How to Plant Vegetables at Home in Raised Garden Beds - 2021 Spring Guide

Have you ever thought of living a peaceful countryside life? People love the countryside for its cleaner air, natural environment, lower living cost and more. Li Ziqi, a famous YouTube influencer from China, posted videos of her rustic life, gaining over 14.7 million followers all over the world. What makes her so popular? One of the most important factors is that she represents traditional farmer life and tradition in an idyllic way, which proves audience the possibility to live a simple, healthy life.
 
Li made a series about the life of vegetables, including tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and so on. Every episode, she shows the planting process of a specific vegetable, from preparing the soil to using the ripe ones to making delicious homemade meals. If you have watched this series, you will feel the joy of planting and the happiness of eating the vegetables grown by yourself.
 
This article aims to bring practical tips for planting vegetables at home. After reading, you will find it’s so easy to grow veggies with the proper raised garden bed. Don’t miss the chance to enjoy the fresh and healthy vegetables planted by yourself!

The Benefits of Planting Vegetables at Home

Have you ever tasted the vegetables which picked from the farm? It’s fresher and tastier than buying from a grocery store. Most of the fruits and vegetables we bought from stores or supermarkets are transported from hundreds of miles away or even from other countries, so the quality of them is often compromised. For example, Picking less ripe ones or using chemicals to kill the pest could negatively impact the flavor.

 
In this situation, many people who have higher demands on food quality begin to grow vegetables, fruits and herbs by themselves. Whatever a backyard, patio or any space inside the room could be your dream gardens. You will get a sense of fulfillment when you first harvest.

 

Good for Your Health: Eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruits is one of the recognized ways to keep healthy. If you have a garden, you will effortlessly get the freshest and just ripe ones for everyday consumption. Don’t need to bear the wilted or astringent vegetables or fruits anymore. More, it’s easier to get healthy food when you participate in the whole process, which protects you from eating food that contains chemicals.

 

Save Money: It’ll be economical-friendly for one-person family or medium-sized family to own a vegetable garden, because they usually eat several certain kinds of vegetables and don’t need much. The money you spent on a pack of seeds is almost equal to the money you pay for a single vegetable in the store. Eating healthy, organic food at a low cost is so attractive to people who have a tight budget on food costs.

 

A Simple Lifestyle: During the process of urbanization, people are persistently losing the opportunity of contacting with nature. A study from the University of Exeter indicates that people who are exposed to a nature environment for over 2 hours will be healthier than those who don’t. When Planting the vegetables, you will experience the life process of plants and enrich your knowledge of nature. Moreover, if you are a student or mental worker, working in the garden provides you extra exercise time and helps you relax your eyes.

 

Nowadays, some young people treat planting as a new lifestyle, which reflects the pursuit of a healthy, simple and natural life. If you have a beautiful vegetable garden, you can post some pictures of your life to connect with those who have the same lifestyle, maybe one day you could become a famous planting influencer.

 

Types of Raised Garden Bed

The idea of starting a vegetable garden seems attractive to many people at first, but few of them are succeeded in doing it finally. Living in a small space without enough room? Afraid to clean up the fast-growing weed? A raised garden bed is built up instead of down, which could reassure most of your worries. You’ll find that growing vegetables is easy and fun. 

 

Why using a raised garden bed? Firstly, people living in apartments or small spaces are able to plant vegetables at home with multiple sizes to choose from. Preventing your plants away from problem soils is the second benefit of using raised beds. If you’re not sure about the quality of your backyard soil, buying some new soil that hasn’t polluted by heavy materials would be a good way to avoid unpleasant problems.

 

An elevated plant bed also means better glowing conditions. The soil tends to dry faster and warms up quicker than in-ground gardens in the spring, so you’ll surprisingly find that carrots, cabbage and the like could grow well all year round. If you want your vegetable garden not only perfect for growing fresh veggies, but also to be a nice place for your friends to visit, the plant garden bed definitely could meet your aesthetic needs. What’s more, the most popular height for raised beds is 11 inches, so people don’t need to bend too deep to do weeding, which is good for their back and knees. 

 

Raised planting beds can be made of various materials and designed with different shapes and functions, depending on the needs of gardeners.

 

 

Metal elevated beds become more popular for sturdiness, carefree, won’t get rot and the stylish look. People who live in very wet places could consider this type of plant bed, as long as you did proper anti-rust treatment. Compared with wood lumber garden beds, you don’t need to spend much time on cleaning and maintenance and you would surprisingly find how long it could last. Metal materials are also easy to shape different designing structures, so this kind of garden bed is super suitable for those who want a more stylish, sleek garden bed.

 

Plastic raised garden beds are durable, easy-cleaning, available in multiple colors, recyclable and not easy to rot. PE (Polyethylene) is one of the most used materials for plastic elevated planting beds, because it could stay stable in most weather conditions, including cold winters and hot summers. Another advantage of PE plant beds is that they won’t expose any chemicals into the soil, which is safe for vegetable growing. If you want a more durable, recyclable and colored garden bed, you may try the plastic planting bed.

 

Other materials include stone, wicker, straw are good alternative to making a raised garden bed. Whatever materials you choose, make sure they are durable, sturdy and harmless.

Function: As raised beds become more and more popular, there appears a great number of products with various functions. For beginners, it will be easier to start the panting career with a functional garden bed. 

