One of my favourite reasons for raised beds although I have many! When it rains very heavily for a few weeks and your garden is literally squelching with inches deep of sitting water, my raised beds that I filled with hugelkultur and lots of compost are doing great, it's the middle of winter and I've only lost a couple of lettuce.
This is my first year growing vegetables and fruit (berries) in raised beds and I'm loving it! Weeding and pruning, etc. are easier and the plants are all growing well and are healthy. There was a lot of labor-intensive work to build and fill sixteen 10' x 4' beds but I did that in April when the weather was still cool/cold here in Wisconsin so it wasn't too difficult . Wish I'd made the change to raised beds sooner.
It'd be cool to see a walkthrough of the garden sometime. We only get snippets of the garden with each video so it would be neat to see the garden from the entrance through to the back. I'd love to see how it looks for someone looking at the backyard from the house and then a sort of walk through! Also, I've populated my backyard with raised beds because of Gardener Scott and I agree, they're the best!
Thanks for the info!! I've been growing in ground for years. I'm planning on moving towards more raised beds. I deal with invasive plants like trumpet vine, quack grass, and the deadly nightshade vines that send runners for many feet. Another reason to grow in a raised bed, for me.
Just as a FYI, I made the mistake once of putting a raised bed to near a Maple tree and the tree’s roots loved it! I figured I would grow shade loving veggies in it, like lettuce, and then in the late summer I took out the lettuce and tried digging down into soil to plant Kale crops and I kept running into a lot of roots. Just about filled my raised bed with its surface roots. Never again. It wasn’t even that close to the trunk of the Maple tree. In fact it was just at or near the drip line of the tree. I don’t know about whether this would happen anywhere else, I just wanted to let you know my experience so it doesn’t happen to anyone else. I dismantled the bed and had to take a pick ax to the soil to pregame through the mound of roots and soil. Then I took my weed eater and push lawn mower to get rid of all those roots and then I reseeded the grass that was there. Hard lesson learned.
I love my raised beds! I must mention that not all trees play nice with bottomless raised beds. At my previous home I had raised bedd 10 feet from a redwood tree. The roots from that redwood came up into my box and took it over. I had to remove the raised bed from that spot.
Last fall I redid a small raised bed I had not used much because it was filled with poor soil (first time gardener mistake). I decided to make another raised bed nearby, both near large trees. I dug out both beds about 10 to 12 inches, including some very large roots, lined with 1/4 inch hardware cloth, sides and bottom. Side nearest tree I put a strip of corrugated metal on the side being careful to overlap with hardware cloth and also put some landscaping fabric. Used some native clay soil, a little sand, some composting materials from my property, and a several bags of raised bed soil. My garden this summer is doing well, has a deep base for those deeper rooted plants like tomatoes, and I trust none of those tree roots are entering the bed. Not to speak of the gophers not being able to dig a tunnel through it. Lots of work but I feel worth it.
My one bed is 34 inches of the ground. We currently have wax beans and sweet potatoes growing it. My wife loves it because there is less weeding and doesn't kill her back. Ok..... for those wandering it is built on a platform with 1/4" wire mesh with landscaping cloth under the dirt. I love my raised beds. Some are made out of old cabinets, pallets, and bunk beds.
The main benefit of raised beds is that they focus your energy and resources into a smaller area that you can actually manage. I use the jubilee garden method and get huge yields out of a bed sized space, but is is in ground.
So much this. Unless you are a wizard like David The Good, raised beds are the way to go. Once you max out production on raised beds then learn in-ground farming. My 2cents.
For those of us who live on property where it's more or less DG, raised gardens is the only way to go. And, with gophers, squirrels, and rabbits to contend with it's important having a bulletproof fence around everything too.
