How to Prepare the Garden Bed

Select your site

You can start a fruit and vegetables garden any time because there is wide range of fruit and vegetables that are suitable for growing in all the seasons of a year. An important first step is selecting a suitable site for your garden bed. Choose a location that gets plenty of sun – as a general rule vegetables need at least eight hours of direct sunlight each day. Your vegetable garden should also be sheltered from strong winds and shouldn’t be placed too close to trees you may already have in the garden (the roots of trees will compete for water and nutrients with your vegetables).

The height, width and length of the bed are the most crucial parameters.

• Width: The bed can have a width of about 4 feet (120cm); however ensure that you can reach every part of the bed from each side.
• Height: The height of the raised organic garden bed should be at least 11 inches (29cm). If you want to prepare the bed for elders, you may increase the bed height to 23-32 inches (60cm-82cm).
• Length: Length of the bed should be adjusted according to your requirements and availability of space.

Growing medium

There are many soils available from your local landscape suppliers. We recommend you to use a 50/50 mix of organic soil and aged mushroom compost, this will go a long way to improving its structure. Adding regular amounts of compost and manure each growing season will ensure that your organic garden bed will receive all the water and nutrients it requires. When setting up the beds, the top 300mm+ needs to be of a good quality, the base can be set as void space fill base, this allows to store excessive water run down from the organic garden bed at the same time, water evaporates and nutrients directly to your plants’ roots, less leaf burn and healthier plants. This gives you extended time away from home with the peace of mind that your valuable plants will continue to thrive in your absence!

See our water wise raised garden bed page for details.

Fertilizing

It is a requirement that fertilizers are added regularly to the vegetables in raised garden beds. You should conduct a soil test and add any additional fertilizers that may be appropriate apart from the organic compost.

Mulching

It is important to mulch your organic garden bed. Mulch helps to stabilise soil temperature in the root zone, it suppress weed growth, it assists with water retention in the soil, and it help plants to survive in drought condition.

If installing an irrigation system, such as a drip system, do before mulching, Mulch to a depth of 75-100mm (3-4”) deep, Mulch can be applied at any time, but is best applied in spring or early summer. Does not pile mulch up against the stems can lead to trunk rot.

Watering

When you set up a new raised organic garden bed, it is important to water the bed every 1-2 days in the first few weeks, this encourages the plant roots grow quickly and deeply in organic soil.

Please check our water wise raised garden bed set up. Not only can you achieve void space fill, but also help the plant to survivor when it is in the drought.

Costa’s Wicking Garden Bed set up video