Raised Bed Garden Guide

Since good soil is important for having a successful garden, a raised bed garden can give an advantage over a regular garden.

When filling a raised garden bed with soil, you can fill it with a blend of soil that is loose and rich with nutrients. This is most likely far better than the native soil in your yard.

Loose soil that has a good combination of proper nutrients and organic matter will allow your plants to grow a healthier root system. Roots grow more freely in a raised bed garden. Roots will have total access to water and nutrients.

Before building your raised bed garden in its permanent location consider the amount of sunlight the area will be receiving. This will determine what type of plants you can plant there. Remember for a raised bed vegetable garden it is going to need plenty of sunlight, most vegetable plants require at least 6 hours of sun.

Site Preparation for a Raised Bed Garden

First, find a location that is level before preparing the area and beginning construction.

To prepare the site for a raised bed garden you will have to remove all grass and weeds in the area and loosen the soil. This will help improve drainage and moisture retention in the raised bed.

Dig up the area with a shovel and remove all grass and weeds with a garden rake.

Using a shovel or a garden fork loosen the soil to a depth of 6-10 inches. By doing this the plants will think they are in a bed, that is twice as deep as it really is.

This will give plenty of room for vegetable plants such as carrots, potatoes, full-sized tomato plants, or any other large plants you want to grow.

Soil Preparation for Raised Bed Gardening

Fill a Newly Built raised bed garden with the right amount and combination of material for a good soil foundation.

The Best Combination Mix is a blend of using 60% Top Soil, plus 30% Compost or Organic Peat, plus 10% Soil-Less Growing Mix that contains Peat Moss, Perlite, or Vermiculite.

You can add an All-Purpose Fertilizer to your soil mix to help jump-start growing your plants.

An Example of how much to use – is to fill a 3 x 6 foot raised garden bed with 10-inch sides, you will need 15 cubic ft. of blended soil.

Blend 9 cubic ft. of topsoil (9 – 20-quart bags), 4.5 cubic ft. of compost or organic peat (4.5 – 20-quart bags), and 1.5 cubic ft. of soil-less growing mix, and add 1.5 cups of all-purpose fertilizer.

Thoroughly mix all material evenly in your raised garden bed with a shovel.

To rejuvenate an Existing raised bed garden, first pull out all dead plants and weeds growing. Clean out any debris such as leaves or sticks, fallen from trees blown in by the wind. Loosen the soil because rain can compact it. If the soil has settled top it off with two inches of new fresh topsoil, and mix it in with old soil.

This will help replenish the soil in the raised bed.

Listed Are Calculations For Amount Of  Soil Combination Mix Needed, According To Raised Bed Garden Size

Bed Size	Amount Of Soil Mix
4 ft. x 3 ft. x 8 in.	8 cubic ft. / 0.296 cubic yards
6 ft. x 3 ft. x 8 in.	12 cubic ft. / 0.44 cubic yards
8 ft. x 3 ft. x 8 in.	16 cubic ft. / 0.592 cubic yards
4 ft. x 4 ft. x 8 in	11 cubic ft. / 0.395 cubic yards
6 ft. x 4 ft. x 8 in.	16 cubic ft. / 0.592 cubic yards
8 ft. x 4 ft. x 8 in.	22 cubic ft. / 0.790 cubic yards
4 ft. x 3 ft. x 10 in.	10 cubic ft. / 0.370 cubic yards
6 ft. x 3 ft. x 10 in.	15 cubic ft. / 0.555 cubic yards
8 ft. x 3 ft. x 10 in.	20 cubic ft. / 0.740 cubic yards
4 ft. x 4 ft. x 10 in.	14 cubic ft. / 0.493 cubic yards
6 ft. x 4 ft. x 10 in.	20 cubic ft. / 0.740 cubic yards
8 ft. x 4 ft. x 10 in.	27 cubic ft. / 0. 987 cubic yards

Conclusion

Growing vegetables or flowering plants in a raised bed garden is an excellent way to have a garden. Raised bed gardening makes it easy to maintain a garden and assures a good foundation of soil, full of nutrients needed for plants to grow healthy and vigorous. It is great for just about any location, with the size that fits you.

Here’s a video from Lowe’s which shows you step-by-step how to build standard raised garden beds out of wood.