Raised Bed Gardening: A Complete Beginner’s Guide

Description

Are you eager to step into vegetable gardening but don’t know where to start? With this guide to the nearly foolproof raised-bed technique, you’ll be growing your own organic food in no time.

Growing your own food is a satisfying experience as well as an investment that will pay you and the community back in a myriad of ways, including benefits for the earth, greater food security, and better health. But where do you start and what is the best way to approach creating a garden and growing food?

The raised bed gardening technique, used by successful food gardeners for centuries, is simple and can be done pretty much anywhere. Building beds allows you to bring in the right materials, which might not exist in your own environment, and grow your own food year-round, if you so choose—no matter where you live. So whether your outdoor space is big or small, raised beds are the best choice for your first vegetable garden. Some water and a little love and attention is all you need be successful. 

In Raised Bed Gardening: A Complete Beginner’s Guide, you will learn everything you need to know to prepare and execute your garden plan and grow and harvest your produce. The book includes: 
 

• Plans for building quick-and-simple beds that you can make yourself with a few common tools
• Details on how to build the right soil mix to fill your beds 
• List of the easiest plants to grow as a beginner
• Plant information, along with which plants work best with other plants
• Planting advice, including spacing instructions
• Advice on mulch, watering, and fertilizing
• Organic pest control 
• How to harvest and store your produce
• How to get the most out of your raised bed space

So get started on your path to becoming a gardener. No matter what your level of confidence, this book will give you the information and tools you need to succeed.Tara Nolan, author of Raised Bed Revolution, is a garden writer and editor with a diverse background in publishing. Her work has appeared in the Toronto Star, as well as in magazines, including Reader’s Digest and Canadian Living, and on websites, like Design*Sponge. Tara is a co-founder, with three other garden writers, of Savvy Gardening (savvygardening.com) and was the award-winning web editor of Canadian Gardening magazine’s website (CanadianGardening.com) for six years. Tara does work for the Toronto Botanical Garden and the Canadian Garden Council, and volunteers for the Royal Botanical Garden. She is also a member of GWA: The Association for Garden Communicators. Tara is from the Toronto, Canada, area.Contents
Introduction 
RAISED BED BASICS 
Benefits of Raised Beds 
Choosing a Size 
Choosing Raised Bed Materials 
Soil for Raised Beds 
Location and Site Maintenance 
Consider Drip Irrigation 
RAISED BEDS FOR BIG SPACES 
The Essential Raised Bed 
Accessorize Your Raised Bed 
Raised Bed with Upcycled Wood 
Raised Bed with Benches 
Utility Raised Bed 
Other Ways to Build Raised Beds 
RAISED BEDS FOR SMALL SPACES 
Vertical Herb (or Lettuce) Planter 
Elevated Planter Box 
Galvanized Steel and Wood Container 
Upcycled Suitcase Planter
with Gas Pipe Legs 
A Quick Vertical Gardening
Pallet Project 
Tips for Adding Raised Beds
to a Balcony or Rooftop Patio 
RAISED BEDS WITH PURPOSE 
Potato-Growing Box 
Cold Frame Using an Old Window 
Greenhouse Cover for Raised Bed 
Versailles-Inspired Planter 
Protected Strawberry Planter 
NOT HANDY? NO PROBLEM 
Make a Raised Bed Using Corners 
Turn a Stock Tank into a Garden 
Why Garden in Fabric Pots? 
Burlap-Wrapped Plastic Pails
More Easy Raised Bed Ideas 
SUPPORT YOUR PLANTS 
A Classic Garden Obelisk 
A Simple Lashing Technique 
Sandwich Board Trellis 
Resources and Contributors 
Meet Tara Nolan 
Index 

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