How to Make Your Raised Beds Last Longer

How can you make your raised beds last longer? That is the question we're tackling today, because, oh, my goodness, raised beds, they cost a pretty penny. If you are putting in a garden, then you've probably already started to do the math and realize that raised beds may be the biggest investment you make when it comes to putting your garden together. Now, we've talked before about the value of raised beds. You know, I love gardening with raised beds. Let's just recap those reasons, and then we'll get into the five steps to make those beds last longer, because you're spending lots and lots and lots of money on them. So I use raised beds one, because it makes gardening easy. And when it comes down to it, most of us need gardening to be easy in order for us to do the gardening. Nine times out of ten, if gardening isn't easy, if it isn't super comfortable and accessible, if it's not something you can get to right away and tackle in just a few minutes, then nine times out of 10, you're not going to fit it into your busy schedule. So a raised bed means that you don't have to put on your garden boots, you don't have to grab a hoe and a shovel. You literally walk out with maybe just your hands, maybe a pair of scissors, and immediately you're right into the garden and you're getting the things that you need for dinner that night. Raised beds are easy to work in. They are going to be at least 6 inches to 2ft tall. And so you're not doing as much bending and kneeling. You're literally just maybe even sitting on the side of a raised bed in order to take care of it. And when you're planting, you're not bent over hurting your back. They're just so much simpler to work in. They're so much more comfortable. That's number one reason. And I know, I know you might be thinking, what? Let's get to, like, practicality. Like, is it worth it to have a raised bed? Does it make the plants grow better? Yes. But I really think when it comes down to it, especially after all these years of trying to convince so many people to garden, the number one thing we need to think about when it comes to gardening is will you like doing it? If you like doing it, you'll do it more. And the more you do it, the better you'll get. And the more productive your beds will be, the more beautiful they'll be. But if you don't like the way it feels when you're out There in the garden, if it feels like labor, if it feels like work, then you're probably not going to do it. All right, so that's one of the reasons to use raised beds. Next, you get to start with great soil. We know that soil is the magic thing. It is the thing when it comes to the garden. So with a raised bed, you start right away with perfect soil where you can just get growing right away. I love a sandy loam soil, compost topsoil and coarse sand mixed with some earthworm castings. Put all those together and that is my favorite soil blend for a raised bed. So you're going to have great soil. Then you can double or triple your planting. So with in ground gardening, your plants are spreading out. They need tons of room to spread those roots out because they can't go deep. But with a raised bed, your roots go deep, which means your plants can be super close together. You're going to get two to three times the growth out of a raised bed space, more than you would if you're planting directly into the ground. Next, they drain quickly. So almost all vegetable plants, things we're growing to eat, they don't like to stay wet, they don't like wet roots. And so with an in ground garden, you're going to get mold, mildew, deterioration of the plant because those roots are just sitting in pretty wet clay soil in a raised bed, boom. They drain quickly. I've had clients live in very like heavily flooded areas. They'll send me a picture. The flood is all around their beds and their beds are dried out. That's how well these raised beds drain. So draining great soil, easy to care for and then they're just beautiful. So your vegetable garden is going to rise and fall all year long and each season it's going to look little and then it'll look big and it'll look little again. The raised beds give your landscape consistency. A lot of people aren't growing their own food because they think a vegetable garden is ugly. And yes, that is a four letter word when it comes to vegetable gardening, because the vegetables are so beautiful. And a raised bed will make your space beautiful all year long, even while the plants are small, medium and large. No matter what the plants are looking like, the raised beds will make your garden beautiful and you'll be proud of it even when plants aren't in there yet. All right, so have I convinced you to use a raised bed? Hopefully. So let's talk about once you get the raised bed. Now that you're convinced, how do you make this raised bed last longer because these things are an investment. So when I first started my business in 2015, we could put in raised beds for a few hundred dollars. Now those same raised beds are probably double, if not two and a half times the price. Ever since COVID cedar prices have skyrocketed, steel prices have skyrocketed, labor prices have skyrocketed. Everything is in. It's in like, you know, the Milky Way when it comes to pricing. And