5 Reasons Why You Need to Add Raised Beds

If you are looking for a great way to grow fresh veggies, fruits or herbs at home, and want to make it a little easier on yourself (and in many cases your back), raised beds are a great way to go. Not only are raised beds beneficial for many “growing” reasons, but if you have an eye for design, you can construct raised beds in such a way, that will have your neighbors awestruck.

Here is our list as to what makes raised bed gardening a huge plus for your yard. Comment below to tell us why you have raised beds in your garden.

1. You can make them as high as you want. If you have problems with your back and/or bending over you can elevate your raised beds without any ill effects on your plants.


2. If you decide to build your raised beds out of wood, it makes for a great way to attach other items to your raised beds, such as your bean or pea trellis, maybe a few PVC hoop houses and so on.


3. Because your raised beds are elevated, it will create a perfect scenario to allow for excess water runoff. This helps in preventing overwatering.


4. You can create raised beds that are large enough for many plants, yet small enough where you can work your raised beds without actually having to step into the garden. When you do not step on the soil you are not compacting it, therefore the roots of your vegetable plants can breathe.


5. They are easier to weed. While I have no “scientific” data to back this claim up, to me, I have found keeping my raised beds weed free, is much easier then my larger garden bed that is not raised.

There are plenty of step by step instructions online for building great raised beds. Find one that suits your yard, size, gardening style and so on. You won’t be disappointed.

Seed Starting with Homemade Starter Pots

Your vegetable seeds come in all shapes and size.  Just as many sizes and shapes your vegetables come in is as many ways and methods to germinate your vegetable seeds.  One way to start your vegetable seeds that I addressed in a previous vegetable seed starting video is to use vegetable seed starting peat pellets.  These are expandable pods that you add hot water to and they expand so you can plant your vegetable seeds in them.  Here is a link to that vegetable seed starting video.

The vegetable seed starting (creative) pots I wanted to talk about today, were a couple of things I have done myself with good success.  The best part of these two vegetable seed starting pot options is that they are made from a couple of household items that you already have in your home.

Of course, as we all know, regardless of what you use as a vegetable seed starting pot, your vegetable seeds do not stand much of a chance, if you do not give your vegetable seeds a great seed starting soil.  You can either buy vegetable seed starting soil, or make your own vegetable seed starting soil with a mix of compost, peat and perlite in equal parts.

Now that you have your vegetable seed starting soil, let’s begin with talking about our first home made vegetable seed starting pot, and that is using empty cardboard toilet paper rolls.  Cardboard toilet paper rolls are great to use.  Cardboard toilet paper rolls are biodegradable, which makes them perfect for starting your vegetable seeds in because as the seeds germinate and the plants grow, the roots will want to expand.  If the cardboard toilet paper roll did not break down, the roots would have nowhere to grow. 

The water and the environment will break down the cardboard toilet paper roll for you, so you do not have to worry about it.  Here is an excellent step by step guide for turning your cardboard toilet paper rolls into vegetable seed starters: http://www.yougrowgirl.com/2007/04/13/toilet-roll-seed-starter/

I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel, and in this case, retelling the same vegetable seed starter story, so I had to link to it since YouGrowGirl.com does a nice job explaining the process of turning your cardboard toilet paper rolls into vegetable seed starters.

The second crafty vegetable seed starting pot you can use is turning in those cardboard egg cartons into vegetable seed starters.  Cardboard egg cartons work great because they are plentiful, making vegetable seed planting and space saving a great combination, and just like with the cardboard toilet paper roll, they will breakdown when you plant them into your garden.

“Growing up Creative” has a wonderful step by step tutorial showing you that it is so easy to start your vegetable seeds in a cardboard egg carton that even a small child can do it!  This is true as I have seen my own 5 year old son use an egg carton to start some vegetable seeds.  Here is a link to the vegetable seed starter with cardboard egg carton tutorial: http://www.growingupcreative.com/2010/03/howto-egg-carton-seed-starter.html

Sure neither of these homemade vegetable seed starting pots is earth shattering news, but if you are looking for some projects to do with the kids, or needed a good use for all of those cardboard ‘extras”, these are two more ideas in your arsenal.