Every year, many people attempt gardening the traditional way and fail. Traditional gardening to us means digging long rows in your backyard, planting, watering, weeding constantly, and controlling pests. Container and raised-bed gardening offers many advantages over traditional gardening. Here are our top 10 benefits of container and raised-bed gardening.
1. No Weeding – Save countless hours of drudgery compared to traditional gardening by having little or no weeding in a container garden. By starting with new soil in your containers, you don’t have any weeds from the beginning. Placing the containers or raised beds higher off the ground means fewer weed seeds can reach your container garden. When you do get the occasional weed, it’s easy to pull out of the loose soil.
2. No Fertilizer – Using the right raised bed garden mixture with 1/3 course vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost you don’t have to fertilize. Just top off your container or raised bed each year with compost and that’s it.
3. Greater Yield and Variety In A Small Space – Due to the loose soil and no walking area, you can grow a variety of produce right next to each other. This is where you can really take advantage of companion planting.
4. No Soil Compaction – Container gardens don’t allow gardeners to walk in the growing area. This prevents soil compaction which hurts the plant roots and limits growth.
5. Garden Where You Want – You can garden close to your house, on a deck, balcony, or patio. You can move some containers around depending on the season or your tastes.
6. Healthy Organic Produce With No Pesticides – If everything you put in your container garden is organic, including the seeds, then you know what you have grown is organic. You won’t need to use pesticides.
7. Garden Without Bending Over (Unless You Really Want To) – Container gardens can be set up at waist height. That way you do not have to bend over and container gardens can be made wheelchair accessible as well.
8. Save Water and Water Less Often – The container gardening mixture of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss can retain more moisture than backyard soil. Once your raised bed garden is fairly saturated, you don’t need to water as often.
9. No Digging Or Soil Testing – Just fill your container with the soil mixture you bought and you don’t have to dig anything up and there is no need to test the soil.
10. Save Time And Have More Success – Put in fewer hours and get more produce for your gardening time.
Have fun and enjoy your success by gardening in containers and raised beds. Its quite addicting and you can grow in them year round by selecting the right varieties, depending on your climate zone.