Easy Gardening with Raised Garden Beds

Are you ready to garden with raised garden beds? With summer comes the conditions that many people enjoy: sun, heat and fresh air. After being cooped up for many months in many parts of the world, summer is a welcome change. One of the largest hobbies in summer is gardening. It has been proven that the feel and smell of soil not only raise spirits but can also help with improving cardiovascular circulation, increasing muscle strength, and reducing stress by lowering cortisol levels. And let’s not forget the Vitamin D that summer provides!

Raised garden beds save space and money.

But what if you don’t have the room or budget to garden? Enter the idea of raised beds. Raised beds are not only space savers, they also provide sustenance for families. They are also a cost-effective way to garden. By definition, a raised bed is a gardening spot that is raised above the ground. The theory behind raised beds is that they cut down on weeding, save a bit of the back break that comes with gardening, warm up faster, promote quicker growth, and take up less space for gardening. Raised beds are usually cheaper to start and cheaper to maintain since they are more compact than a general gardening area.

Using everyday items to create raised garden beds.

Here are four raised bed ideas that won’t break the bank and will also save space:

1. Five-gallon buckets. Five-gallon buckets are readily accessible at home and garden stores or Facebook Marketplace and, with proper drainage, of course, can be painted for aesthetic purposes, filled with soil, and are perfect for root vegetables or vegetables that need to trail. Five-gallon buckets provide just the right height for raised bed gardening and keep the weeds at bay. These containers have a handle so they can also be moved around easily if needed. Some foods that do well in these types of containers are potatoes, carrots, beans, cucumbers, and squash.
2. Cheap containers from the dollar store. There are many selections of containers that can be purchased inexpensively at your local dollar store. Laundry baskets are perfect for potatoes. There are many choices of canvas and plastic totes, and they provide just the right amount of space for most veggies to be successfully grown. Clay pots can also be purchased at dollar stores if you’re looking for a more typical garden look. And don’t throw away those scraps! Anything that has seeds or roots will grow great in these types of containers.
3. Items that are already on hand. Almost everyone has extra containers lying around; just think outside the box! Look around and recycle. Anything that has height to it can serve as a container for a raised bed. Have some extra lumber from a current home improvement project? Is your cardboard box stash piling up? These are perfect items to create a ‘typical’ raised bed. Cardboard boxes are a great weed barrier, and it only takes a few screws, pieces of wood, and some elbow grease to put the beds together. Just be sure to stack the boards two or three tall to get the full advantage of a raised bed and to cut back on having to weed as often. WWW.VegPlotter.com offers a good selection of building plans for raised garden beds.
4. Facebook Marketplace and neighborhood free sites. These sites are great for locating cost-effective items and keeping objects out of landfills. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure! Search for the above items on these sites or do a general search for gardening items and there will be hundreds of selections at your fingertips!

Gardening shouldn’t be stressful.

Remember, raised garden beds are supposed to cut back on the weeding and the high costs that can be associated with gardening. Use your imagination and rethink ways to use common household items and figure out how to fit them into gardening. Sustainable gardening is fun!