Elevated gardening is a very inclusive method of gardening. People who otherwise could not have thought to pursue their passion in the form of gardening can now aspire to do so.
From people who have arthritis and back issues to people who are wheelchair-bound, elevated gardening is the perfect option for all!
Here is a manual for beginners to know everything about elevated gardening. It is set to help give you a smooth start while ensuring that you understand all the technicalities that you need to look out for before commencing your elevated gardening project. Dive in!
What Are Elevated Garden Beds?
Elevated garden beds are a great and innovative way to cultivate and tend plants of your choice, no matter how big or small the supposed gardening space is. It is particularly a great option for people who live in small, compact houses or apartments.
In addition to this, elevated garden beds enable those who have mobility issues to practice their love for gardening and plants in general. While gardening may be a business for some, it can be quite therapeutic and a reason for immense joy for others!
What Are Raised Planter Boxes?
Raised planter boxes work in the same logic as elevated garden beds. The only difference is that raised planter boxes are much more compact, whereas elevated beds can be as large and broad as the space allows. So, it is only a matter of the spatial aspect based on which a gardener will decide to opt for either a raised planter box or an elevated gardening bed.
Everything You Need To Know About Elevated Gardening
While it seems as if the rules and regulations followed in the case of the conventional gardening process can be thoroughly employed in elevated gardening, it is not so. Here are some of the key attributes that you need to know if you are willing to start your own elevated garden.
No Ordinary Soil
Since elevated gardening beds or raised planter boxes do not have their own drainage system, it is recommended that you use specialized soil designed for raised gardening. So, the first thing to do here is to buy specialized soil to lay the bed along with fertilizers to give the plants a good start.
When it comes to the amount or quantity of soil to be used, go through the instruction manual of the product. You can also check the manual before you buy the product so that you’re well prepared in advance. In addition to this, fertilizers that can be used after planting can be the regular ones that are used in traditional gardening.
Pick A Space That Receives Enough Sunlight
Whatever plants you choose to cultivate, have enough information about the prerequisite to raising these plants well in advance to ensure a good first experience. According to the hourly needs of the plants, choose a site that you feel is optimal for your baby plants. Vegetable plants often require sun exposure of about 8-9 hours every day.
Choosing The Perfect Plants
Well, this is something that is a choice that you have to make depending on your preferences, budget, and other factors. Make sure that you divide the bed to include at least two plants. This way you will have a practice-based knowledge of which two plants can grow under similar conditions and which cannot. The process and practice of it will be absolutely fun!
To ensure a greater success rate, always consider the plants that are best suited to the climate of the place you live in. In order to not disappoint yourself, choose something that doesn’t require much maintenance, so that you can adjust to this gardening method.
Advantages Of Elevated Gardening Over Traditional Gardening Methods
There is, in fact, a wide range of merits and versatility factors that are the sole characteristics that set elevated gardening way above the latter. Traditional gardening methods and styles require a spacious area where you could till and tend your young plants.
Elevated gardening using elevated garden beds and raised planter boxes are more inclusive of the usual space-deficient challenges and personal mobility issues. As cities are becoming more populous and sites are becoming more compact, gone are those times when people had the luxury of a spacious backyard.
So in order to quench your thirst for gardening, the market has new innovations for you. So, let us see in what ways elevated gardening excels when compared to traditional gardening.
Personalize It To Best Suit Your Needs
While with traditional methods gardening needed good enough space, elevated gardening techniques brought innovations to work around with the little space you have for gardening. A standard elevated garden bed is cut out in a rectangular shape. However, having your own personalized bed is very easy and simple.
Some beds are often adjustable so that multiple family members can tend to your garden without bending over or kneeling down. You can also attach wheels on the legs of the beds so that you can move the same whenever required. They often come in various shapes, sizes, and building materials to suit your own standards of aesthetics.
If you wish to have a warm corner on your patio or balcony, you should definitely opt for cedarwood. It is strong and quite long-lasting. If you wish to go easy on the money, metallic elevated garden beds are also available.
Make sure that you consider the total weight including the soil, vegetables, and fruits that you wish to plant, in addition to the weight of the bed. This way you can ensure that the legs of the bed are strong enough to start the gardening process.
No Weed, No Competition
This is a fairly logical one. Since the elevated garden beds are not assimilated into the soil at the bottom, there is fairly no chance for unwanted seeds to grow. In the case of traditional gardening, gardeners are compelled to keep an eye out for weed germination.
This is because the desirable plants will be in constant competition with the weeds for water, nutrients, sunlight, etc. Therefore, with elevated gardening, such drawbacks can be completely ruled out.
No Irrigation System Required
With elevated gardening, there is absolutely no need to install a heavy pumping system in order to ensure that the plants are receiving enough hydration. In addition to saving some major dough here, there is also a significant risk reduction when it comes to waterlogging or even soil drying.
Expect An Early Harvesting Season
Since the plants can reach the sun more easily, it is quite true that your plants will bloom much earlier during spring. This logically means that harvesting season will come way ahead for you that year. So, post this winter, start off a little early with your gardening and reap a fruitful production of vegetables a little early this year!
Some Helpful Tips for Elevated Gardening
While there are many advantages that work in favor of elevated gardening, there are a few things one has to keep an eye out for. For example, you need to make sure that you opt for a garden bed that has drainage holes in it to avoid water clogging. There are ready-made planted garden beds that often miss out on these holes.
Additionally, lining the garden bed is of utmost importance so that any substance that can rot away the wood of the bed cannot mix with the growing medium (soil). Lining can be done easily with newspapers, specialized fabrics, etc.
If you wish to grow moderately tall or vining plants, elevated gardening might not be the best choice for you. The stem will need constant support to sustain its weight and you have to ensure that the bed will be able to hold that much weight against it. Vertical space is one more aspect to be considered in such a case.
Another aspect to be considered here is that it is fairly tough to move the bed in its entirety once the plants are fully grown. The bed alone might not be too heavy, but expect the weight to increase sufficiently later. So, if you live in a small space and like to occasionally move stuff around the house, make sure that you purchase a bed with wheels for easy moving with no mental or physical injury.
Final Words
Overall, as you can imagine, the cons can be easily addressed. There is, in fact, an abundance of pros to adopt and perfect the art of elevated gardening. Self-love is the greatest form of love and if gardening makes you happy, do not stop yourself from being innovative to turn that frown upside down!
The art of gardening can give you the therapy that you need right now. We all know how fulfilling and satisfying an experience it is to enjoy cooking the vegetables that you have personally tended.
Everything becomes extra special. Therefore, get your research done on which plants you wish to grow based on the optimized conditionalities of your locality and emulate the art of gardening to perfection today!
