Raised Bed Garden Book

So you want a vegetable garden, but don’t have a large area to till up for the project? Your “soil” is hard as rock? A good way to compensate for such lack of space and rocky soil is by gardening in raised beds. Doing so helps you overcome problems with our less-than-perfect soil.

A raised bed for vegetables can be as simple as raking the soil into flat-topped mounds (berms) several inches higher than paths. Or, for deeper beds, you can box soil with landscape timbers (raised bed).

Raised beds, especially in Miami-Dade County, offer a number of distinct advantages, particularly for growing vegetables:

•  Digging is not needed.
•  Helps plants grow better. For root crops such as sweet potato, carrots or malanga, it is much easier to provide needed space for the edible plant parts to grow.
•  Replenishing soil is easy to do. This helps to overcome the build up of disease or nematodes. Depleted soil can be quickly removed from a raised bed and replaced.
•  Ease of cultivation, especially for those with limited mobility.
•  Lessens the risk of plants becoming water logged, particularly in areas with poor drainage. This limits the chance of root rot diseases.
• Reduces soil compaction and prevents damage to soil and plants from foot traffic.
• Saves resources; fertilizer is applied only in the beds, not broadcast over the entire garden area.
• By using peat-based and organically enriched soils, the pH is in the “ideal” range for most plants.