Raised bed gardening has a lot of pros… we hear about them all the time…BUT nobody ever talks about the negative side of it. I’m going to talk about the 7 downsides of raised bed gardening so that you can make an educated decision whether or not raised bed gardening or in ground gardening would be best for you.
MENTIONED LINKS
GrassRoots Fabric Raised Beds: https://www.grassrootsfabricpots.com
Discount Code: NEXTLEVEL10
Raised Bed Mistakes Video: https://youtu.be/iFOGDQ0o3rc
Build a Simple and Cheap Raised Bed Video: https://youtu.be/RruvgWVxnn0
DIGITAL TABLE OF CONTENTS
00:10 – Why I started Growing in Raised Beds
01:09 – The Positive Things About Raised Beds
7 Reasons
03:15 – Raised Bed Materials (what they’re made from)
03:57 – Paying for labor, or building raised beds yourself?
04:23 – The cost of filling raised beds with soil
05:50 – Raised beds dry out quicker than in ground beds
07:38 – Raised beds and fertilizing
08:05 – Raised beds have poor insulation
08:36 – Constantly adding new soil to raised beds
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Hey Guys, I’m Brian from Next Level Gardening
Welcome to our online community! A place to be educated, inspired and hopefully entertained at the same time! A place where you can learn to grow your own food and become a better organic gardener. At the same time, a place to grow the beauty around you and stretch that imagination (that sometimes lies dormant, deep inside) through gardening.
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45 Comments
Let me know how you guys feel about gardening in raised beds!
I have mobility issues, so two years ago I invested in the Vego 17" tall beds and love them! Three years ago I had bought three stock tanks, drilled holes in the bottom and I hate them because they dried out too fast. My vego beds are open at the bottom and hold the moisture better and don't get too hot. I did fill them totally with a quality soil/compost mix from a local landscape company instead of raised bed soil and I put straw mulch (thanks to you) and it has been wonderful. This year I barely topped them off. The soil had only gone down a couple of inches in one season so I didn't think that was bad. I am going to try a Fall/Winter planting this year so I will put a fresh layer of just compost down. I am in SC zone 8a and it has been extremely hot here too this summer so I am grateful that I found you and installed drip to everything and gopher wire just in case!
What happened to your plans for periodic answering questions sent in by viewers, how to set up a garden without spending money, and how to grow cucumbers?
#4 – drying out quickly… would like to see you do a video on Core Gardening
(a core of straw buried down in your raised bed to store water).
I don't have a garden space so I use containers. I would love a raised bed as this would mean more room to grow more things and would save my back.
But the reality is you do have an issue with growing in the ground n raised bed have more pros than cons… so ???
I am just trying metal raised beds this year. But I plan on installing compost tubes in each one to feed the worms, the worm castings will fertilize my plants. Also around the beds I'm packing lots of mulch to help keep the ground and beds cooler so they don't dry up. You are NOT suppose to have exposed dirt. I would think putting gravel around your beds would also heat up the ground and your garden beds. Now if it gets over 100 degrees like in Texas I guess I need to have a shade cloth over my beds too. 😊
never make a video again you are the worst youtuber to ever exist
All of my beds are in ground but the garden is on a little slope so the down-slope side has a board to hold in the soil and keep water from just running off. It works really well for me. My paths are covered with Ponderosa pine needles and the beds are no dig. I couldn't afford to make raised beds and our native soil is pretty good. I feel fortunate to be able to grow in ground.
I did raised beds on concrete once and loved it. No weeds! Loved that I got some use out of an old sidewalk by the house that was useless otherwise. ❤
You must have a good back!
The Only spot where I get enough sun is right behind our home. Unfortunately we live on Heavy clay soil and even More unfortunately, the people who lived here before used that area to part their mobile camper and truck. The ground was very compacted and vehicle oil and other fluids had contaminated the soil. My raised bed is approximately 22 x 20, so it is Quite large and I walk up into it to do my gardening. When I first built it I used cardboard boxes that had been used to deliver playground equipment to my work then I filled with lots of sticks, twigs, some leaves and a couple loads of top soil we had delivered. I've been gardening in that space for almost 10 years and this year I am removing a Large portion of the soil to be replaced with new. I have had tomato diseases this year that I've never dealt with before and from what I am reading the only way to combat those diseases is to remove the soil. Ugh!
I put in 8 24" high raised beds in my back yard that are 8' long by 4' wide and they took an crazy amount of soil. I filled the bottom portion with sticks and twigs, cardboard and leaves and then purchased a truck load of organic garden soil which was very expensive. The end result was well worth it for me as it saved my old sore back.
