12 Mistakes You MUST AVOID When Gardening in Raised Beds

what's going on growers it's James  Prigioni coming to you live from jersey   today i want to share with you 12 mistakes you  must avoid when growing in raised beds let's go the first mistake you must avoid when growing in  raised beds is one that i made this year and it's   actually what inspired me to make this video so  the mistake you must avoid is allowing the soil   to drain out the bottom of your bed like you can  see right here see this bed is off the ground so   when i water the soil can just get pushed right  down at the bottom of the bed and the reason this   happened is because when i built this long  bed i didn't realize that there was as much   of a slope as there is so on that left side all  the way at the end you can see that the bed is   basically fully buried but as you come over here  you can see the bed has risen up over the ground   so to avoid this i could have done one of two  things i could have either built two beds and   had them more of a tiered system or  i could have just taken more soil   and brought it up around the base of the  bed and then backfilled with some wood chips to bring it all the way up to about half the  height this way the soil wouldn't drain out   every time i watered the second mistake you must  avoid is leaving empty space in your raised bed   a well-managed bed always has something else to go  in when you pull something out so for instance i'm   going to harvest some cabbage right here and i've  got some lettuce that i'm going to plant right in   its spot what i like to do is after i harvest  something like this i like to always have some   stuff some transplants ready to go in so i don't  have to even wait for the seeds to germinate this   stuff can get growing immediately so we'll take  this cabbage remove some of these outer leaves   it's not the biggest head of cabbage but it'll  make some great fresh cabbage salads and i want to   harvest this one because i've got even more coming  so we're going to put this down snack on it later   and then we'll get it looks like tuck  wants to sniff at it and then we'll get   some lettuce planted right in its location so  i'm just going to pull out the root ball here   be gentle though to make sure i don't uh hurt any  of the roots around it so we'll harvest that pull   that out then i've got some lettuces started right  here so once i get these in they'll start growing   so i'm going to plant it right in this  location it's going to remove that leaf there   so we're going to take this then  i'll pull some of these lettuces out be super gentle pop it right out like that you  can see we've got the nice roots at the bottom   then i'm just going to add some mycos right  here to help form that mycorrhizal association   with the plants helps for transplanting  and building healthier roots   we're going to drop it in and just bring that  soil around it and you'll notice i've got three   lettuce seed little ceilings there and i'm just  gonna cut it back to one because i don't need   all those seedlings i'm gonna choose the one  i want i planted what was called the winter   lettuce mix here so i've got a few different  varieties i'm going to choose that purple one and then i'll just water it in so again a  well-managed bed always has something else to   replace what you pull out we harvest that cabbage  we got a lettuce in and in a few weeks we'll be   eating this lettuce the third mistake you must  avoid when growing in raised beds is overcrowding   at first you might think let me just pack a bed as  much as i possibly can so i can grow as much food   as possible the thing is that less can sometimes  be more so if there's too many things planted in   one location then they start fighting for some of  the light and competing and they can't actually   get as large as they should and fill the space as  well as they should so you'll notice right here   i've got some kale planted close to each other  and some beans over here and what i like to do   to help with my spacing and not overcrowding is  i like to use the square foot planting method as   a guide or a template to let me know how much to  plant in each square foot it's much easier when   you break a whole bed down into individual square  feet rather than trying to approach the whole bed   it can be a little overwhelming so you'll notice  right here i've got about nine bush beans planted   per one square foot in here and you can see that  this whole location all these square feet are   filled with beans but it's not too dense that i'm  not getting a good harvest so i'm getting a lot of   these beans here and i've already harvested some  rounds we've got new beans coming up right there   that are just forming and then i've got a bunch  of beans over on this side these are the dragon   tongue beads my favorite beans so when you can  use the space just right finding a balance between   planting enough but not too much you really get  a good result let's see if tuck wants a bean   want a bean roosty this guy loves eating his  fresh greens and he loves the dragon tongue beans   almost as much as me they're one of his favorite  bean and they are hands down my favorite bean so   if you guys have never grown the dragon tongue  bean i highly suggest you do and if you love see   seeing tuck snacking on the veggies and stuff  hit that like button because this guy loves   being a part of the channel and when you give  him the nice comments i always read it to him   and he just really appreciates it and i always  give him the pets and the good boys from all of   you the fourth mistake you must avoid when growing  in raised beds is draining too much nutrition from   your beds without adding any fertilizer back so  because i grow in the square foot garden method   and i try to grow as much fruit as possible in a  small location the soil can get a little depleted   especially when you're growing things like  cabbages and broccolis because those are heavy   feeders so to compensate for this what i like to  do is between seasons i like to do things like mix   in some fresh compost like this mushroom compost  into my soil to add back some of that nutrition or   i like to add some organic fertilizers like this  iv organics fertilizer so what i like to do for   this is just mix it with some of my soil or some  of my compost and then i'll just put it around   the base of my plants as a nice top dressing to  give them a good feeding something just like this   and this little addition of help by  mixing the compost in or just top dressing   will really help your cabbages your broccolis  your kales and any of your other heavy feeders   just excel and grow some great excellent food the  fifth mistake to avoid when growing in raised beds   is shading out your plants because of improper  bed orientation so where i live the sun   rises in the east it sets in the west and it sits  in the south especially in the fall in the spring   it gets lower in the south so what i want is my  tallest