A raised bed vegetable garden can be built in just a few hours.  Yes that’s all it takes, just a few hours, once you have the materials you need you can create the most wonderful raised bed vegetable garden.

Why a raised bed?  Lots of reasons..

1) You can make the bed any shape you want.
2) You won’t have to dig your ground and prepare the garden area.
3) The soil content is controlled by you.
4) You can place your raised bed vegetable garden wherever you wish.

To get your raised bed vegetable garden underway you  will need to make sure you have all the necessary supplies.  Things like tools and materials to build the garden with. Decide what you want the edge to be, timber, bricks, concrete blocks, rocks.

Take care when choosing timber, any timber that has been treated with chemicals cannot be used as the chemical will leech out into the soil and then to your vegetables. So a untreated timber that is resistant to rotting should be choosen.

You will also need things like hammer, nails, corner brackets, tape measure, garden tools and of course, soil…..

And the your seeds and/or seedlings. If you want to really get going with your vegetables then buy seedlings and in no time you will be harvesting your crops.

Today you can get soil especially prepared for vegetables and herbs.  This soil has all the nutrients and fertilizers needed plus wetting agents that allow the soil to retain moisture for much longer.

If you have chosen timber for the walls of your raised bed then use the corner brackets to reinforce the bed. If you are positioning your bed on soil, then it is a good idea to loosen up the soil before adding your special vegetable and herb soil.

Don’t use regular soil if you can help it, unless you have prepared it first by digging in compost and fertilizer.  It could take several weeks before it is ready, whereas by using the specially prepared soil, your raised vegetable garden will be producing in next to  no time.

Drainage is important too, make sure your raised beds will drain well, most plants like to be kept moist but not sitting in soggy soil.

You can make the raised beds what ever size you like, although I like to go by someone I consider an expert.  His name is Peter Cundall and until recently was the presenter of a gardening TV show called Gardening Australia.

This is his vegie patch and how it is laid out

“The patch: It’s hard to believe that more than one third of a million people visit the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens to look at our little vegie patch. And when they come they get a bit of a shock because it’s so small. The actual growing area is no more than four metres wide and twelve metres long and it is highly productive. It’s divided into six separate beds to give a six year rotation system that works to perfection. It produces vegetables, including spuds, all year. In fact, although it’s small – small enough to fit into the average backyard – this patch will keep a family of four with all the vegies and spuds they need all year.” You can see more of Pete’s Vegie Patch here

Image via Wikipedia

So you see, one or more raised bed vegetable gardens will get you set up for a wonderful bounty of healthy vegetables, herbs and fruits and you can’t get any fresher or healthier than that. ******************************************************* Raised Bed Vegetable Gardens Made Easy For You

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