@@echandler673 yes Eva it is a big initial expense. I was at the stage of buying the beds or giving up gardening. The beds won, so I bought three and am now ready to chain saw logs from our property to half fill them. What a luxury to be able to pick strawberries without having to bend. As for lasting 20 years plus, that wasnt a consideration as I’m positive the beds will outlast me as I’m 73, lol, but I wanted my garden to look nice and thats why I chose Birdies
I do that with outdoor carpet strips for pathways. Most of my garden is in ground that is partitioned off in manageable areas and the heavy clay is now loamy after years of amending. Using wood mulch would only increase the earwig horde that has no mercy and the carpet will last for years longer.
I built some raised beds to complement my in ground garden. I went to a lot of trouble to prepare them only to have some of that nasty bindweed crash the party. One of them I put weed fabric with cardboard under it that keeps it out for now. I don't have any slugs in my area, but I do have thousands of earwigs. Speaking of droughts and water. Sometimes you might be put in a situation where you have to prioritize what you grow and what gets watered. This year I have let my flower beds be vacant from decorative annuals so I can concentrate on food in the garden. Even then I consider letting parts of my garden go vacant so there is less to water once areas are harvested. When reservoirs are at all time lows people can't water as usual because there isn't just you. In saying that, not all raised bed ideas are water friendly, grow bags definitely are not. It might come to a point where people might have to water plants with the bath water, or flush the toilet with it. Grey water is a wasted resource. It might even become more normal to use urine as fertilizer and a plant water source. Until nature stops giving some too much rain and others not enough we have to adapt.
I loved my raised beds until I killed them all with Grazon-contaminated compost. After 50 years of organic gardening, I am switching over to hydroponics. I am amazed at the productivity I'm getting without tilling, cultivating, and weeding.
I just lost 6 huge containers and part of my in ground bed to herbicide treated straw mulch. My in ground hasn't been too bad to recover. I just tested it growing peas and they look pretty good. But the containers had to be redone.
@@emac1177 I read you can test straw mulch by soaking it in water for a few hours and then using that water to irrigate sacrificial pea plants. In my case, I unknowingly bought 3 cubic yards of contaminated compost and tilled it into every raised bed I have.
Trees will certainly shoot roots up into the rich soil in our raised beds. I built a raised bed about 10-12 feet from a plum tree and each year when I tilled in ammendments, I would invariably disturb roots. Granted, they're not thick roots, but they're there and absorbing some of the nutrients that may otherwise go to your plants. ;)
Having raised beds keeps my dogs out of my garden, and keeps the male from lifting his leg to my food. It took a little training for one of the dogs, but the learned, before anything was planted, that they aren't allowed in the beds.
Cost, is a concern, especially with today's lumber prices. If want to get benefits without the cost use thick layer of compost with an equally thick layer of woodchips as paths. Plus you'll save on watering.
You can build temporary ones from old pallet wood or even logs from trees that have been cut. Anything to contain soil. I even keep an eye out at estate sales and thrift stores for thing to use. You can always go back and redo them when lumber prices go down.
Gardening Scott. I love my raised beds but I'm having a problem with my tomato plant. The lower leaves are turning yellow and dying before maturity. What do you think going on?
It could be over or under watering or a normal reaction to a lot of new growth. As tomato plants grow the lower leaves will yellow and die as the plant puts energy to new growth.
Good to know! So another question…I had this all typed out yesterday and before I could send, our internet went down..sigh. I know raised beds can be any height, but, if buying the metal animal waterers or feeders, recommended depth? Because if I buy these I would probably put the tomato cages and trellising poles inside the unit so can you suggest a recommended depth for these? Don’t want it too shallow for plant roots or for cages/trellises (don’t need these falling over due to lack of support.
I don’t; I have NEVER had success using hormone - powder or gel. It always leads to rot for me. So it’s water or nothing and that seems to work perfectly for me. 🤷🏼♀️
Ok I'm confused.. I have my sand cherry and service berry cuttings in dirt in small pots Should I have put root hormone on first? You mentioned you do Clarify please
Some cuttings do better with hormones and some don't. Some times I use it and some times I don't. Soft wood cuttings may benefit but hard wood cuttings might not. It varies depending on the plant so there isn't an easy answer. If your cuttings don't root you can try it again using hormones and see if you get better success.
