Raised beds are available in countless variations - made of wood, stone, metal, plastic, round, square, oval, for vegetables, herbs or flowers, with a greenhouse attachment or without. What they all have in common is that they have various advantages over a conventional one Provide garden bed. But the disadvantages of a raised bed should not be ignored at this point: What do you plant in there? After all, there are so many exciting variants.
What advantages do raised beds offer in the garden?
Raised bed benefits include comfortable working height, better soil quality, extended growing season, nutrient abundance, versatile design options and the ability to garden in limited space or unsuitable areas.
Benefits of Compost Raised Beds
The classic compost raised bed in particular offers a lot of advantages, especially for growing crops. The filling, which decomposes over time, contains many valuable nutrients, which is why the bed does not need to be fertilized for years. Instead, you can plant it with heavy, medium and weak feeders depending on its age and nutrient composition (this decreases over the years). In addition, a compost raised bed develops a lot of heat through the rotting process inside, which is very comfortable for many vegetables - and is one of the reasons why compost raised beds extend the growing season by a few weeks.
Composition of the plant substrate
However, a compost raised bed cannot always be installed. It is not advisable to do this on a balcony or a table bed, for example. Nevertheless, a raised bed can serve well in many occasions, for example if you want to garden on a balcony or terrace. In any case, you can individually adapt the composition of the plant substrate to the planned planting - after all, tomatoes require different soil than rock garden plants or colorful blooming summer flowers.
Gardening even in small and unsuitable planting areas
In general, a raised bed makes gardening possible even where the soil conditions mean that planting vegetables or ornamental plants is not possible at all or is only possible to a very limited extent. This applies, for example, to paved or otherwise paved courtyards or front gardens, to balconies, terraces, but also to gardens on slopes or with very unsuitable (for example very heavy) soil.
Structuring and designing the garden
In addition, both large and small gardens can be wonderfully structured with the different types of raised beds. For example, you can terrace gardens on hillsides using stone raised beds and make them usable in the first place. Several raised beds are also ideal for protecting a terrace or a cozy corner in the garden from prying eyes with the right plants. Furthermore, through the clever use of raised beds, real garden spaces can be designed and separated from one another.
Comfortable working height
The comfortable, back-friendly working height is of course one of the most important reasons for purchasing a raised bed. You no longer have to bend down or laboriously slide around the garden on your knees to care for the bed, but can work standing or sitting.
Tip
Incidentally, you don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money buying the materials you need to build a raised bed at a hardware store. Instead, a wide variety of materials that are lying around can be used for this purpose. This not only saves you money, but also reduces mountains of waste.
