Raised Garden Beds and Growing Your Own Food
Posted By on November 5, 2009
It is fascinating how many young people are interested in growing some or all of their own food. As information is passed along about the processing of our food and the energy it takes to bring it to our local markets, they want to find alternative ways to help the environment and their health. One way to do this is grow your own food or eat locally grown foods as much as possible.
If you have a lot of land to put in a garden or a greenhouse, you know that growing your own food is possible. On the other hand, if you are limited on space or live in the inner city, you have to come up with a solution to the space problem before ever thinking about growing your own. One of those solutions is the used of a raised bed.
It is said that when “the times get tough the tough get going”. During the tough times of the depression there were many families that had gardens because there was no other choice. Today families do have a choice and they are choosing their health.
It is by using what we know about gardening that can bring on some pretty good ideas about incorporating raised bed kits into a year long growing plan that can be used whether you live in the city or out in the country. It will be less expensive in some ways but as with all gardening, it does take a commitment of time and resources.
Living inside an urban city is tough since you don’t have hardly any space outside to work with. However, one of the things you can do if your balcony or deck can support the weight is use a raised bed to grow your own food. You will want to use a light soil that you should be able to purchase at your local nursery or hardware store.
Make sure you can place the bed in the sun as well. The plants will need as much heat as possible from fall through the early spring to make it viable unless you are using some type of lamp and that’s a whole different subject. You can also use a cold frame or small greenhouse to cover the bed with on those cold nights that dip below 45 degrees.
There are some alternative ways to heat your space that includes hot rocks, using water heated by the day’s sunlight or just heating water at night setting that in the area. No matter what you use, make sure you have plenty of clearance between the heat source and the cover. Some people also use cold frames and small greenhouses for this purpose as well.
So not only is it possible to grow your own food year round, it is possible to do it in a small space. Yes, it takes effort, time and commitment but that comes with just about everything that is worthwhile in life. Figure out what works best for you and your situation and go for it. You will know it was worth it when you are eating fresh vegetables in January. Have fun!
You can’t go wrong with a raised bed planter or plastic raised beds to grow some or most of your own food.