During a drought year, all efforts must go in-ground to conserve water as much as possible. In mid summer, containers dry out completely by the end of the day, which wastes tons of water, and in raised garden beds, all the natural forces are acting to dry it out as well. In-ground is the only option during this drought, as we must defend against evaporation and store water efficiently and effectively for long term use between rains, as we can't expect that we'll have our comfortable, unbroken access to water as the western half of our continent dries up more and more during this unprecedented drought.
I 'enjoy gardening' in my raised beds. So far I've had to contend with more flying & crawling insect pests than I have with slugs. I don't kill slugs, I find them to be cute and fascinating, I just take them for a walk and relocate them away from my garden.
Hi Scott I just subbed to your channel I was watching simplified gardening with Tony . That's how I found you. I would like to ask you a question my pole beans that I am growing in a container gardening are looking absolutely beautiful but I'm not getting any flowers. Can you tell me why and what I need to do to correct it?
Welcome to the channel! Tony is great. If you used fertilizer, too much nitrogen can cause beautiful plants with no flowers. Don't use any more fertilizer, continue regular watering and it should correct in time.
Raised beds and bird netting - the birds ate eating all my blueberries. The landscaper who sold and planted never mentioned any such thing as bird netting. What do you recommend?
Garden centers, nurseries, and online sources offer bird netting in different sizes. Once you have an idea of the size of the area you want to cover you can choose how much to get. You can start looking here: amzn.to/3xxtiuA
Love your vids, am an avid viewer, but I could not disagree more. I hate raised garden beds, they are in my opinion a waste of time and money, especially money. It would take 10 years for each of those beds to pay you back, and that's not why I garden. Having said that, I bought my 85 year old grandmother one for xmas last year, so they have their purposes, for everyone below 70 though, I say don't waste your money, I'm a landscaper and I could give you a beautiful, food forest esq type of English cottage garden, with no raised beds that would cost less, perform better and look beautiful. Plus, bending over is good for your core muscles, it shouldn't be avoided. Sorry Scott, normally I'm on board, but not with this one.
I Agree completely I Love my raised beds... And with my medical conditions it's A LOT easier for me. Thank You Gardener Scott ☺️
One of my favourite reasons for raised beds although I have many! When it rains very heavily for a few weeks and your garden is literally squelching with inches deep of sitting water, my raised beds that I filled with hugelkultur and lots of compost are doing great, it's the middle of winter and I've only lost a couple of lettuce.
All great reasons! I appreciate raised beds as it’s easier on my back.
Can’t wait to upgrade to raised beds!
I can recommend the 2" exhaust turbo from Amazon jubilee
This is my first year growing vegetables and fruit (berries) in raised beds and I'm loving it! Weeding and pruning, etc. are easier and the plants are all growing well and are healthy. There was a lot of labor-intensive work to build and fill sixteen 10' x 4' beds but I did that in April when the weather was still cool/cold here in Wisconsin so it wasn't too difficult . Wish I'd made the change to raised beds sooner.
It'd be cool to see a walkthrough of the garden sometime. We only get snippets of the garden with each video so it would be neat to see the garden from the entrance through to the back. I'd love to see how it looks for someone looking at the backyard from the house and then a sort of walk through!
Also, I've populated my backyard with raised beds because of Gardener Scott and I agree, they're the best!
Thanks. I did a walkthrough video at the beginning of the season and am planning another as more plants grow.
Thanks for the info!! I've been growing in ground for years. I'm planning on moving towards more raised beds. I deal with invasive plants like trumpet vine, quack grass, and the deadly nightshade vines that send runners for many feet. Another reason to grow in a raised bed, for me.
