Raised Bed Gardening

If you love to garden but can't bend over or need to remain seated, try Square Foot Gardening on a raised bed. A raised bed can be positioned just about anywhere, on a patio or in a yard. Buy one, have one built or build your own, set it up for success, and grow more food and flowers than you would think possible.

Build a simple raised patio bed:

Ingredients:
- Two saw horses or a similar strong stand to bring the bed up to get the correct height to garden standing up or sitting down.
- One four by four foot piece of plywood, or smaller.

- Two-by-four lumber, screws, tools etc., to build a frame for the plywood at least six inches deep.
- Best soil-less mix: equal parts peat moss, coarse-grade vermiculite, and compost.
- Nails and string.

Directions:

Pencil in a grid of one foot by one foot squares on the plywood, and drill a drainage hole in the middle of each square. Build the frame and attach the plywood to the bottom of the frame. Position the saw horses, then place the garden bed on top of the saw horses. It will be heavy and difficult to move after the soil is added. Once the raised garden bed is in place, fill it with the peat moss mixture. It may be expensive, but it is a one-time investment.

 

 

For the square-foot grid, measure and mark one foot intervals around the top of the frame. Drive a nail at each one foot mark, leaving a bit of each nail sticking out of the wood. Tie string to the nails in a grid pattern.

 

Now, the fun part of Square Foot Gardening – choosing what to grow. Grow plants from seed, or use transplants, just be sure to plant at the right time for each variety. Check on line or on the back of the seed packets. Plants like radishes, lettuce and bush beans are great to grow from seed with children as they sprout quickly, and watching them grow is very rewarding.

 

Square Foot gardening categorizes plants by size – small, medium, large and extra large. Extra large plants like cabbage, peppers and broccoli take up one square for each plant. Large plants such as leaf lettuce and parsley can be planted four to a square, or six inches apart. Medium plants fit nine to a square which is four inches apart, three across by three down. Beets, spinach and bush beans are medium plants. Last but certainly not least are small plants such as baby carrots and radishes. Sixteen small plants fit in one square foot, four across by four down.

 

Here’s a basic list of how many of each vegetable can be grown in each square foot of a raised bed garden. Corn and large root vegetables like potatoes are not recommended for raised platform gardening.

One per square: broccoli, cabbage, eggplant, peppers, most herbs (basil, chives, sage)

Four per square: bush tomatoes, leaf lettuce, parsley, Swiss chard

Nine per square: bush beans, spinach

Sixteen per square: carrots, radishes

 

Try extending the growing season. Grow lettuce, carrots or radishes in the spring. After the harvest, use the same square for heat loving summer vegetables like bush tomatoes and peppers. Plant spring vegetables again in August for delicious autumn salads, right up to first frost.

How about a vegetable garden that doubles as a flower garden? Plant one large dahlia, four dusty millers or pansies, two petunias or three salvia per square foot. Marigolds make lovely cut flowers. Plant one giant or four dwarf marigolds per square. Zinnias, come in many colors and sizes, and can also be planted one to four per square depending on the variety.

 

Gardening from a seated position, or standing without having to bend, is possible with a Square Foot raised garden bed.