My raised beds are made of molded acrylic. I’ve never grown in anything else. I ❤ raised beds. Here in our new home we have moles and voles. So when we established these beds 0:28 we made sure to put wire on the bottom layer to keep them out.
On another subject, I want to thank you for your videos on companion planting. I really took your suggestions to heart and have had very few issues with pests. The tomatoes. Peppers, eggplant, squash, onions and herbs really do play well together. I’m looking forward to a very successful growing season.
My church wanted gardens but the ground there is almost 100% sand so we made raised beds using cinder blocks. It's working out really great.
I don't use cinder blocks or any other type of raised bed for my own gardens but this year I was able to give them a nice thick layer of composted manure. I have beets, beans, Swiss chard, sweet corn, onions and some other things all growing great in my own garden.
My TSC gets tractor/combine parts shipped to them in heat treated wooden crates, and when they are done with them they have a pile of scrap wood in their parking lot with pallets and those crates. I have a small car, but with ingenuity and determination I’ve brought home 14 wooden crates, ranging in size from 2ft wide 3ft long and 1 ft deep, to 3ft x 4ft x 3ft tall, to 16 inches by 8ft and 18 inches tall. I know the wood won’t last forever but one is on its 4th year with no issues.
Thanks!
Right materials, right space. Totally agree they can be a pain in hot weather. I crammed 5 , 3 x 10 beds into a 20 foot area. Pet peeve was not having enough space to roll a wheel barrow through. Beds dont dry out as much anymore as Ive gotten more shade. They are just starting to break down after 5 years. Certainly very handy for strawberries with netting out the chipmunks and robins.
I do both. I'm in zone 5A. But with regards to the expense of building raised beds. Personally, I have a source for free lumber. We have a local truss building company and they allow locals to take the cutoffs for free. Now the sizes don't match, and you could have some short ones and some long ones, but if you don't mind a little sawing and screwing, you can end up with some pretty nice beds. However, mine are only 8 inches high. In the bottom, I put a layer of cardboard. (I save my boxes from Chewy just for this purpose.) I then place a layer of yard waste, then a layer of my compost. After that, I have a load of soil delivered. I then screen that soil and mix in peatmoss and bone meal. Then I fill the bed to the point of overflowing. I water it all in and add more soil. Then it is ready to go. Yes, I do have to add more soil in the spring, but I add a mix of fresh soil, bonemeal and my homemade compost. I also mulch with straw. But I do this in all my gardens, raised or not. At the end of the season, whatever straw hasn't already broken down, I just rake in. This along with the snow will help keep the soil healthy during the winter. One thing I would never put in my raised bed is potting soil. To me, this is why your beds are becoming hydrophobic. With regards to fertilizer, I don't find any difference at all for fertilizer requirements between my raised beds and in-ground beds. Maybe that's because I use freshly made compost which contains rotted horse manure in both types of gardens. Now, like I said, my beds are only 8inches tall, and I don't have a gopher problem so I guess you could call them mini-raised beds. The only barrier between the bed and the actual ground is that cardboard box which, I'm sure isn't even there anymore. I'm sure if I were using one of those metal raised beds, it would be a lot different. Finally, like you said, a raised bed looks a lot more tidy. Also, and this may seem weird, I find I have fewer pests in my raised gardens. Not really sure why that is. But it is definitely a fact. Thanks for all the videos. Have a great growing season.
If I had to do it over again, no raised beds.
It may take a few years to get a terrific garden, but raised beds are no guarantee either, unless you are a miracle grow gardener.
One time tilling with really good compost, supplement with worm castings to ad awesome biology.
Raised beds dry out, settle out and over time, turn into just a bunch of organic material, that does not support plant growth.
When my raised beds rot out, will just plant in the dirt, like I have should have done in the 1st place.
Stay Well!!!!
I have tall metal raised beds and love them. My in-ground area gets choked with grass and weeds in minutes, and I have to do backbreaking work to try to deter them.. Our sandy soil leaches out nutrients every time we have a deluge. Pests thrive in my Florida environment. The raised beds were a big investment, but weed control is a snap and I don't have to crawl or stoop to take care of it. I can control what kind of soil goes into them. They might dry out a little faster, but that isn't a problem except when we have a draught, such as this past spring and early summer. Now the rains are frequent and heavy. Pests are everywhere, but the in-soil ones aren't as prolific. As for how the plants do, they seem to like the raised beds just fine.
I plant in the ground because of the watering mostly.