Just as a FYI, I made the mistake once of putting a raised bed to near a Maple tree and the tree’s roots loved it! I figured I would grow shade loving veggies in it, like lettuce, and then in the late summer I took out the lettuce and tried digging down into soil to plant Kale crops and I kept running into a lot of roots. Just about filled my raised bed with its surface roots. Never again. It wasn’t even that close to the trunk of the Maple tree. In fact it was just at or near the drip line of the tree. I don’t know about whether this would happen anywhere else, I just wanted to let you know my experience so it doesn’t happen to anyone else. I dismantled the bed and had to take a pick ax to the soil to pregame through the mound of roots and soil. Then I took my weed eater and push lawn mower to get rid of all those roots and then I reseeded the grass that was there. Hard lesson learned.
I agree. I find lots of tree roots in my raised beds.
Just built a 4x8 raised bed this Spring. Your videos on raised garden beds are my favorite!
I love my raised beds! I must mention that not all trees play nice with bottomless raised beds. At my previous home I had raised bedd 10 feet from a redwood tree. The roots from that redwood came up into my box and took it over. I had to remove the raised bed from that spot.
Wow!
I’m not surprised. They can be accidental bullies. 😏
Last fall I redid a small raised bed I had not used much because it was filled with poor soil (first time gardener mistake). I decided to make another raised bed nearby, both near large trees. I dug out both beds about 10 to 12 inches, including some very large roots, lined with 1/4 inch hardware cloth, sides and bottom. Side nearest tree I put a strip of corrugated metal on the side being careful to overlap with hardware cloth and also put some landscaping fabric. Used some native clay soil, a little sand, some composting materials from my property, and a several bags of raised bed soil. My garden this summer is doing well, has a deep base for those deeper rooted plants like tomatoes, and I trust none of those tree roots are entering the bed. Not to speak of the gophers not being able to dig a tunnel through it. Lots of work but I feel worth it.
My one bed is 34 inches of the ground. We currently have wax beans and sweet potatoes growing it. My wife loves it because there is less weeding and doesn't kill her back. Ok..... for those wandering it is built on a platform with 1/4" wire mesh with landscaping cloth under the dirt. I love my raised beds. Some are made out of old cabinets, pallets, and bunk beds.
Great video - love the input from viewers!
The main benefit of raised beds is that they focus your energy and resources into a smaller area that you can actually manage.
I use the jubilee garden method and get huge yields out of a bed sized space, but is is in ground.
So much this. Unless you are a wizard like David The Good, raised beds are the way to go. Once you max out production on raised beds then learn in-ground farming. My 2cents.
Maybe I missed it but I love raised beds because I am older and it saves strain on my back.
For those of us who live on property where it's more or less DG, raised gardens is the only way to go. And, with gophers, squirrels, and rabbits to contend with it's important having a bulletproof fence around everything too.
Your garden REALLY shined in this video. Mmm.
I love my raised beds!! Mainly because I am older and getting up and down is hard 😂😂
Do you have any pictures you want to share of you bent over?
Tell me about it. There have been times when I’ve had to lay down whilst removing individual weeds.
@@ThisIsGoogle ooooh, you naughty boy, lol.
@@juneshannon8074 it is a big initial expense for the raised garden beds but if you pick the right material, they can last you 20+ years.
@@echandler673 yes Eva it is a big initial expense. I was at the stage of buying the beds or giving up gardening. The beds won, so I bought three and am now ready to chain saw logs from our property to half fill them. What a luxury to be able to pick strawberries without having to bend. As for lasting 20 years plus, that wasnt a consideration as I’m positive the beds will outlast me as I’m 73, lol, but I wanted my garden to look nice and thats why I chose Birdies
They warm up faster to plant after winter also!
You're right, they do. That was in one of my earlier videos.
I like a neat and tidy garden, and raised beds really help to delineate the bed area from the pathways.
