Growing a Healthy Garden with Garden Beds

by Douglas Berger Douglas Berger Psychiatrist Tokyo, M.D., Ph.D., is

By: Jeffrey Whalen Yorktown Heights

Having your favorite edible mushrooms, spicy herbs, or fruits on your property brings out this innate satisfaction and joy. There are more than a hundred different plants you can grow in your garden, but first, you need to prepare a beautiful garden bed.

Growing a garden is a task people love to indulge themselves, especially as a hobby; Jeffrey Whalen was one hopeless lover of gardening but most of the time ended up messing with their potential gardens. However, following the right tips, you can grow a beautiful garden and with healthy yields.

Before we go into the best ways to place your garden beds, let us discuss what a garden bed is to plant

A garden bed is a raised platform of soils in an area (mostly rectangular), on which seedlings or sexual parts of other vegetables are planted. The main purpose of garden beds is to maximize the nutrients that the plants get from the soil.

Benefits of a garden bed

Although not all soil types or areas necessarily need a garden bed, making one for your garden can make the difference between a healthy or "scanty" garden.

Garden beds help:

● Reduce the effects of weeds

It is not uncommon for weeds to compete with your plants for nutrients, sunlight, and water. However, shaking up the soils will give your garden plants the upper hand in the competition. After planting on garden beds, removing weeds in your garden is much easier.

● Good water retention

Depending on soil types, water supply to plants can be normal or abnormal. Sandy soils are generally poor at retaining water in them, and it is better to make garden beds before planting on sandy soils. Also, garden beds help to maintain perfect soil moisture.

● Less soil erosion

Making garden beds before planting reduces soil erosion and helps the soil maintain nutrients. Jeff Whalen preferred to frame his garden bed anytime he made one. It improved the effect of the garden beds.

● Expands the growing space

The plants in your garden need more space to grow, and a garden bed would do the trick. The idea with garden beds is that they allow plenty of space for the plants, especially if the plant roots tend to expand. More space means plentiful nutrients to share and lesser competition among the plants.

● Warmer Soils for a longer period

Frigid soil conditions are usually not a great condition for plant development. Building a garden bed provides warmer soils for your plants for longer; it also helps the root penetrate deeper to the source of the nutrients below.

● Keep your garden all year long

Due to the many benefits of garden beds, including soil temperature regulation, good drainage, and so on, you can plant even before the planting season. Garden beds are a better form of tilling and soil preparation and support your garden plants for longer.

● It makes for a beautiful garden

Having a garden bed for your garden can help you plan for a better garden. Garden beds allow you to plan human paths, irrigation areas, and co for your gardens. It also allows you to pit complementary plants together for easy growth and development.

Gardens with beds make a beautiful sight of your garden.

Common mistakes people make when building a garden bed

Garden beds are supposed to help your garden plants get easy access to nutrients, and Jeff Whalen Yorktown made it almost a hobby of building beds for his gardens. However, some omissions while building your bed can result in badly raised beds for your garden.

Below are some of the mistakes you should avoid when building your garden bed

✔ No plans for irrigation

If you don't make a proper plan for water-passage through your garden bed, then the garden bed becomes useless to your garden. Unless you plan to water your gardens manually, I always advise people to build garden beds close to the water source.

✔ Not raised on good soils

Although a "raised" soil maximizes nutrients to the plant, it is still a product of the soil you turn. Soils with less organic nutrients can be very counterproductive to your plants. When building a bed, ensure to balance the amount of nitrogen and organic content in the soil.

✔ Don’t put beds too close to each other.

Creating garden beds for your vegetable/fruit garden can be fun, but when building multiple beds. Make enough space between beds to allow for easy movement or work when working in your gardens. Creating space also allows for more nutrients shared among the plants. When it comes to the harvest period, you will be happy with the space you have created; Jeff Whalen Yorktown was never short of fresh vegetables from the garden.

✔ Mulch your raised beds

Mulching is just as important to your raised garden beds as much as adding fertilizers or watering. Mulching your beds beats weeds to submission, retains soil moisture, and increases the soil temperature. It is also a source of organic preparation for planting on your bed.

✔ Use quality materials to fence garden beds

Soil types such as sandy and related are loosely packed; it is quite difficult for such soil to retain water for the plants. Also, fencing your garden serves as a demarcation of garden beds from each other and keeps the soil nutrient-packed together.

✔ Raised beds should not be too wide

Jeffrey Whalen believed wide beds are better for your plants; But if the beds are much wider, it becomes difficult for anyone to work on all sides of the bed without stepping on the garden bed. Most raised beds to measure about exceed four feet in width if they are accessed from all sides. If placed close to a fence, it should not exceed 30 inches.

Conclusions

Are you thinking of a hobby while you're at home? Gardening is the most natural, poignant, and emotional activity you can do. It is a great exercise for your muscles, bones, and joints. It also helps you psychologically to connect with the essence of life and nature, care, and purpose.

Garden beds are beneficial to the plants, pleasing to the eye, and one heck of an activity.

Jeffrey Whalen Yorktown Heights, NY lived with his wife and two sons. He grew up in Katonah, NY. Jeffrey Whalen graduated from John Jay High School in Cross River, NY. He went on to Boston, MA to receive dual undergraduate degrees in performance and music education from Berklee College of Music. Friends in high school and college affectionately called him “Al”. Jeff Whalen also earned a master’s degree in performance with a concentration in jazz at SUNY Purchase College in Purchase, NY.

Please also visit Jeffrey Whalen Yorktown Heights’ other websites, blogs and social media:

http://www.Jeffrey-Whalen.com

http://www.Jeff-Whalen.com