Do you want a productive vegetable garden, but you don’t have time? You can still do this by starting with a raised bed. Moreover, if you wish for a plentiful harvest in the first year, start with a raised bed. Unfortunately, all gardeners are not blessed with perfect soil. Most gardeners get soil that has too much clay, sand, stones, or too much acidic. But it shouldn’t end your passion for gardening. You can convert poor soil into plant-friendly soil.
How to Maintain Healthy Soil in Raised Beds?
When you maintain healthy soil for raised garden, you’ll not have to replace raised beds each year. In fact, you don’t need to replace raised beds unless soil-borne diseases attack your plants. So, follow the tips below and maintain healthy soil for your raised garden.
Add Compost to Raised Bed
Many gardeners feel that compost is only used for spring bed preparation, but it’s not true. You can add it to your raised beds in the fall as well. If you want to end the gardening season, compost is an excellent way of doing that. Composting can help clean the yard from fall wastes.
You just have to spread compost over the raised bed and then cover it with the mulch. This practice will keep nutrients in the raised bed and protect soil from extreme cold weather.
Soil Amendments in Raised Beds
Soil quality in raised beds can also be improved by mixing soil amendments with soil. The results of the soil amendment will depend on the type of soil amendment you use. Most gardeners use it to increase the soil’s nutrients and physical structure. So, understand your soil structure and use soil amendment accordingly.
Plant a Cover Crop
Cover crops can help replenish nutrients in the raised beds. New gardeners think that cover crops are only for large-scale farmers who want to suppress weed. But the reality is backyard gardeners can also take advantage of it.
Cover crops can serve multiple functions. They can aerate the soil, pull nutrients deep into the soil surface, increase organic matter, and add nitrogen to the soil.
Try Lasagna Gardening
This is another fantastic way of creating a raised bed. It helps improve soil conditions. It helps when working on an existing raised garden or starting a raised garden from scratch. You’ll however have to wait for six months so that layers completely break down and decompose.
Prepare Raised Bed for Winter
People often ignore the soil when the gardening season ends, but it’s not a good practice. A few simple steps can help maintain soil for the upcoming season. First of all, avoid pulling out the plants from roots. Instead, cut plants at the soil surface. Secondly, spread compost over the raised bed garden and cover it with mulch. Compost adds nutrients during the winter, and mulch protects from harsh weather in winter.
Follow these tips and maintain healthy soil for your raised garden.
Also read: How to Start a Home Garden
