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Raised bed organic gardens are, no doubt, very beneficial, especially in places which have water logging problem. It is very easy to construct a raised bed organic garden. Many people build a raised bed garden on their own.
Further you dont require very sophisticated tools to build the raised bed. Basic masonary and gardening tools are sufficient. Also, it takes only a few days to erect it.
The different steps involved in preparing a raised bed organic garden are given below:
- Site Selection: Choose the place in your garden where you would like to contrcut the raised bed. If you are preparing a temporary bed, its location is not so important. But if you plan to make a permanent structure, select the site properly as making any changes in the location later will require dismantiling the entire bed along with its frame and shifting it.
- Design: First, prepare a design of the bed on paper. The height, width and lenght of the bed are most cricial parameters. Frame thickness and width of the pathways are also important.
- Width: The bed can have a width of about 5 feet; however ensure that you can reach every part of the bed from one side or the other.
- Height: Height of the raised bed organic garden should be at least 6 inches so that water drainage problem is removed. If you want to prepare the bed for old and handicapped people, you can increase the bed height to 20-24 inches.
- Length: Length of the bed should be adjusted according to your requirements and availability of space.
- Pathways: The pathways should have sufficient space for you to move and if you use a wheelbarrow, adjust the width of the pathway to accommodate it.
- Frames: You should frame the bed, else there is a high possibility that it will erode away with time or during heavy rains. Build the frame according to your design. Stone and bricks serve as excellent material for framing. Rot resistant wood can also be used for framing.
- Soil: Then comes the important part of adding soil to the bed. If you add normal soil to the bed, water logging may still persist. Hence you should mix organic matter such as dry leaves and grass with the soil. You should also add compost and sand to the soil. While organic matter and compost will increase drainage significantly adding a small amount of sand will ensure that the drainage problem is completely solved
- Fertilizers: Raised bed organic garden also requires adding fertilizers regularly. Hence you should conduct a soil test and add appropriate organic fertilizers apart from the already added organic compost.
With this your raised bed garden is ready and you can grow vegetables, flowers, etc., as per your wish.
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