Wow love my raised beds. I have gardened all my life and now in my early 60’s I only use raised beds. I am now disabled so without them I couldn’t garden but even if I wasn’t I would. I use a form of no dig while using the raised beds. I have just put in more for a Mimi orchard and will be putting my fruit trees in them using permaculture fruit tree guilds.
Team raised bed since 2012. Hard clay soil, bad back, bad eyes, n brittle bones r not cpnducive to the labor it would take 2 make a good garden in ground. Thx 4 all ur advice over the yrs. Its really improved my yields n lowered pest pressure. 😉
Very true, here in Arizona the sun is pretty rough on plants in my raised beds, and don’t even think about leaning on those metal sides! But, so far they’re the only solution to all the small animals that want to munch anything green or juicy.
Depending on what wants to eat the plants, I exercise all the options! In ground, in raised beds, or in raised beds with hardware fabric fastened underneath, pots and grow bins, with a variety of protective surrounding fencing materials. The moles dig merrily around, the voles use those tunnels too, the local (feral) peafowl graze like oversized chickens, the dogs and neighborhood cats trample, dig, or roll on things, the squirrels excavate for acorns, really everyone but the deer sees the kitchen garden as their personal playground and food buffet. I am resigned to losing a certain amount of berries to the smaller birds, the price of enjoying their company. The deer stay out, maybe because it seems too enclosed. And for the rest, I strategize the around-bed fencing and covers depending on the crop present to minimize damage. My raised beds are low, so presumably the plant roots have access to soil nutrients, and I add leaves, garden compost, and steer manure (bought as a pickup truck load) each year. The original two raised beds are cedar boards and have lasted almost 20 years so far.
I really like my raised beds.I feel like it's easier to control the weeds. By the way, I feel like what you are calling gophers look like moles to me. Here in Indiana gophers/chipmunks make underground tunnels for their dens but travel above ground. When I was a kid we'd feed them peanuts right out of our hand.
Moles make mounded tunnels and live mostly underground.
Soil is expensive, but I will never go back to in ground gardening!! No weeds, rabbits don’t get in them. I have back issues so the ability to garden without pain is a must!! Between raised beds and GreenStalks, even my husband with CP can garden.
I don’t add soil every year, but I heap all the leaves in Fall into my raised beds to compost in place all winter. If it doesn’t fully break down I’ll stir it into the soil and add store bought compost. Works for me!!
Thank you for posting a cheap and easy way to make raised beds. We did cloth container gardening this year and I'm already over it 😅
I love my inground garden. I am still learning my site so I can and do rearrange the beds for spacing each year. I can run my chicken in it for a couple weeks to take care of a lot of seeds and pest. I have been expanding each year so it is a surface till, form beds and cover with compost before winter and snow hits. The amount of worms and healthy soil life is crazy!
I prefer raised beds; they're so much more organized. Also it doesn't matter if you use in-ground, raised beds, or containers, the soil has to be amended frequently.
I'm not happy with gardening at all this summer. I bought two different kinds of tomato plants and the leaves are curled on both of them. I'm using grow bags. They're fully. They're completely watered. We're getting rain every couple of days. I planted them in manure, black cow and peat moss with some garden, lime and some Natural fertilizer. I got maybe four cherry tomatoes and the others not not even a flower yet
Have used fabric and metal beds/bags for years & keep adding. No drip, so do have to water, but I enjoy the time out in the garden.
Just put wholes in a few mineral tubs; if they do well, this may be how I go forward.
Yes soil is costly, but worse than that, toting bags is getting harder (not sure it is worse than using a tiller).
I consider adding inground, but not sure is the best idea as I age. If I do, will probably just use for field peas & use a rolling stool.
The homes in our area were built on prior corn fields. We have no idea what pesticides, etc., are in the heavy clay soil. We have several organic raised beds and we used the hügelkultur method to fill them. Every other year or so we add more soil, we purchase on sale at the end of the season. We're seniors, even if we weren't seniors we still would have installed raised beds here. It's a pain in the butt, digging in clay soil to plant landscaping plants. We have no regrets with our raised beds.
