Raised Beds

by Nida Angeliadis

I have always gardened using raised beds, instead of forming garden rows by

tilling and weeding the soil. More recently, I started sheet mulching, which some people refer to as garden lasagna due to the layering of materials to create a garden bed. I’ve used cedar to create boxes for my garden beds in the past. Long lasting and slow to rot, cedar is a great alternative, although it can be quite expensive. I’m always trying to find cheaper alternatives, but many of the products available are not suitable for raised beds, especially if they’re going to be used to grow food. Products like railroad ties or pressured treated wood are full of chemicals, and I wasn’t interested in using chemicals in a vegetable garden.

Recently, in my Maine garden, I’ve been faced with the same issue, adding new raised beds, but I’ve been able to find some different alternatives that I am really happy with. The first raised bed that I added was formed using cement blocks to outline the perimeter, and I stacked them with the holes facing up. I made a point of finding cement blocks, since they do not leach any chemicals, as opposed to cinder blocks, which can contain chemicals that may leach into the soil. I sheet mulched the internal bed defined by the blocks and even filled some of the holes within the cement blocks themselves with soil. I planted annual flowers in the holes that were filled with soil, but the holes that I left empty were useful in a different way. I bought some PVC piping that was about 8 feet long so that I could arc it over the garden bed and insert the ends into the empty holes within the cement blocks. Then I filled the holes with soil to keep the PVC piping in place. In the fall, when it started to cool off, I added a clear tarp over the PVC piping and used clips to close up the ends of the enclosure. This removable, make shift greenhouse extended my growing season for a few more months and I was still harvesting tons of tomatoes in November last year. I liked the cement blocks because not only could I easily move them, if I wanted to, but I could easily remove the PVC and tarp enclosure when they were no longer needed as well.

When I was looking to add a second raised bed to my yard, I came up with

another idea. I was planning to get more cement blocks, when I realized that I had a large pile of wood logs stacked up on my property from a huge ash tree that was cut down last summer. I didn’t really have use for the wood, so I decided to create another raised bed. I just rolled the logs over to where I wanted the bed located and placed them in a rectangular shape. Then, once again, I sheet mulched the inside. I don’t need to worry about the wood leaching anything into the garden soil, I feel the logs will hold up for decades, and I like the rustic look they bring to the garden.

Lastly, I still needed some more planting area for my vegetables, but did not want to add an entire raised bed, so I bought two 15 gallon fabric garden bags. I liked the bags because I could move them around easily, if I changed my mind about where they were located. They are light weight and sturdy. The only negative thing I have found about them is that they do not hold moisture well. So I need to water their contents often, to make sure that whatever I have planted in them does not dry out.

[This article was written for the July issue of Maine Grows.]