Building Your Garden

Story by Lifestyle Staff

Spring is the perfect time to start your raised garden bed. Open frames allow roots to reach down into your soil’s nutrients, while weeds can’t easily get over the barrier. Space-saving, easily-draining raised beds make plant rotation easy throughout the season. Here are our best tips for creating your own:

Choosing a Location

Make sure it’s sunny and drains well.

Building

You can either purchase prefabricated planter boxes or buy treated lumber to create the right shape for your space. Rectangles are a classic shape; aim to have 6” tall sides at least. Line the bottom with weed-blocking fabric.

Soil and Seeds

Get a good combination of topsoil and fertilizer. Depending on your plants’ pH needs, you can determine which fertilizer will work best for your plants. Check plant tags for spacing out your starts or seeds, and don’t forget to mark what you planted and where!

Watering and Weeding

Good rule of [green] thumb: 1 inch of water and regular weeding every week. (Tip: Raised beds dry out more quickly!) Check for bugs and pests under leaves and make sure the weeds you’re pulling aren’t your precious seedlings.

Supports and Mulching

Train vining plants (like cucumbers) to grow up a support, or use string tied between two dowels to grow snap peas. Once your seedlings have pushed through the dirt, cover the area around them with mulch or pinned-down newspaper, keeping weeds away and warmth in the soil.

Learning

Track your progress in a journal or binder, so you can learn what works well for your plants, and what doesn’t. Pretty soon, you’ll be the master gardener on your block.

Outdoor Essentials

Maybe all your green thumb was missing was the right tools— time to dig in!

Spade hand trowel

Sun hat

Work gloves

Cultivator

Gathering bag

Magnesium cream

Hori hori knife set

These are some favorites we gathered from Sequoia Plaza Flowers in Visalia.