so we want to be sure that all the money you're putting into your raised beds is worth it. First things first, to make your raised beds last longer is start with the best materials you can afford. We all have a different budget when it comes to the garden. And so I just always tell everybody, go as nice as you can afford. So if for you that's a really inexpensive bed at Lowe's or Home Depot, that's fine. But get the nicest bed your money will buy. You go, this is the place in your garden to spend more money, not less. So I would prefer you start with all seeds rather than skimping on this raised bed. Right? So later you can move to plants, later you can move to a nicer trellis. But it's very hard to start again with your raised bed. So get the nicest raised bed you can afford. When you're looking at wooden boards, you want to get the thickest board you can afford. So instead of a 1 inch or a 5, 8 inch, you want a 2 inch board. If you can go to a really big 4x4 that you stack on top of one another, get the nicest wood you can afford, the thickest wood you can afford. And then you want to focus on getting woods that have a longer duration once they're off the tree. So you want to be looking for woods that stand up for a long time, woods that are already used in outdoor furniture, in outdoor projects, that's going to give you a clue like, oh, these woods are made to last. So my favorite is cedar. You can use redwood. I think juniper is a strong one. There's something called ironwood. Generally you want to look for a wood that is meant to last in the outdoors. Buy the nicest wood you can possibly afford. Next up, once you get those boards, you want to prep the boards before you put them together. So it's great to go ahead and treat them with an eco friendly treatment that basically seals in the moisture, seals in the fibers of that wood so that they won't deteriorate over time. So we at the gardenary shop, we have a whey product, an eco friendly stain that you put on your wood that kind of closes all those cells up so they're not constantly absorbing soil and water and moisture in the seasons to come. So seal your wood. I think there's also linseed oil. There's a few different options of ways that you can seal your wood. But seal your wood before you start to construct your garden. You want to get the edges, all of the corners, every piece and part of your wood. Go ahead and seal it before you construct the raised bed. That's number two. Once you have constructed the raised bed, I highly recommend putting trim on the wood. So I like to add trim on the corners and then on the top of the raised bed. I was clued into how this helps with longevity with a couple of cedar bed companies I worked with at the very beginning. And they would insure the trimmed beds longer than they would insure the untrimmed beds. So when you had these raw edges of wood that were exposed to the, the natural elements, then they would ensure those beds long for a shorter period of time than if we closed all of those open grain areas with trim. And I've seen that hold true for the beds that I've built and the beds that I've used. When there's open wood, those open edges on the wood, those, those cut edges when they're exposed to the elements, the wood does deteriorate faster than if you trim everything up, if you close everything up. So that is the next step. Trim out all of your raised beds so that you have less wood that's exposed to the elements, less of that raw edge of the wood exposed. The next thing that I love to do to make my raised beds last longer is putting them on gravel or at least getting the edges of the bed off of the soft earth. So way back when I started my business in 2015, I went and got advice from a guy who'd been in business for, I don't know, 10 years, showed him some pictures of some of my beds, and he saw that I had all my raised beds on grass, including my own. And he said, okay, from now on, don't do that anymore, and started to explain to me the value of getting the raised beds up and onto a harder surface. And I learned my lesson. You'll see a transition from my 2015 beds, really starting, I guess it was the spring of 2016. I put everything on gravel from then on. Now, if you want to use mulch around your garden space, if you don't want to do gravel, that's fine. But there is a great value in getting rocks, getting a solid material underneath your wooden raised beds right at this stage. And let me tell you why first. First, it's going to decrease the deterioration of the wood on the bottom of your bed. So all that surface area of your bed that's touching the ground, you really want it on an area that's going to be draining quickly, that's going to dry out, that's not going to hold moisture. So by putting it onto gravel, that gravel is going to get rained on and then boom, drop that rain right off. And so your beds are not going to be sitting on wet material for long, which will help them last longer. It's also going to help them in terms of the treatment around the bed. So not just the bottom, but the surrounding area. I found when our raised beds were placed on grass. You've got to come and deal with that grass, right? That grass has to be watered. That grass is going to be weed eated or cut or mowed. And all that treatment