 

The garden bed with a watering system is essential to most gardeners, as it could keep plants away from decay or over watering.Some garden beds have a full watering system, which includes a water gauge, drainage plug and a water reservoir. Others are just designed with a drainage hole and drainage line to prevent waterlogging. 

 

Some garden beds come with an extra storage shelf for easy access to your gardening accessories. Some plant beds are built with wheels for conveniently moving around as needed. If you have dogs or rabbits, it may be safer for you to choose the one with a high fence. 

 

Some planting beds are designed for special kinds of vegetables. For example, the raised bed with a high trellis is perfect for climbing plants to grow. Some garden beds feature good frost- and heat-resistance, which is best for vegetables with high weather requirements.

 

 

Shape/Structure: Most raised garden beds are built in a rectangle shape for space-saving and easy management. You can combine several rectangle garden planters to form a bigger one or use different sized raised beds to design a beautiful vegetable garden. If you have a big backyard, circular, triangle and polygon shaped elevated planting beds are wonderful to bring you an aesthetically-pleasing vegetable garden. 

 

If your planed panting space is limited, you may consider the vertical raised garden bed. Tiered plant beds allow you to plant more vegetables without taking up space. More, you don’t need to worry the plants at the bottom be blacked by the top one. Last but not least, tiered planting beds provide you several areas for different vegetables to grow, which makes your planting more organized and scientific.

 

Tips for Growing Vegetables in Elevated Raised Bed

 

Planting can be quite easy if you grasp the key points of the whole process. Ventilation, soil, watering and pest management are the most important factors of planting. This part will talk about some important issues and difficulties during planting, glowing and harvest.

 

1. Decide on vegetable types: We recommend you choose the vegetables from three aspects. What are your favorite vegetables? Choosing those that appear most frequently on your table means you have more motivation to plant. And you probably won’t waste any vegetables if you harvest too much at one time. Secondly, what kinds of veggies are you capable to grow? Some kinds of vegetables are more difficult to grow than others. For beginners, it’s practical to start from easy, reliable veggies, such as tomato, pepper, basil, zinnia, marigold, cosmos. Lastly, you can choose vegetables based on the season. If you plan to grow in the spring, most vegetables are suitable. But if you start from winter, you may choose the hardy vegetables to grow, such as cabbage, carrot and spinach.

 

 

2. Soil preparation: A productive vegetable garden starts from a rich, healthy soil. Good soil usually contains appropriate amount of moisture, which means it would crumble easily when squeezed in hand. It’s also vital to test your garden soil with the local extension service, which will tell you whether you should add amendments to improve the soil quality. Or you can simply buy specially made soils with nutrients.

 

Before adding soil to the raised garden bed, it’s essential to put weed block or landscape fabric on the bottom of the bed to prevent pest, and avoid the fast growing of weeds and grass.

 

 

3. Seeding: Sowing the seeds is more complicated than other procedures during planting. Make sure the seeds are planted following the depth and spacing rules, which provides them enough room to grow. If you start planting in early spring, you may place the seeds under special lights to get consistent and strong exposure, which helps to produce stronger, stockier stems. Also, watering the seeds from the bottom would make the soil dryer, which is beneficial to pest protection.

 

4. Watering: Using a scientific way to water plants is not only vital to the growing of vegetables, but also would be time- and labor-saving for modern people. When to water is one of the most frequently asked questions for beginners. The simple answer is: you need to water when plants show under-water signs, such as dry or curl leaf, slow growth or withered branch. Every time you water, you should water as deep as the entire root system of vegetables. You could use a soil probe or moisture meter to check the moisture lever accurately. Nowadays, lots of people use automatic water system in their raised garden beds for watering in scientifically and further avoiding wasting the water and money. You are allowed to adjust the frequency of watering depended on different seasonal conditions, at the same time you could save much time on the boring repetitive manual work.

 

 

5. Harvest: To get the best taste and flavor, most vegetables should be harvested before they are completely mature. The following table provides you a brief harvest guide of 10 popular garden vegetables.

 

Vegetable Name	Recommend Harvest Time
Beans	Pick when the seeds are mature but before they have bulged.
Broccoli	Harvest before the flower heads bloom. After the first harvest, side shoots would continue to grow.
Cabbage	Cabbage needs to be harvest when the heads are solid.
Carrots	Carrots should be harvested when the roost are grown completely.
Cucumber	Cucumbers need to be cut off when they are young, the overripe ones would be bitter or pithy. Harvest when they are in dark green colors instead of changing yellow.
Leaf Lettuce	Harvest the outer leaves when the plant has reached 4 inches in height.
Tomatoes	Harvest tomatoes when they are fully colored, don’t wait them became soft to touch.
Onions	Onions can be dug once the tops have fallen over.
Sweet Peppers	Harvest when peppers are still green and full-sized. If you want sweeter peppers, you need to wait them to continue to ripen, changing colors from yellow, orange to red.
Pumpkins	Harvest when the surface became hardened enough to poke it with your fingernail. You shouldn’t harvest it if you could poke through the skin.

 

Conclusion

Hope the content above is helpful to you. Raised garden beds are practical for beginning gardeners, which allows them to plant much easier and add more decorative details to their backyards. Besides, they provide vegetables with better glowing conditions, including warmer temperatures and an efficient drainage system.

Spring is here and it’s the best time of the year to start planting vegetables. Choose the seeds and prepare the soil, let’s enjoy the fun and happiness of planting with your favorite garden bed!