How To Make a Raised Bed

Prepare the existing soil in the garden area with Viragrow Compost. Or purchase Viragrow Topsoil as a substitute for your existing soil. If you have been harvesting for several seasons try Viragrow Rejuvinate to rebuild and replenish the soil structure and exhausted minerals.

Vegetable and herb gardens should be prepared as raised beds for best results. Raised beds can be prepared with sidewalls (wood, block, brick, cement) or without. Beds can vary in width from 3 to 4 feet with walkways 18 to 24 inches wide around their perimeter. Traffic should be kept to the perimeter of the beds to prevent soil compaction, transporting weeds, diseases and other vermin. Traffic in raised beds is limited to soil preparation and planting times.

When a garden soil is ready to plant to seed (s) or transplants (T), it should be firm but not hard. To judge firmness, walk across your completed bed. Footprints should not sink deeper than ½ inch.

Raised Beds without Sidewalls. Raised beds can be constructed without sidewalls. How? First, amend the garden area with compost to a depth of 6 to 8 inches. Create 18 to 24 inch walkways through the garden area with a flat-nosed shovel. Ideally, but not totally necessary, the beds should run north to south. Throw the amended soil from walkways on the top of raised beds. Level the soil and shape the edges of the bed to a 45º angle. This angle retains the bed’s shape without sidewalls even during irrigations. The beds, after settling, will be about 12 to 14 inches deep. Wet the beds thoroughly and allow them to dry enough on the surface so they can be planted.

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