of the grass is going to affect the beds that it's touching. So you'll be weed eating right up against the raised bed. That's going to literally be nicking the beds. Every time you weed eat, every time you're mowing, you're going to be throwing wet grass up onto the beds, wet plants that are going to deteriorate the wood. And then finally you're going to have to water that grass to keep it alive. So you're going to have sprinklers going on the grass all the time and hitting the raised beds as well. Now, can it still work on grass? Of course it can. I'm sure you've seen tons of lovely raised beds on grass and it works. But I'm telling you, if you want your raised beds to last longer, you want to put them on a gravel pathway, a gravel bottom, so that they are draining very quickly, they're not getting hit by a weed eater constantly. And there's no sprinklers that are running in this area that are unnecessarily wetting this particular area where your raised beds are located. All right? The last thing to do to make your raised beds last longer is simply to keep your kitchen garden area clear of debris. So essentially what we've talked through with all these points is that, you know, raised beds made out of wood are a natural material that is degrading, right? We know that if you pile up some sticks, if you pile up some Wood, it's in the process of dying, it's in the process of decomposing. And that is true for the wood that you're using for your raised beds. That wood is on its way to becoming soil eventually, right? We'll try to keep it as long as we can, but all those natural materials, those natural carbons and fibers, they're turning in back into the earth the way that the earth works, right? And so we want to slow that process. And part of slowing that process is, of course, getting thicker wood. It'll degrade slower and then trimming it out. So having less of those raw edges exposed and then putting it on gravel so that it is in a clean space, that it drains quickly thicker. And then finally, we want to make sure that it is also in a clear area, a clean area. So if you've been in a garden area for a while, if you've been gardening for a bit, you know, we've got so many materials coming in and out of the garden space. We've got soil and we've got plants, and we've got fruit dropping and seeds dropping. We've got leaves everywhere. And so one of the main things that I found over the years is just keeping all the surrounding space, all the space around my raised beds clear of debris, making sure I clean it out maybe once a week is really helpful in terms of preserving that wood. We want to think about having as few materials, few natural materials up close and touching the wood as possible. And when you do that, this is going to help your raised beds last so much longer. All right, so there you have it. Raised beds are totally worth it. If you want a beautiful garden space that you want to hang out in that's enjoyable to tend. If you want a space that's more productive, where you can plant two to three times as many plants, if you want a space that keeps your plants healthier by draining quickly and keeping all that water off of your plant's roots. Raised beds are totally worth it because they stay beautiful year round. But we've got to protect our investment. The way you do it is buying the best wood possible, treating that wood before you start to construct your beds. Putting trim on all the edges of your raised bed, placing your raised beds on a nice, sturdy, dry material like gravel, and then finally, keeping your garden area nice and dry and clean and clear. If you follow these steps, your raised beds should last you somewhere between five to 10 years. I have clients that I set up gardens for way back in 2015, 2016. Their raised beds are still doing great. So we're eight years in right now. I followed all the steps and processes I've outlined for you today and yeah, their beds are still standing, still growing and doing great. Listen, if you want to know, once you get those raised beds set up how to plant your garden, how to know when to plant your garden, you got to check out the Gardenary calendar. You can find it@gardenary.com calendar I've got all the dates for you that you need to know. All you got to do is give me two dates about your town or city and I'll give you all the rest of the details. You can find the link for that right below this video. I'm also going to put some links below this video about our raised beds. We do carry some incredibly beautiful cedar raised beds in the Gardenary shop. Plus we have a wood preservative that I love using and I think you'll love using it too. If you want to see some more videos all about raised beds, you can check out one of our recent kitchen garden installations right here. See how we took all all the practices I'm teaching you in this video and we made it a reality in this beautiful kitchen garden installation. So you check that out. See how to put all this into practice. And let me tell you, your raised beds are going to last longer. If you got questions about raised beds or anything about gardening, put it in the comments and I'll make a video for it next. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. 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