Practical Guides for Productive Raised Beds
Step-by-step raised bed tutorials, each with a difficulty level, a rough time estimate, the best time to do the job and a list of what you need.
8 guides published
An end-of-season routine for raised beds: harvest and clear, decide what stays, add compost, cover the soil with mulch or a cover crop, store hoses, and record what grew where.
A step-by-step spring routine for raised beds: test whether the soil is workable, clear the winter cover, check the frame, loosen, top up with compost, and time planting by frost dates and soil temperature.
A step-by-step guide to mulching a vegetable bed: which materials work, how thick a layer each one needs, when to spread it for different crops, and how to look after it through the season.
A step-by-step plan for a longer harvest from one bed: small repeat sowings of quick crops, follow-on crops for every gap, and counting back from your first fall frost.
A step-by-step way to arrange a herb bed: sort herbs by moisture, sun, height and life cycle, give each its mature width, set the pots out on the soil, then plant.
A step-by-step way to bring a settled raised bed back up: clear it, loosen the top, add compost or a compost and topsoil blend, rake, water and cover. No need to replace the soil.
A worked calculation for raised bed soil volume in cubic feet, cubic yards and liters, with conversions to bags and to topsoil and compost shares.
A step-by-step way to plan several raised beds on grid paper: draw the space to scale, move paper beds around, leave working paths, place tall crops, then test it with string.
