Imagine that, instead of picking up a plastic-wrapped head of lettuce or mass-produced carrots from the supermarket chiller, you can pick the same vegetables fresh and home-grown out in the garden. Not only is being self-sufficient to a certain degree a growing trend, but we can also guarantee that you will get tastier and better-flavoured vegetables in your cooking.
But a successful vegetable garden is not something you simply grow overnight. It takes both thorough work and patience to get a lush vegetable garden, but if you want to make things a little easier for yourself, you can choose to plant in a raised bed. This gives you the chance to start afresh with soil conditions that meet the needs of the vegetables. At the same time, you also avoid a lot of weeding, as weeds fortunately do not have particularly good conditions for growing in a densely planted raised bed.
Which vegetables can be planted in a raised bed?
Almost all vegetables can be planted in your raised bed, as long as you pay attention to the conditions they grow best in. In other words, you should simply go for the vegetables you like best and the ones your family eats most often.
Some vegetables have clear requirements for where they should be placed in order to grow best. It is therefore only natural to think about this when you put together your selection of vegetables in your raised bed. That way you give the plants the best growing conditions.
When you shop for your vegetable garden, you should consider whether you want to buy plants or seeds. Plants can obviously be harvested earlier, but there is also something special about watching a plant develop from seed to vegetable.
Before you start planting:
What all vegetables have in common is that they thrive best in the sun. It is therefore important to place your raised bed somewhere that gets as much sun as possible during the day. Once you have found the right spot, it is important to look into the soil conditions. When you plant in a raised bed, you fortunately do not have to deal with the ground in the same way. Choose a light, nutrient-rich soil with added organic matter, and you have the perfect conditions for the roots to get the nutrition they need and grow well.
The challenge of planting different vegetables is that each of them may have a different optimal planting time. Look into the plants you have chosen, whether they are herbs or vegetables, so that you put them in the soil at the best possible times. Likewise, some vegetables can be harvested several times a year, whereas others can only be grown once in each growing season.
Looking after your vegetable garden
A vegetable garden needs looking after if you want to keep enjoying your vegetables. If weeds appear in the bed, it is best to remove them as soon as possible so that they do not take over your plants' nutrients.
You should only have to water in very dry weather, as raised beds help to keep the soil moist and reduce evaporation. If you simply check every now and then that the soil is slightly moist, you are covered. Make sure the soil is never completely dry. Fertiliser is not a requirement, but your vegetables will only benefit from it if you decide to use it. A round of liquid fertiliser once a month does not take much, but in return you keep the plants healthy and the pests away.