Raised Bed Gardening: Top 5 Benefits for a Better Garden

1. Better Soil Quality

Perhaps the biggest input that we can control as gardeners is the quality of our soil.

With in-ground gardening, you are limited to the soil that is already in the ground. And it’s pretty likely that this soil does not have the ideal nutrient profile for a productive garden. With raised bed gardening, gardeners have the benefit of being able to start with good soil because you can control what goes in the beds.

Ideally, you can cultivate soil that has a healthy microbiome that can be replenished with nutrients each year. In addition to the nutrient profile of the soil, it is important that great soil has the right balance of water retention and drainage.

Finally, with a raised bed, you have greater control over the soil’s PH. This allows you to customize certain beds to the needs of a particular plant.

In short, better soil quality is a massive benefit of raised beds because it directly impacts the harvest.

2. Weed and Pest Control

Raised beds have fewer weeds and reduced pest pressure.

I remember pulling weeds in my family’s small garden as a kid—it was the bane of my existence. Luckily, I almost never have to weed my garden beds. Maybe once every couple years.

A major reason I rarely need to weed is because of the protective layer of mulch covering my soil. However, the tall sides of the raised beds naturally repel weed spores as well.

Similarly, insects often cause less problems in raised beds because they often struggle to travel up the sides of the containers. But what problems can insects otherwise cause? Leaf damage, stunted growth, root damage, fruit & vegetable destruction, disease transmissions, weakened stems… the list goes on! Needless to say, it’s important to keep insects at a minimum in the garden.

Garden health aside… less insects in the garden keeps Kyrié happy (and encourages her to come help out in the garden more)!

Less weeding and insect pressure is a massive advantage of raised beds that is at the top of my list! 

3. Easier on Back

I personally do not have the best back because of an issue with one of the vertebrae in my spine. That’s a huge reason why I opted to get tall steel beds.

I will admit it was a little bit tedious to fill such deep raised beds with dirt, but I have not regretted it since. So worth one day of hard work for years of better gardening!

It’s s so nice to go out and work in the garden without having to hunch over. I will hopefully have another 50 years of gardening, so less stress on my back makes me confident that gardening can be a life-long hobby of mine. 

4. Deep Watering

Apart from weeding, I think that watering is the most annoying gardening task. Don’t get me wrong, I love communing with nature and watering my garden. In fact, I enjoy watering enough that I haven’t put in a drip irrigation system on any of my water beds.

However, learning how to deep water has been crucial in making watering my garden more manageable. Deep watering in gardening refers to watering plants slowly and thoroughly so that moisture penetrates deep into the soil, encouraging strong root growth. Instead of frequent shallow watering, which only wets the surface, deep watering reaches the roots. This helps plants become more drought-resistant and healthier.

So how do I deep water? By letting the hose run for upwards of 10 minutes in a few different parts of the raised bed. Through deep watering, I am able to saturate the beds enough so that I only have to water about once a week.

Not only does deep watering make your life easier, but it is also great for plants. This is because it encourages root growth to reach the moist soil deep below. Raised beds help ensure that water doesn’t run off, but truly saturates the area below the plants. 

5. Extended Growing Season

Finally, raised beds can experience a longer growing season. This is because the dirt is elevated from the ground and insulated. Not only does the dirt in a raised bed warm up faster in the spring, but it also stays warmer later in the fall.

A longer season could be especially beneficial for those looking to plant spring crops and then switch them out with summer crops.