I do that with outdoor carpet strips for pathways. Most of my garden is in ground that is partitioned off in manageable areas and the heavy clay is now loamy after years of amending. Using wood mulch would only increase the earwig horde that has no mercy and the carpet will last for years longer.
Grow sunflowers and take them off the property when havested to help with contaminated soil
My raised bed saved me this year by becoming an impromptu green house for my starts. Multiple temperature fluctuations kept me from transplanting .
I built some raised beds to complement my in ground garden. I went to a lot of trouble to prepare them only to have some of that nasty bindweed crash the party. One of them I put weed fabric with cardboard under it that keeps it out for now. I don't have any slugs in my area, but I do have thousands of earwigs. Speaking of droughts and water. Sometimes you might be put in a situation where you have to prioritize what you grow and what gets watered. This year I have let my flower beds be vacant from decorative annuals so I can concentrate on food in the garden. Even then I consider letting parts of my garden go vacant so there is less to water once areas are harvested. When reservoirs are at all time lows people can't water as usual because there isn't just you. In saying that, not all raised bed ideas are water friendly, grow bags definitely are not. It might come to a point where people might have to water plants with the bath water, or flush the toilet with it. Grey water is a wasted resource. It might even become more normal to use urine as fertilizer and a plant water source. Until nature stops giving some too much rain and others not enough we have to adapt.
I loved my raised beds until I killed them all with Grazon-contaminated compost. After 50 years of organic gardening, I am switching over to hydroponics. I am amazed at the productivity I'm getting without tilling, cultivating, and weeding.
I just lost 6 huge containers and part of my in ground bed to herbicide treated straw mulch. My in ground hasn't been too bad to recover. I just tested it growing peas and they look pretty good. But the containers had to be redone.
@@emac1177 I read you can test straw mulch by soaking it in water for a few hours and then using that water to irrigate sacrificial pea plants. In my case, I unknowingly bought 3 cubic yards of contaminated compost and tilled it into every raised bed I have.
What an interesting idea! Very smart.
Gah, all this downmarket pesticide death is a major issue, I wish it was getting more attention!
Trees will certainly shoot roots up into the rich soil in our raised beds. I built a raised bed about 10-12 feet from a plum tree and each year when I tilled in ammendments, I would invariably disturb roots. Granted, they're not thick roots, but they're there and absorbing some of the nutrients that may otherwise go to your plants. ;)
My soil is insanely heavy clay, so I dont have much of an option!
Mine too!
Having raised beds keeps my dogs out of my garden, and keeps the male from lifting his leg to my food. It took a little training for one of the dogs, but the learned, before anything was planted, that they aren't allowed in the beds.
I agree. That's one of the reasons I cited in an earlier video. Thanks.
Cost, is a concern, especially with today's lumber prices. If want to get benefits without the cost use thick layer of compost with an equally thick layer of woodchips as paths. Plus you'll save on watering.
You can build temporary ones from old pallet wood or even logs from trees that have been cut. Anything to contain soil. I even keep an eye out at estate sales and thrift stores for thing to use. You can always go back and redo them when lumber prices go down.
Great video Scott. How did you make the arch? Thank you.
Thanks! Here's my video on making the arch: th-cam.com/video/4vzsJiX5B94/w-d-xo.html
@@GardenerScott thanks
Another benefit for raised bed is you get greater access to sunshine.
Gardening Scott. I love my raised beds but I'm having a problem with my tomato plant. The lower leaves are turning yellow and dying before maturity. What do you think going on?
It could be over or under watering or a normal reaction to a lot of new growth. As tomato plants grow the lower leaves will yellow and die as the plant puts energy to new growth.
@@GardenerScott Thank you
Did you leave the bottoms in the stock tanks when you filled first set them up? I like that they are painted!
I did leave the bottoms in but drilled some drainage holes. Thanks.
