Are age related problems stopping you from enjoying your gardening? The sore back from too much bending, sore knees from too much kneeling or just the long recovery from aches and pains after a stint in the garden. I know these problems first hand, as a baby boomer I had to find a solution and I did! Bring your garden to you by making use of raised beds!



They don't have to be anything fancy, just some timber frames about 2 feet high and 3 feet wide is plenty. This simple solution helps in allowing people with the previously mentioned age related dilemma or anyone with restricted movement, such as a wheelchair, to continue to enjoy quality time in their garden.

There are lots of other benefits to having raised beds other than easy access. For instance your yield of vegetables can be greatly improved, weeds are less and the few you might get are easier to manage, pest control is also much easier and any problems you might have with your soil are eliminated.

Your plant selection is increased, you can grow fruits, herbs, flowers as well as vegetables. In fact, anything that likes a well drained soil will thrive in a raised bed garden.

Because you'll be planting your seeds or seedlings much closer together, you reduce the amount of water required. The combination of planting closer and less water will give you the extra benefit of far less weeds to worry about, because you're not providing them with ideal growing conditions.... space and light.

You're also going to be able to extend the growing season, because you can start sowing seeds earlier. This together with better yield, will have you harvesting for longer and enjoying a bigger crop from a smaller area.

If you have soil problems in your garden, you can use raised beds and just bypass your own soil completely. If you start with completely fresh soil, it doesn't matter what type of soil you had in your garden to begin with.

As a gardener, you'll also appreciate that you don't have to walk on your raised beds very often, so the soil isn't getting compacted like it normally would, this lets your plants develop stronger roots. Your plants will show their appreciation by producing a bigger, more luxurious crop.

Since you'll be filling your raised beds with good fresh soil, the odds of infecting your plants with any disease is far less and pests are much easier to manage in a limited area. Again this adds to the overall increase in your harvest and the quality of your crops.