Raised garden beds are a great way to grow your produce in small Perth urban gardens. when it comes to producing your own vegetables it is so important that you have the essentials herbs and Vegetables in everyday cooking use. Nothing more refreshing when you cook a special meal for the day and walk straight to your kitchen garden and pick out garden-fresh beautifully coriander, parsley, spring onion just to name a few.
Having said that it is a bit of a task. As we all know Perth Western Australian soil can be sandy and very pours and lacking of microbes and nutrients.
Raised garden beds are a great way to achieve great results. it is a simplest way to build your own soil which is full of rich clay organic meters well drainage and hold moisture for a long period of time.
Let’s begin with raised garden beds planning
It is important to choose the right location for your garden bed. There are a few criteria you must meet to succeed. let’s begin with desire location for your raised garden beds.
1, Location
it is most important that you have to choose a spot which you love, You want to go to the garden beds every day to work on it. if you place it in the wrong location you would not be going to use it and you will not succeed.
2, Sunlight
As we all know nothing much grow in a shade so it is important to pick a spot where you get good sun more like 70 % of the day. Of course when you are in Perth North, west is a good location as you will get a sunny location most of the day.
Building your Raised garden beds in Perth
When it comes to the construction of the raised garden beds it is important to build them right. Raised garden beds can be made with a few different materials like bricks, timber, Colourbond steel, etc
The most cost-effective materials are brick as you might have some leftover from building the new house. Well most easy to build is colour bond.
Dimensions of the raised garden beds
This is one more big advantage of raised garden beds they are high up from the ground so you don’t have to bend over and easy on your back. Also called stand up gardening. In most cases just measure your waist height and make sure you chose the height a little higher than your west. after all you are working on your lovely garden bed.
Usual garden beds dimensions are 3 meter X 1.2 meters wide. The main point is you need to able to reach every spot of the garden beds from all sides without stepping in. if you are putting it next to a fence just make a 1 meter wide so you can easily reach. remember once you build it going to stay there for a long time.
You also don’t need to make the raised garden beds too long. so you do not have to walk 20 meters just to get to another side of the raised bed.simple logic applies hear.
You also need to think about access I can not stress this enough this if most important we need to make sure you leave 65 mm to 70 mm wide so you can run your big wheelbarrow right in the middle.
Reticulation
At this point it is important to figure out how you are going to water the plants. it is always a great idea to automate this part as you will never forget to water your plants.
Drip irrigation is the best system we have found as compared to the sprinkler system. There is a simple reason to save water and make the most out of water usage.
Filling the garden beds with the right soil
The most common mistake people do put in the same soil around their house in the garden bed. As we all know Perth western Australia has sandy soil which is lack of nutrients and microbes click here to learn how to turn sand into the soil
We recommend using Hugelkultur methods to fill up the raised garden beds. Originated from germen “hill gardening”
This process call hill mounding this is putting the organic meter like branches old leaves small sticks bottom of the garden bed base then add on top with the organic matter.
How it works all that organic matter in the base absorb moisture and breakdown over time and create nutrients and food for microbes. In this part, we can modify you can use the veggie mix or mushroom compost on top to fill up the rest of the garden bed . last but not least add good old blood and bone to the mix to give it a bit of the boost to new plants.
ProTip is to keep the soil level high so once organic matter break down you will drop in soil level.
Mulch
Appling the right mulch is critical for your garden beds You can use a few different types of mulch Like lupin or hay which will help keep the moisture and also will breakdown and provide vital nutrients and food to plants. In Perth, the most used mulch is kurry and peat mulch. the whole reason it creates natural habitats for vegetation. It is the most popular local mulch in Western Australia.
Once applied the mulch it is a good idea to wet the soil and mulch and soil just to take the edge off so when we plant the seedling the root system won’t burn.
Planting
In general speaking, you can start growing your plants from seedlings or transplants your preferred choice.
The simple methods are called square-foot planting. The idea is you use every square foot and plant different types of plants you desire.
You only grow what is the most used items you use. It is also a great idea to put a different variety of plants just in case you have pest moved in they will not eat all of your plants like different types of pest eat different type of plants. Doing this is a smart way to not lose your whole crop.
Use hoops
It is important to use hoops and net to protect from household pets and birds It also provides the different type of wetter protection as high wind and overly strong sun.
I hope this guide help you to create beautiful most desired raised garden bed that you are planing to do up. if you like more help with you soil selection please visit our easy online shop or call us we are always hear to help.
As Always stay awesome
Gary singing out !!!