Good to know! So another question…I had this all typed out yesterday and before I could send, our internet went down..sigh. I know raised beds can be any height, but, if buying the metal animal waterers or feeders, recommended depth? Because if I buy these I would probably put the tomato cages and trellising poles inside the unit so can you suggest a recommended depth for these? Don’t want it too shallow for plant roots or for cages/trellises (don’t need these falling over due to lack of support.
I love my tunnel tubs and my raised beds.
Scott did you tell me you don't use rooting hormone on cuttings?
I don’t; I have NEVER had success using hormone - powder or gel. It always leads to rot for me. So it’s water or nothing and that seems to work perfectly for me. 🤷🏼♀️
@@melissasullivan1658 Have you tried man juice hormones?
I do use rooting hormone on softwood cuttings.
Ok I'm confused.. I have my sand cherry and service berry cuttings in dirt in small pots
Should I have put root hormone on first?
You mentioned you do
Clarify please
Some cuttings do better with hormones and some don't. Some times I use it and some times I don't. Soft wood cuttings may benefit but hard wood cuttings might not. It varies depending on the plant so there isn't an easy answer. If your cuttings don't root you can try it again using hormones and see if you get better success.
During a drought year, all efforts must go in-ground to conserve water as much as possible. In mid summer, containers dry out completely by the end of the day, which wastes tons of water, and in raised garden beds, all the natural forces are acting to dry it out as well. In-ground is the only option during this drought, as we must defend against evaporation and store water efficiently and effectively for long term use between rains, as we can't expect that we'll have our comfortable, unbroken access to water as the western half of our continent dries up more and more during this unprecedented drought.
I 'enjoy gardening' in my raised beds. So far I've had to contend with more flying & crawling insect pests than I have with slugs. I don't kill slugs, I find them to be cute and fascinating, I just take them for a walk and relocate them away from my garden.
Hi Scott I just subbed to your channel I was watching simplified gardening with Tony . That's how I found you. I would like to ask you a question my pole beans that I am growing in a container gardening are looking absolutely beautiful but I'm not getting any flowers. Can you tell me why and what I need to do to correct it?
Welcome to the channel! Tony is great. If you used fertilizer, too much nitrogen can cause beautiful plants with no flowers. Don't use any more fertilizer, continue regular watering and it should correct in time.
I love mine - they are about knee high and so my corgi doesn't help himself to the produce. Bonus: no more kneeling pad purchases for me!
Raised beds and bird netting - the birds ate eating all my blueberries. The landscaper who sold and planted never mentioned any such thing as bird netting. What do you recommend?
Tulle from the fabric store is cheap and works great. Also can use it for brassicas to keep bugs and moths away.
Garden centers, nurseries, and online sources offer bird netting in different sizes. Once you have an idea of the size of the area you want to cover you can choose how much to get. You can start looking here: amzn.to/3xxtiuA
#11, the neighborhood cats ruined most of my onions this year because I didn't have them in a raised bed. 😂
What about sheet mulching between your beds to save you from having so many grassy weeds? Just saying…
Wish I did that before I put my beds down.
I find my raised beds a work of art that hold so much potential every year.
I find the cost to be too much for me( for now) for raise beds .
I built some from old pallet wood. It was free.
Raised beds are great to keep the gophers out!
I'm FIRST 😁😁😁
Love your vids, am an avid viewer, but I could not disagree more. I hate raised garden beds, they are in my opinion a waste of time and money, especially money. It would take 10 years for each of those beds to pay you back, and that's not why I garden.
Having said that, I bought my 85 year old grandmother one for xmas last year, so they have their purposes, for everyone below 70 though, I say don't waste your money, I'm a landscaper and I could give you a beautiful, food forest esq type of English cottage garden, with no raised beds that would cost less, perform better and look beautiful. Plus, bending over is good for your core muscles, it shouldn't be avoided.
Sorry Scott, normally I'm on board, but not with this one.
You might like this video better: th-cam.com/video/7z24JcExcCw/w-d-xo.html
Raised beds are for mommas boys.
If you have Bermuda Grass.. they are a boon