenance
Raised garden boxes require less time and effort than in-ground plots when it comes to cultivating vegetables, yet still require proper care in terms of soil requirements and maintenance. They should also be strategically located within your backyard to maximize sunlight exposure as well as provide access for watering, spraying, harvesting and weed removal. Consider installing drip tape or soaker hose irrigation system instead of hand spraying as this allows greater control over water use and usage.
If your garden will feature sprawling crops, place taller plants on the northern side of each bed to prevent shading of smaller ones. Before beginning construction, mark out and walk through each bed to ensure they can accommodate walking, wheelbarrow pushing or harvesting of crops.