Just a tad bit of advice, ingrown gardening is a different beast, you can’t or shouldn’t approach real soil;sand silt and clay, and real life nature interactions, with the pot/raised bed method of add fertilizer and compost liberally, that won’t do at all in ground. the way magnesium captures nitrogen, calcium drops down with water movement, carbon content, air content aka permeability, etc, learn the real name of PH, potential hydrogen, its a good start, hydrogen makes up 40% +/- 3% of plant matter. carbon and water make up about 50% the last 7% is minerals +/- 3% something like that. How sugars deter pests and ‘weeds’ (clarification; sugars are used in many ways, calcium on the surface of real soil; sand silt and clay, the first 6 inches, helps facilitate the exchange of sugars that promote health; lack of disease and normal function) fyi carbon C and nitrogen N combined is CN the elemental name of cyanide, lack of air in the real soil; sand silt and clay or heavy magnesium rich soil combined by adding compost and nitrogen to ‘kickstart’ those plants will produce cyanide and cyanic gases. Better get a grip that 25% of real soil; sand silt and clay, the permanent soil, is air. Co2 Co (carbon monoxide) oxygen, but mostly (76%) is nitrogen, better study up backyard ‘gardeners’
I have 3 raised beds and love them. I’m in 8b and my beds 😢don’t dry out at all. I’m older and love not having to bend over. No pest problems and my veggies are thriving.
We do a mix of both because the soils been amended over the years so it's not too bad anymore but has to be raised to keep critters out and to prevent depletion of nutrients but it saves a lot on buying new soil
When I first started, I grew in uncontained, raised beds and hated the fact that the water would run off the sides. Then I built contained beds and love them. Though, I do still use large pots for potatoes and rhubarb.
To be honest, I really don't have a choice. I live in an ancient rocky riverbed. So it's containers and raised beds.
I did build up an area with compost, specifically to grow corn.
As a former hardscape installer, I can’t help but be annoyed by the fact that you have a top to bottom seem in your retaining wall raised bed…and on a corner! Big no no!
My main reason for a raised is because my dear hubby is a danger when cutting the grass and when some of the plants tend to sprawl, he has in the past, sadly mowed them over
I am currently making a greenhouse, we are doing raised beds in it from pallets, and we are for the most part keeping the pallets whole. My husband got a bunch of styrofoam blocks that we put in the walls of the greenhouse anywhere there isn't glass and in the pallet walls of the raised beds.
This is my first year with a vegetable garden. I'm nearly 70. I bought 2 Vego raised beds (17") and a boatload of 7 and 10 gallon grow bags. I did the Hügelkultur thing for the bottom 6" in the raised beds only. That was a waste of time, IMO. I like the raised beds and grow bags. I rent my home, and the drought here in Kansas has made the clay soil as hard as concrete. Raised beds and grow bags are a no-brainer for me. I have spent a small fortune on the raised bed soil. And have had 4-6 inches of settling. The Hügelkultur only delayed the inevitable topping off by a couple of months. I will continue to garden in raised beds. It's fun! I wish i would have started years ago. Hopefully, next year will be less expensive as the bulk of the soil should remain. A video with tips for winterizing in colder climates would be helpful. THANK YOU for this video!!
There is a solution to wood raised beds longevity.
Seal them with a high quality oil. I use boiled Linseed Oil.
Though for next year, I am going to infuse wax with it to give me a much, much longer life.
Currently, my tomato bed of 10 years (made of old school pressure treatment) is decaying. My longest bed and oldest in the garden.. the bottom board is rotten. It only had a couple of coats of oil.. 12 years old.
Fortunately, all of this lumber was free minus fuel.
Two years of raised beds and I'm already planning on getting rid of them for next year.
Hey Brian, I hear your concerns about raised beds. I am in zone 6a-5b in West Michigan. I built 2 raised beds 4 years ago. One was 2'x8' the other was 2'x6'. The next year I built a 3'x5', and 2 years ago I built one 2'x5'. There are 2.5' wide walkways between all the beds and they are arranged in a U with the 2'x5' in the middle. Mine are also pretty deep. The shallowest one is 18". I hear what you are saying about loss of soil, but I compost and so I top dress my beds every fall and spring with completed compost. I also mulch with straw. My beds with tomatoes have gone a week without watering and no blossom end rot occurred. Typically, I water once every 3 days unless the moisture check requires more water. My beds had some garden soil to begin with, but the majority was from my compost. We have not bought soil for them in years. I also do not fertilize very much and our yield this year is insane. I only fertilized one time with Neptune's Harvest Veg and Tomato fertilizer. We have a lot growing really close together and no fungus, disease or blossom end rot. We packed in alyssum, marigolds, basil, let the dill and cilantro go to flower and planted some salvia and bee's balm nearby. We are NEVER going back to not using raised beds. The soil is sandy-loam mixed with clay, heavier on the clay. My bed soil is awesome as I use a screening method of my completed compost and that screened material is what I use to top dress the beds. I know. Lots of words! Appreciate your videos!