Whether you organic garden or use chemicals, raised bed gardens will out produce old-fashioned row-crop gardens. Garden beds save time, money and are good on the environment too.
In a raised beds you plant the area that normally would be empty between the rows. After the bed is prepared you get more plants in a small space by placing seeds the recommended distance from one another in all directions of the last seed planted, you fill the space solid with plants.
For example, up to 30 carrots spaced equally in all directions can grow in one-square foot of soil; compared that to the six or more square feet needed if they were planted in a straight row. The same is true for onions, radishes, beets or peas.
A row garden six-feet long would require empty dirt on each side of the row for cultivation requiring six-square feet of space to grow the same 30 carrots in one-square foot of a raised garden bed..
I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to weed one-square foot instead of six square feet for the same 30 carrots. Because beds are three- to five-feet wide, they are weeded by hand from each side.
Bed gardens:
Save water because you have less space to water. Plants form a leaf canopy that shades the ground and conserves water.
Shade the ground, making weed germination slow or stop. Any weed that germinates and grows through the canopy, it is easy to pull because it has a much weaker root system.
Use less compost or uses fertilizer if you use non-organic methods
Require no power equipment – you can use shovels and spades to till small high-yielding spaces.
Root systems develop better because hand weeding can be done from each side of the bed, keeping the soil loose because you never walk on and compacted.
Raised garden beds can be constructed from almost any material (video). As you plan your garden this spring, you really need to consider beds, especially if your space and time are limited.
If you've got rotten soil, check this out and get started fast.
