In this video I will share ten common raised bed garden mistakes. Gardening in raised beds is easier because you have control over more variable and can grow more in less space, unless you make these mistakes. So watch this video and avoid all 10 of these raised bed gardening mistakes.
MENTIONED PRODUCTS
Grassroots Fabric Pots & Raised Beds
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MENTIONED/RELATED VIDEO
Building raised beds (like at old house): https://youtu.be/8Z48Ni8wgm0
Build Simple Raised Beds (like in this video): https://youtu.be/EiR20Dqad6U
Winterizing Raised Beds: https://youtu.be/-t7rLflVCeQ
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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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38 Comments
I’m so impressed with the amount of work and care you have put into your garden area as well as your entire property! Thanks for sharing this with us. It gives me hope that I can make something out of the space we have been given! Great job and fabulous channel!!🙏🤗
Other options with raised beds is to get away from the flatlander attitude of flat land square footage for growing vegs/herbs in your beds. The ancestors used barrows (hillocks) and ditches. They would plant on the raised barrows – easier harvesting (kneeling and bending over back pains) and more surface landscape in which to plant vegs, versus flatland square footage. So if you do raised beds mound up the soil !!! Grow more in the small space that you have. As the barrow (with compost, manure, wood chips) decays it will lower down – keep piling on the compost and wood chips (and lawn grass clippings !!!) for further soil creation ! One doesn't need some far off compost pile and then transport it to the garden beds for use – when proper composting and creating black gold soil happens right in the garden bed itself ! Its not Hugelkultur – but common sense. Use what you have to compost and create new garden soil – right in the area in which you are growing your food. Straw, hay, corn stalk silage, wood chips, leaves, lawn grass cuttings, use on the garden barrows up to 1-2 feet higher than the bed and you will be amazed at how much more vegs you will be growing instead of flatland square footage (up to 2-3x more !). If you DO do hugel kultur with small sticks and any internal barrow of mounded wood chips underneath, then putting any over-soil and -compost over the wooden pieces will help them dissolve and start creating deep black gold soil under the barrow as well. Hugelkultur in raised beds is an excellent way to dig out the ditch in the raised bed, insert all of the wood sticks, silage, hay, straw, etc into the ditch, then pile up the barrow over the top – and allow the decomposition process to naturally happen. All those stick waste and debris can now be totally used – and total recycling of all material for proper soil propagation.
I have built my raised bed on top of landscaping cloth because I have a problem with voles and grub worms. I do not use any soil. I use compost, peat moss, worm castings and fertilizer. Should I add worms? Also, since not using soil, should I add Azomite (rock dust)?
We have the Vego metal raised beds. We tried filling the 32in with all the soils, but when we put in the U shape 17inch high. We went to Arizona's worm compost for raised beds. What a difference. We even went back and took the worm class and brought home our own worms..
Great tips.
With respect, I completely disagree with you when you said “you never want to use garden soil to fill your beds with.” You even went on to say that even loamy soil (which is a perfect texture soil) was worse soil than a raised bed mix or potting soil.
I just want to point out the advantage of the micronutrients and bio life in natural garden soil that is not present in a store-bought raised bed mix or potting soil. You can eventually build up the nutrients and bio life in your store bought soil but it takes a while. And you have to consistently be adding more and more nutrients to the soil.
In my experience it is better to utilize what nature has already given you by using the natural soil and amending it to the desired consistency and drainage. It is what I consider to be the more “natural garden.” And you don’t have to fertilize nearly as much (easier to maintain).
Just my two cents.
Would bagged or bundled straw at a farm store be considered safe, or is there a risk to all straw?
I’d also like to point out that many channels forget to mention that if people choose to layer the bottom of their raised beds with “organic material that will break down over time” it also takes Nitrogen from the soil (and subsequently away from your plants) in order to do that.
I am looking forward in a couple of weeks to be able to plant the tomatoes and peppers you helped me grow in my basement over the last several months, but I just returned to the store some pine shavings for small animals like hamsters, because I thought it might be too acidic for my garden to use as a mulch. I did find a bale of shredded wheat straw for homesteaders instead and it is great to use. Then just now you say you are using something pine in your garden for mulch – what about the acid? Thanks for all the great content!!
This was so very informative. So many things I must do. Not sure how to set up a leaching water system but have sprinklers that haven’t hurt me in the past. Have a bunch of wood ships that I will distribute to my garden.
Great as usual.
