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Raised Vegetable Garden Set To Save The Human Race from Annihilation?

 

flickr.com/photos/adamraoof Could the humble raised vegetable garden save the planet? Too many people see gardening as merely a past time for retired folk, but in the last few days I have had my eyes opened to the raw power of raised gardens.

In this article I want to explain why I am starting to believe that growing your own vegetables at home in a raised bed garden could help solve poverty, famine, heart disease, cancer, and even global warming. This might sound like a tall order, but hear me out.

The raison detre for a raised vegetable garden is that it lends itself to locations that don’t have the right kind of conditions for growing pretty much anything let alone luscious fruits and vegetables. Coupled with the fact that they require less weeding, this ancient gardening technique has the potential to empower the individual to produce their own nutritious food supply.

Whether they know it or not, just about everybody on the planet is in great need of this level of freshness in their veggies. It is nothing less than a life saver because your vegetables are far more delicious than the tasteless ones in the supermarket, so you eat more of them.

Raised vegetable gardens are helping people in certain parts of Africa to get out of poverty and famine. The charity “Send a Cow” has been teaching people how they can grow vegetables in areas that were thought impossible. Rocky terrains and hard cracked soils are no problem for a raised bed, as all that is really needed is a good source of sunlight.

However, in developed countries it could be argued that there is just as greater need for such a life-saving intervention. Heart disease and cancer have become such a huge problem in developed countries, and scientists are placing most of the blame on our junk food diets. Although, it is not a popular belief, it is probably true that the developed world has just as large a malnutrition problem as any other part of the world. Yet, with the right mindset this problem could be greatly alleviated with a raised garden.

Perhaps the most important thing I want to explain about growing your own vegetables is how it could help avert catastrophic climate change.

For the average individual, a very significant portion of their carbon footprint comes from food miles. In other words, most food in the supermarket has been transported from several thousand miles away in order to reach the store. The pollution that this creates is monumental, but at the time of writing it is pretty much ignored by everyone.

My favourite thing about the raised vegetable garden is that you can have a free, and endless supply of amazingly delicious vegetables, without impacting the environment at all.

If you were to compare supermarket fruit and veg to the stuff you can grow in your own backyard, on taste alone you would never go back to your store again. Freshly picked ripe produce is at least 10 times more tasty. This factor should be enough to convince most people to invest the small effort required. However, when you factor in the other massive benefits then it’s really a no-brainer.

Don’t delay, it’s easier than ever to start your own raised bed garden. In this blog you will find the very best information collected from around the web to help you get started with your own raised vegetable bed.

photo: flickr.com/photos/adamraoof

Technorati Tags: raised vegetable garden

RSS Feed Published on July 18th, 2009 No Comments Posted by admin

What kind of soil should i use to fill my new raised garden planter?

i just got a raised planter….3×5 and 22in tall. I plan on growing herbs in it (maybe a vegetable, too). What kind of soil/mix of soil should i use to fill it.

a cheaper version seems to be 3 cubic foot bags of garden soil by Kellogg…any opinions?

should I mix in compost..how much?
should i add any sand?
worms?

anything else?

I am new to this and want to do it right.
Thanks for your help.

Compost and worms

From an organic gardener.

RSS Feed Published on March 5th, 2011 3 Comments Posted by admin

How high should a raised garden bed be?

My front yard is pretty much always water-logged and nothing(other than grass) grows well in it, so I was thinking of making a raised garden bed. Roughly how high should I make it and would I still need to remove the grass growing under it?

No need to remove the grass. Just cover the grass with used newspaper – several layers (so it dies rather than taking over the garden). Then cover the newspaper with approx. 12 inches of compost+soil, or just plain top-soil. Usually people use wood or concrete blocks to "frame" the raised bed. Just don’t use treated wood (treated with chemicals to suppress pests and fungi), or those chemicals will leach into your crops (assuming that you are growing food?).

RSS Feed Published on March 1st, 2011 3 Comments Posted by admin

raised vegetable garden planing site?

