Before building my garden I did a ton of research. There were so many options! Back to Eden style gardens, traditional in ground gardens that you till, no till gardens, hugelkultur bed gardens and SO MUCH MORE. I honestly got lost down the rabbit trail of options, benefits and drawbacks for quite some time before I finally settled on raised beds for my garden. Why did I choose raised garden beds out of myriad of options available to me? These 10 benefits made me want raised beds in my garden!
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Pest Protection
In my area we have oodles of moles and voles. I had mounds coming up right in the middle of my old garden beds and it was so frustrating. All of that hard work germinating, tending to, picking bugs off of my plants just to have them annihilated overnight by a new mole/vole home. GRRRRR.
So when I built my new garden beds I used hardware cloth on the bottoms of them. Try digging through that you demons! I am pleased to report that I have zero mole or vole hills in my new beds.
Another pest that my raised beds deter is rabbits. The rabbits in my area don’t seem too keen to jump up into the raised beds to nibble on my lettuce. Your mileage may vary. I’ve heard some rabbit’s can be quite brave.
I’ve also heard of people lining the top of their raised beds with pennies to deter slugs. I have not personally tried this but if I notice any slugs this year I am going to try it. We had an incredibly wet year last year and the slugs were out of control. Gross!
Fewer Weeds
Because you won’t be tilling your raised beds you will actually have fewer weeds. This is because tilling up the soil bring buried weed seeds up to the surface where they can germinate and be a pain in your butt.
You will of course still deal with rogue blown in weed seeds but mulching whenever possible will help mitigate this as well. And with nice soft soil, even when you do run across a weed it is SO MUCH easier to pull out than a weed growing in tough native soil.
Superior Soil Control
My native soil sucks. Granted – I have soil so it could be worse but still. The top layer of soil is hard clay that does not like to drain and if you dig down much you run into straight sand. (We live in a river bottom).
I can of course amend and build up my native soil but that takes time. Like years to achieve decent soil. And I am not a particularly patient girl. I tend to prefer instant gratification whenever possible.
With a raised bed garden I get to choose exactly what goes kind of soil I want to work with. I had a bunch of really high quality black topsoil delivered right to my home and I used that plus some peat moss (to help make it fluffier) in my raised beds. If I was only doing one or two beds, or if my budget was larger I would have also added some perlite and vermiculite to help with drainage. If you can get your hands on some aged manure that stuff is the absolute best too!
As it is my raised beds are leagues ahead of my native soil.
Less Bending
I may only be 25 years old but I gotta tell you – working in a raised bed is so much more comfortable. Even though my beds are only 12 inches deep that little bit makes a huge difference. Especially when planting tiny seeds or weeding.
If I have it in the budget in the future I would actually love to double stack my beds so they would 2 feet tall.
Better Drainage
Plants don’t like sitting in water which is why it’s so important to have good drainage. Especially if you live somewhere that gets a generous amount of rainfall each year. My raised beds drain substantially faster than anything I have tried in ground.
Plus in the spring when the snow melts even though most of my entire property is a muddy mess, my raised beds are nice to work in!
Pleasing To The Eye
Raised garden beds are very pretty! Even though my vegetable garden is a functional space, I spend a lot of time in there and I want it to look pretty. You can make them as fancy as you like but even simple raised beds look more clean and tidy in my opinion than traditional in ground beds.
And as much as I love the concept of hugelkultur style beds I don’t really care for their appearance.
Soil Does Not Compact
Most people don’t walk in their raised garden beds so you don’t have to worry about the soil compacting. Not having to till or loosen compacted soil is a huge time saver in the spring. And you’ll save money if you don’t already own a tiller because you won’t have to purchase one!
Easier To Plan
I’m one of those people who loves planning. Especially during the wintertime when it is cold as heck and the garden is buried under loads of snow. I will grab some graph paper and dream of all the wonderful things I will grow once it warms up.
Since the boundaries of a raised bed are very well defined I find it easier to plan exactly how many plants I have room for. Especially since I plant very densely using the square foot method and plan many areas of my garden down to the square inch.
More Production In Less Space
Raised beds will have much better soil than typical in ground garden beds you can plant much denser than you normally would. Plants aren’t competing for limited amounts of nutrients and are therefor perfectly happy being closer together. For example I will plant as many as 16 carrots in 1 square foot of my raised beds!
I have aspirations of growing as much food as physically possible on my property so this is a HUGE plus for me even though I have a pretty large garden. Don’t have room for a large garden and still want to grow a decent amount of food? This will be a great option for you as well.
Plant Sooner In The Spring
Raised beds absorb more heat from the sun and thaw much faster in the spring. This means you can get in and work with the soil sooner, and plant sooner. Warmer soil temperatures also mean faster germination for most seeds. Especially seeds like corn that really prefer warmer soil.
Final Thoughts
These are just 10 of the reasons raised beds were the best choice for my garden. I mean how can you go wrong? I honestly think raised beds are a great choice for any garden.
What type of garden do you have? Do you like it or do you wish you could build something different? Do you have any suggestions for me? Let me know in the comments!
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