Raised Bed Gardening

While my husband and I were building our new flower garden, my in-laws (Jack and Kay Conlon) were in town from South Dakota. They have just purchased a house out here in sunny Arizona at a wonderful place in Sun City called Corte Bella. They were constantly back and forth from our house to theirs, cleaning, finding furniture, working with the landscapers etc. Before they even realized it we had finished up our garden structure and was nearly ready to plant.

They went back home to SD and they had found an article in USA Weekend about raised bed gardening. "Four great reasons to give a raised-bed gardening a try" By Fran Sorin. My in-laws clipped out the article and sent it to us and said, "Looks like you two have the right idea".

Here were the 4 great reasons to give a raised-bed gardening a try:

1. The soil isn’t walked on or compacted, so it stays loose, allowing air and water to circulate through it easily. Having compacted soil can reduce a crop's yield by 50%. (WOW) Reason is that the water, air and roots have difficulty moving throughout the soil when compressed. (Makes sense to me.)
2. Raised beds can extend the gardening season because the higher soil heats up more quickly in the spring allowing you to plant earlier in the season.
3. Drip systems and other watering systems are easy to use and install.
4. And pest control is much more manageable.

Check out the full article on raised-bed gardening at http://www.FranSorin.com .

Until the next Log!