A raised bed like this can be planted in a variety of ways, just according to your ideas. You can create a practical kitchen garden with fresh fruit and leafy vegetables, but also a delicious snack garden or even a flower bed. Only plants that take up a lot of space at the top or bottom should be given a different location - otherwise the raised bed will quickly be full and the limited space will not be used adequately.
Which plants are suitable for planting in a raised bed?
A raised bed can be planted in a variety of ways: useful plants such as vegetables, herbs, sweet fruits, perennials, grasses, onion and summer flowers as well as small shrubs are suitable. Please pay attention to the growth and space requirements of the individual plants so that the limited space is optimally utilized.
What goes in the raised bed?
Useful plants such as vegetables, herbs and sweet fruits such as strawberries, currants or gooseberries feel at home in raised beds. But perennials, grasses, bulbous and summer flowers as well as small shrubs also thrive here.
Large selection of vegetable plants
The nutrient-rich soil in the classic raised bed is ideal for hungry vegetables such as cabbage, celery, tomatoes and zucchini. But vegetables that require less nutrients, such as radishes and lettuce, carrots, spinach, beetroot and chard, or more undemanding ones such as onions, peas and bush beans also thrive in raised beds. When planning cultivation, you should keep an eye on the growth rather than the nutrient requirements of the individual plants: If you are already gardening at waist height, high-growing plants such as pole tomatoes or pole beans make little sense - you would need a ladder for care and harvesting by the end of June at the latest. Plants that grow very wide (such as zucchini) also take up a lot of valuable space in the raised bed and are therefore better cultivated individually.
Annual and perennial herbs
Culinary herbs such as parsley, chives, lovage, chervil and dill thrive excellently and benefit from the protected growing conditions. Make sure to plant biennial and perennial herbs at the edges so that they don't get in the way when you clear the raised bed in the fall. Mediterranean herbs such as thyme, hyssop, rosemary, oregano, sage and curry herb grow too much in a compost raised bed and develop little aroma. You need your own raised bed with poor soil. For example, the sides of a Euro pallet raised bed are perfect, in which you can easily integrate plant boxes.
Berries and other fruit trees
Picking is easier in raised beds
Strawberries are of course a must in any snack garden. But many berry bushes also feel at home here, as long as you choose small-growing species and varieties. Red and white currants as well as the related black currant thrive in a raised bed with potting soil or commercially available potting soil. For blueberries that don't like lime and prefer acidic, humus-rich soil, raised beds filled with ericaceous soil are ideal. When it comes to gooseberries, you should definitely choose powdery mildew-resistant and thornless varieties, which are easier to care for and harvest. However, a ground-level garden is more suitable for a large tree or strong-growing blackberries.
An ornamental garden in a raised bed
Most perennials are perennial, i.e. H. They survive the winter and sprout again from the rootstock every year. Evergreen species even show their foliage all year round. For perennials, grasses and roses, it is best to use a roof garden substrate, which usually consists of garden soil and lava granules, or a high-quality pot plant soil with a high proportion of clay or sand. Compost or pure bed and balcony potting soil decomposes too quickly, so you have to add new soil every year. Perennials can be easily combined with bulb flowers such as crocus, tulips and daffodils as well as annual summer flowers.
How to plant the raised bed
In spring you can sow many vegetables, herbs and flowers directly in the raised bed. If you use a cold frame attachment (€33.00 on Amazon) (which is suitable for many prefabricated raised beds), the season can even start about two to three weeks earlier. In addition, many plants can be grown on the windowsill from February onwards and can then be planted in the bed as young plants.
Direct sowing
For compost raised beds, you should first fill a five centimeter thick layer of seed soil into the bed, as pure compost is too nutrient-rich for many seeds. The soil should be finely crumbly and slightly moist. Large seeds such as those from zucchini, cucumbers or pumpkin should be stuck individually into the bed with the tip pointing downwards so that they are about three to four centimeters deep in the ground. Bush beans and peas, on the other hand, are sown in clumps with three to five seeds per hole. Cover these seeds with approximately two to three centimeters of soil. Fine seeds are sown directly from the bag in rows or across a wide area on the bed surface. Sowing will be more even if you mix the seeds with fine sand beforehand. Seed tapes or plates in which the seeds are already placed at the correct planting distance have proven to be very practical.
Planting young plants
With young plants grown early, you can make ideal use of the space available in the raised bed, as the vegetables ripen more quickly and you can then carry out subsequent sowing or planting. You can put lettuce, spinach, chard and cabbage in the raised bed from March / April. A cover made of frost protection fleece helps against cold nights. Vegetables that are sensitive to cold and frost, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini and pumpkins, are only planted outdoors from mid to late May. Eggplants and Chinese cabbage only come outdoors at the end of May / beginning of June. Late-ripening cabbages such as broccoli, Romanesco and cauliflower are also not planted until June/July.
Tip
Plants grow better and faster under protective foil or glass than in an open bed. With a cold frame raised bed you can actually start the gardening season from mid-February by sowing lettuce, lamb's lettuce, lamb's lettuce and garden cress.
