You could be forgiven for thinking that it is a little early to be thinking about your Spring planting plans in your garden. However, although it is still a little chilly out, now is a great time to be preparing your garden and thinking about how you want to display your plants.
Raised beds for example, are a great addition to any garden and can be used to grow your own fruits and vegetables and also as planting borders for your flowers and shrubs. You can find a variety of pre-built beds on the market but these will be of a standard size and shape. It may be best to think about creating your own instead. This way you can create them to the size and dimensions that you wish and can build them as high or low as you want. There are a number of different woods that you can use for this including sleepers that you can find from Timber Merchants Southampton way such as Timbco
Here are some of the ways that raised beds can benefit your garden:
- Improved access – having raised beds in your garden not only means that you can reach the planting areas with more ease, but you can build them up to a level that is comfortable for you to work at. This means that those with mobility problems, or those who find gardening affects their backs, can still enjoy the physical and psychological benefits that gardening brings.
- Improved drainage – if your soil is particularly claggy and of a clay quality you may find that your spoil often becomes waterlogged. By raising your bed above ground level and topping up with top soil you can alter the way in which it drains to improve your soil and growing quality.
- Improved soil temperature – if you are looking to increase your soil temperature, a raised bed is a great option. As the soil in the bed is above ground level and the drainage is improved you find that the soil naturally begins to warm up.
- Adjustable soils – often in our gardens we have one soil type – acid or alkaline. This of course affects the types of plants that we can grow. However, by introducing raised beds you can adjust the soil in order to house the plants that you want to grow. When you put the bed in place, a liner should be placed over the existing soil, the bed put in place and then fill it with the type of soil that you want to use.
