There are many things to consider when deciding to make a new garden bed, particularly when the intention is to grow food in it. The most paramount thing to consider is the amount of sun that the spot in the garden gets. In order to grow vegetables you need a minimum of six hours of sunshine a day.
When deciding to start vegetable gardening, you need to think about what is going to work best for you; no dig gardening, or raised bed. The benefits of raised bed gardening are:
1) Reduction of weeds and grass growing through the soil, competing for nutrients.
2) Soil is more aerated in raised bed gardening, compaired to compacted no dig gardens.
3) Reduced access for pests such as snails, rabbits and pets that might like to harvest their own lunch when you aren't looking.
The disadvantages of raised garden beds are:
1) The cost and effort associated with the initial setup of buying timber, constructing the bed, and filling it with soil.
2) Raised garden beds have a greater demand for water than no dig gardens-but this can be greatly offset by mulching.
My reasons for installing yet another raised garden bed to grow our vegetables in include:
1) They are physically easier to work in, particularly for young children who can plant and harvest at their eye level.
2) They provide clear boundaries to work within.
3) By being up off the ground our vegetables are somewhat protected from pets and children trampling over them, and harvesting them at their leisure.
ABOUT OUR NEW RAISED VEGETABLE GARDEN
For Mother's Day, my husband (Mark) renovated our existing raised vegetable garden bed, splitting it into two beds, AND he constructed a whole new raised garden bed. Clearly he knows the way to my heart. These raised garden beds were a rather fitting gift since Lara, Olivia and I spend so much quality time together in the garden.
We discussed having one long rectangular raised vegetable garden bed with a divider down the middle in order to create two working beds in minimal space. That sounded great and functional, and then Mark really impressed me by turning the divider into a super comfy seat, which also doubles as Lara's walking plank, and somewhere to put my cuppa. That seat was so well received that Mark built an additional corner seat. So our new veggie bed has 'his and hers' seats. If you are thinking about building raised garden beds I can highly recommend adding the function of permanent seating to them. The simple addition of seats has resulted in us sitting in the garden and really enjoying it.
In the space of a day I went from having one massive raised bed vegetable garden that wasn't very user friendly, to having four raised garden beds to grow vegetables in. My gardening dream. I was one happy lady. Then a few things didn't go to plan, and instead of filling up my new vegetable garden with gorgeous new soil, I was adding all sorts of things to put a base layer on the dirt and start filling the massive hole. Over the course of a couple of weeks, paper and cardboard waste got thrown into the beds, a few bins full of soil that I moved from the chicken run area (during that renovation) were added and all our coffee grounds were thrown in there. Hopefully all those things are adding great nutrients to the soil.
After a few weeks of Mark having other priorities, he finally went off to the nursery and filled up the ute with soil. He then wheelbarrowed it from the driveway, up the side path and into the new raised vegetable garden. All with Lara close behind him, pushing dirt in her wheel barrow and dumping it in the garden bed like a seasoned pro. Honestly, sometimes that little lady is two going on twenty two. Olivia contributed by aerating the soil, and by that I mean taking handfuls out of the new raised garden bed, throwing it up in the air, and then we would both hope that it landed back where it came from. Needless to say I achieved very little during that whole process. But it was lovely family time, and we all got to enjoy the garden together. Everyone loves dirt-particularly dirt that provides so much potential to grow food.
Once the new raised garden bed was full of soil, I couldn't wait to plant it out. The original plan was to make one side of the new bed a strawberry patch (time will tell if they get enough sun to fruit), and the other side a designated herb garden. But the planned herb garden is now planted out with a whole heap of seeds that I'm hoping will germinate. I say hoping because the weather is unseasonal and unpredictable at the moment.
Planting out the strawberry plants with Lara as my assistant was so enjoyable, it really set us up for a delightful day. Slowing down and enjoying the little things really makes us realise how lucky we are.
Lara, Olivia and I get out in the vegetable garden most days, and get dirt up our fingernails, but being out there as a family really made for a wonderful weekend. I also had the added bonus of having Mark around to capture my precious memories of gardening with my babies, who are growing up at the blink of an eye. Lara and I were out in the vegetable garden the first day she was home, we were planting seeds together not long after that, and now watching her dig a hole to transplant a strawberry plant makes me very, very proud. I can only hope that I am teaching lifelong skills to my children, and that they will want to pass them onto their children. As a population we simply can't allow ourselves to forget how to grow our own food. Not only is it good for us and the environment, it's also a lot of fun.
If you aren't already growing something you can eat, go and plant your favourite herb....and you will be wanting to grow your own vegetables in no time.
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