What Are The Many Benefits Of Using Raised Garden Beds In Your Lovely Yard?
Raised garden beds offer a wide variety of benefits, depending on your purpose and design. These include more usable space for outdoor living areas, greater security for your family, and a more natural and beautiful look to your yard. Raised garden beds are also more compact, allowing for easy mowing and harvesting, and have the added advantage of allowing you to use your time and space better, rather than struggling to get the land around your home to bear fruit. There are many ways to raise your garden bed, but these are the three most popular.
In-ground raised garden beds are designed so that the soil is completely enclosed within the structure, which is usually comprised of rock and concrete or wood and which may be of various shapes or dimensions. Raised soil beds allow for deeper penetration of nutrients and moisture, giving your plants the best start in life and providing a rich environment for root growth and development. They are the preferred choice of many organic gardeners because of the ease of construction, low cost of materials, and ease of maintenance. The soil itself is typically raised above the surrounding ground and can be enriched with organic fertilizers and other natural additives.
Landscape fabric and raised beds are also both practical choices for weed control. Due to their elevated location, weed barriers provide a protective barrier between your plants and weeds. Landscape fabric works especially well in dense, weedy areas where weeds are a common problem, and raised beds to work better when used to keep the soil flat and free from weeds, helping it to retain moisture and retain its overall health.
Both raised garden beds and landscape fabric are also excellent choices when it comes to drainage management. Raised beds allow for better water and nutrient absorption through their design, and can even act as a means of soil erosion control, drawing moisture away from the base of the plants and into the flower beds below. With the landscape fabric, this is also made possible, as the fabric draws excess moisture away from the garden, preventing rain or snow from eroding the foundation of your garden.
Landscape fabric and raised garden bed liners are available in a wide range of materials. These liners are most often made from polyethylene, which is known for its high tensile strength, as well as being flexible and waterproof. This makes the material very easy to manipulate, whether it’s creating a tight weave that will help prevent soil compaction or creating a loose yet permeable pattern that can help keep some water in the soil. A major advantage to using a fabric liner as opposed to a traditional soil bed is that it eliminates the need for replanting. If you want to move your plants, all you have to do is remove the liners and dig the new soil up.
Soil erosion and water retention are two of the biggest concerns of those who have raised garden beds. With a soil bed, the soil acts as both a sponge, soaking up water, and holding it. The problem with this is that after time, water seeps into the roots and starts to erode the root system of the plants. The fabric of the raised garden beds helps to solve this problem, because it traps air under the surface of the soil, as well as creating a structure to draw the water to the roots. This keeps the soil a lot more fertile and prevents the water from eroding the root system over time.
One of the other most popular raised garden bed kits on the market today is the planter box. Planter boxes are just what their name suggests: a planter where plants can be planted directly into. Planting small seeds in a container does not lend itself to a big, strong stem. However, planting seeds in a planter box allows you to position the container where you want the plant to grow. Also, with a planter box, you can choose from many different types of containers, like terra-cotta, cast iron, recycled fiberglass, or even natural stone or brick.
Another benefit of using raised garden beds is that they create an area for you to work outside the home. By nature, sitting at home and staring out the window or reading a book takes up a considerable amount of mental and physical energy. However, when you have beautiful garden space outside your home, you can take a break from work, spend a few hours cooking a romantic dinner, or sit on a comfortable couch and read a book. Some people even take a daily yoga class without ever leaving their homes!
