 EnviroCitizen.org has found that there are many ways to make your garden more eco-friendly, reducing your carbon footprint. One great way is to utilize raised beds. Raised garden beds reduce your need for chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides by concentrating on the growing area and not on the soil surrounding it. It also addresses the issue of burrowing rodents since you can line your garden beds with poultry wire or cloth. Also, using raised beds reduces weeds as lining the bottom of the raised bed with plastic, mulch or cloth, effectively prevents weeds from being able to grow.
Raised garden beds also extend your growing season. Because of the insulative properties of raised beds, they keep the temperature more temperate, meaning that the temperature changes far less drastically than soil in the ground. For that reason, you can plant earlier in the Spring and your garden will continue to produce fruits and vegetables later in the Fall. Raised beds actually have more surface area for the sun to heat the soil. With a raised bed, there are five surfaces that can be heated by the sun: the four side panels and the top where the soil and plants are. By having more surface area, the soil heats more quickly. With soil in the ground, there is only one surface area to be heated.
Raised garden beds also yield more produce per square foot. In a traditional garden, the production per square foot is about .6. With raised beds, the production yield per square foot is about 1.24. This is partially due to the fact that with raised beds, your soil is improved. Compressed soil, commonly found in typical gardens, is difficult for plants because water, air and roots can't move as easily throughout the soil as they could in soil that isn't compacted. The soil in raised beds is fluffy and airy, enabling nutrients to penetrate throughout the soil. The roots of the plants can easily grow and expand, enabling your plants to thrive and grow quickly. Raised garden beds also improve the soil by maintaining an ideal pH range. In a raised garden bed, gravity reduces the percolation of water to a trickle rather than a dramatic runoff, which causes the pH of the soil to be in the range of 5.8 to 6.8—a range that vegetables thrive in.
There are clearly many reasons to use raised garden beds. Raised beds not only have benefits for you, but for the environment as well. Raised beds don't need to be doused with chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides so you are reducing your carbon footprint by using them. These chemicals take a lot of energy to create and transport, and they are dangerous when leeched into the environment.
EnviroCitizen.org believes that raised garden beds are a great way to make your garden eco-friendly. They can be fun, too!
|