I got the perfect yard, I think, that ends at a lake. It came with 2 lemon trees, and i just started my first raised bed. 5 x 20. Ive been following you as well as a few others and im trying to transform my back yard, maybe a 1/4 of an acre, to one big garden. Id like vegetables and fruit, but Im definitely making some mistakes and have alot of growing pains. I realize, due to space, that turning an old 4ft high raised playhouse to a green house to help start my seeds. I just tried about 20 different fruits and veggies and planted what sprouted so we'll see what happens. Think I need some help! LoL
Great video. Thanks for the reminder to amend the soil in spring. I was thinking of doing it right before planting in the summer but I'll get it done soon now.
Your garden beds look great. I remember the nightmare you had last year. You always give such helpful information. Thank you.❤
Thanks for another great video, Brian. Sadly, I’ve made most of these mistakes. But now, due to your videos, I’m on a better path! I agree with another person’s comments about horse stall shavings. They tend to blow away, at least the large flakes. I might try the small flakes or the pelleted bedding this year. I wish us all luck!
What are we not supposed to ask about soil erosion? Haha I smell controversy!
You can also use rotational molded polyethylene timbers commonly found as edging with commercial playground equipment. I was able to get my hands on thirty 4'X4'X12" which made five 4'X8'X12" beds. They will never rot, are food safe and look great.
I put my garden in what used to be my front yard. I also cut down all my trees in my front yard facing south 😂. It’s awesome. Full Sun all day
Brian..Is there nitrogen in mushroom compost?
Thank you for another great video! You've done a beautiful job in your landscaping/ garden. Can't wait for a midsummer garden tour!😊 Something you might consider trying if you've had grazon damage is to try planting sunflowers in that spot. I got in a conversation in the comment section of another channel I use with someone who said sunflowers will pull heavy metals from the soil. Could be a possibility sunflowers would pull that out too. There's plot of ground I'm going to try this. Anything to clean the soil.
Great video Brian, i used 100 liter (26 gal) food-safe plastic barrels (cut in half) and old baths.
Thanks, always learn something from your vids
We made our new garden out of cinder blocks, double stacked. It took a lot more dirt, of course, but it has really paid off since I am somewhat disabled. The blocks are laid with the holes up, and are perfect for growing something small like radishes or lettuces.
Yeah, I was #1,000 thumbs up
Such valuable information- THANK YOU!
We built 4'high raised beds for our small backyard. The sun exposure is constantly changing between the seasons and our neighbors trees, etc….my poor boyfriend has to move the beds 4 times per year chasing the sun
My buddy is a farmer in Wisconsin. I can get Truckloads of compost for a 30 pack of Schmidt's Beer! Hugiculture + cheap soil=WIN! My beds are full of worms.
My raised container garden, is buckets, and totes, that are on beams laid across milk crates. That way, the top of my soil level is about 24-30 inches above the driveway! That makes it MUCH easier for me to reach without having to bend down so much. I've even been considering lifting them up a little bit higher, but I'm concerned about wind!
We used cedar fence pickets to make ours. Much less expensive
Excellent video!!!!!!!!!!!
Thought your fabric beds have a waterproof lining in them… if so, how does the air get to the roots to make them redirect?
Thank you for another informative video!
I like kellogs but find it tends to have more junk in it compared to some other pricier/local brands. It does break down into really nice soil though.
You mentioned 2x12s. Worth noting, they're so much heavier than narrower boards. I'm putting up new beds this year, and so far I've hauled in and stained about 9500 lbs of pressure treated 2x12x10s and 4x4x8s. I intend to line them with plastic, so the treatment chemicals leaching isn't as much of a concern. I want to do it this time and have it last a couple decades. At least it's lighter than the last style beds I made the last 2 years: concrete blocks. That would have been 58,000 lbs of blocks. I'm at the point now where I just have to start screwing them together and then add 40 yards of compost.
I just built some raised beds. My question is, I know I have worms in my yard, but now I have 12" more of soil on top. Will the worm make it up to the raised beds, or should I add worms to the raised beds?
i know you try no dig but if you till your soil on the proper moon the dirt will increase in volumn
I use compost as my mulch…..love it
Is there a danger of grazon in mushroom compost? I believe mushroom compost is horse manure (hopefully without grazon) that the mushrooms grown in and eventually discarded by the mushroom farm,. To protect my 4 x 8 beds in winter I cover them with cheap plastic tarps which I reuse year to year.
I do container gardening but these are also great tips for my type of gardening – thanks!