Last year, after I had already planted my garden I stumbled upon a site that had a built in program where you told it how big of a garden bed you had, chose the veggies you wanted, and it helped you build a garden with your space, automatically determining where to plant, and the number of each plant you should have.

I can not for the LIFE of me, find this program now, and I am trying to plan my 4×4 raised bed which is drastically smaller than last years garden!

Does anyone know of a site like this they can link? I’ve been googling for over an hour!

This site has pre-planned selections, plan your own design and a demo on how to use. Pretty cool!! Hope this helps.

http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html

RSS Feed Published on February 25th, 2011 5 Comments Posted by admin

This spring, how can I keep white flies from ravaging my vegetable garden?

I’m weary of watching the tomato plants surrender to sadness.

If it matters, I have a raised-bed garden with multiple beds.

Thank you for your green thumbs and white fly assassination techniques.
Forgot to add….things besides chemical pesticides, because I intend to eat the vegetables. Thank you.

Diatomaceous Earth (off white talc-like powder that is the fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton). Wear a dust mask when applying. Don’t forget to use earthworm castings in your soil, too.

100% biodegradable – safe around pets and children (bug killer you can eat)

RSS Feed Published on February 23rd, 2011 8 Comments Posted by admin

How do I deal with drainage on a raised bed?

I’m getting ready to make a raise planter bed for vegetables. My backyard is solid crabgrass, so I don’t want to have my new organic soil come in contact with my seriously crappy ground. I have found crabgrass roots thriving at over 3 feet deep. It has grown through brick and through stucco all the way up to my attic. I know for sure that if I don’t strongly seal the underside of my planter bed this parasitic weed will undo my first vegetable garden attempt (I have not attempted one before because of this problem and a raised bed seems to be the only solution). I refuse to use weedkiller in my yard because of my children and my dogs. My question is this;

How do I deal with the drainage or do I need to even worry about it?

My bed will be 24 inches tall, 4 feet wide, 10 feet long and made of wood planks. My current ideas to use thick black plastic underneath and wrapped up the sides. I have also thought of slanting a bottom floor made of plywood also covered with black plastic and a drain hole at the lowest point. Another idea I had was to put some crushed marble at the bottom ( like 5 inches thick) on top of the black plastic with three drain holes along each side but I’m sure the grass would just get in there in no time flat. How would you deal with the drainage problem?

Also if you have an idea for how to deal with the crabgrass that would be appreciated.
Thanks very much.
-Krane

I don’t know a lot about gardening, but could you have it raised up, like not touching the ground at all?
Liiike.. this?: http://www.instructables.com/id/Raised-Garden-Bed-on-legs/

RSS Feed Published on February 7th, 2011 5 Comments Posted by admin

Can I do square foot gardening without raised beds and special soil?


The whole concept of square foot gardens centers around the raised beds.
It is possible not to do it but not preferable.
The raised beds promote easier root establishment, better water drainage and make for easier upkeep.

RSS Feed Published on January 9th, 2011 3 Comments Posted by admin

Mushrooms in my vegetable garden.?

there are brown mushroom caps popping up in my raised vegetable garden. could they make my vegetables poisonous? are they themselves poisonous? etc.

Your other vegetables will be fine. I’d pop in a description of the mushrooms on google to see if they are edible

RSS Feed Published on December 8th, 2010 4 Comments Posted by admin

How many pounds of soil do I need for a 6′L x 4′W x 18”H raised garden bed?

I want to start a vegetable garden this spring.

Soil comes in cubic yards and you need 36 cubic feet and there are 27 cu ft per cu yard so you need 1.33 cu yards of soil on average a cubic foot weighs 30lb so 36×30=1080 lbs.The link below will help you out also ok.

RSS Feed Published on October 27th, 2010 2 Comments Posted by admin

I have been raising vegetable for 10 years in a raised bed that has treated wood sides. Am I safe to continue?

Is it safe to continue to use these bed and assume the harm that is going to be done has already been done. I hate to rip them (3 large beds) out.

No they should be fine as any potential compounds in the wood would be leached out by the rain by now.

RSS Feed Published on October 24th, 2010 5 Comments Posted by admin