plants and my vertical growing plants all   the way on this north side here so when the sun  lowers it's not shading out any of my plants here   and then all the other taller plants they  just descend down to the shortest ones over   on the south side so on the south side  right here i've got these lettuce plant   lettuces planted this way when they get larger  they're not going to shade anything else   further in the north the sixth mistake you must  avoid is shortening your growing season by not   using season extension techniques such as planting  cold hardy veggies like claytonia or moshi or not   using things like floating row covers which will  help keep the frost off or not doing things like   building a hinged tube house like i have right  here that i'll put on as the season gets cooler   and cooler as the temperatures drop so with that  hinge tube house that allows me to grow food in   this section all winter long and i'm in zone 7a so  just because it's not the growing season doesn't   mean you can't grow food the seventh mistake to  avoid is allowing the cold to creep into your   beds when you're growing later in the season  so when i have this hinged tube house on what   i like to do is make sure that i've got a thick  of layer of wood chips around the base of my bed   just like this i'll push the wood chips up against  the side and what this will do will prevent that   cold from creeping in because the wood chips  will act as a form of insulation allowing the   bed to stay warmer later into the season  the eighth mistake you must avoid is using   unsafe building materials in your garden so when i  build a wooden raised bed like this i make sure to   use untreated lumber because i don't want the  chance of any chemicals leaching into my soil   i know that this bed will rock quicker because i'm  not using treated lumber but again i'd rather have   to rebuild it in the future rather than dealing  with any chance of chemicals getting to my food   and if you want to build a bed out of pallets  make sure that the pallets have ht on it for   heat treated you don't want to use any pallets  that have mb on it because that means methyl   bromide and you do not want that leaching into  any of your soil if you don't want to even use   wooden beds and you want something that will last  a long time but it's also safe to use you could go   with one of these steel birdies raised beds this  is all strap australian galvanized steel so it's   going to last a long time it's high quality the  ninth mistake to avoid is using poor soil in your   raised beds in the top 10 to 12 inches so if you  have a tall raised bed like this one where it's   about 15 inches tall you want to make sure you've  got some good soil in the top 10 or 12 inches but   below that you can use some leaves or some  unfinished compost just to fill that space but   you want to make sure those top 10 to 12 inches  that you have a good high quality soil so you   could either build the soil like i do building my  own soil or you can get a high quality potting mix   something like happy frog is a really good quality  one but this investment is going to make a huge   difference especially if you want to grow like the  square foot method like i do where you're growing   a lot of plants in a small amount of space it  will be worth it over time because you'll be   able to grow more veggies and better veggies in a  smaller area the 10th mistake you must avoid when   growing in raised beds is allowing moles in bowls  to dig underneath your bed and steal your veggies   the way to avoid this is when you're first  putting your bed in put some hardware cloth   down at the base of your bed and then nail  that to your bed after that just backfill the   sides with some wood chips this way when the  molds and the bowls or anything tries dealing   digging underneath your bed and stealing your  veggies they won't be able to get in the 11th   mistake to avoid is neglecting conveniency this  may sound simple but it makes a huge difference   if your bed is convenient and easy to work in  it will encourage you to come out here to check   on your plans to get more stuff growing or to  just spend more time out here which ends up   being better for your garden and your plants  in the long run so if you have a raised bed   and you want to build one out of wood like i  did here it's nice to add this little ledge   so you can sit on it reach in and just work on  everything rather than being on your knees and   bending over also if you have a bad back you can  build a bed that's a little higher up so you don't   have to bend over at all you can just kind of work  at head height so again this little simple tip   of making the bed convenient for you really will  make a huge difference when it comes to overall   health in the garden because you'll be out there  more the 12th mistake you must avoid is choosing   a bad location for your bed and the reason i put  this one last is because i know some of you don't   even have a choice of where you can put the bed  there's only one spot that it can fit if you have   a small amount of space but if you do have the  luxury of choosing a location try picking one that   gets about eight hours of sunlight that will be  ideal for most plants although a lot of plants can   do real well in five to six hours of sunlight but  if you are in a spot that gets basically all shade   then just try to grow some plants that are shade  loving and can thrive in the shade things like   lettuces or kales things that you grow mainly for  the leaves that's today's video growers thanks for   watching i hope you enjoyed it i hope you got  something out of it these mistakes to avoid i   hope they bring you some value save you some time  and some frustration in the future i just wanted   to thank all of you for the continued support that  you share and the love that you share for me but   also mainly for tuck because this guy deserves  all the kind words that you share with them he's   always out here with us he's definitely a part  of the channel i like to call him the leader of   the channel i kind of just follow behind what he  does and he's just a great guarded companion and   everything you say that's nice i always read  that to him and it perks his ears up and it just   encourages them and it encourages me too so i just  wanted to thank everyone for just the continued   support if you guys enjoyed the video hit the like  button hit the subscribe button share it with your   friends don't forget to check out the merch down  low and remember whenever you're on amazon start   your shopping with our amazon affiliate link also  any of the products that i used in this video i'll   put the links right down in the description tuck  and james will be back again real soon we out!

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 484,344

Keywords: raised bed, raised bed garden, how to raised bed, raised bed mistakes, gardening, organic gardening, raised bed gardening, gardening mistakes, james prigioni, self sufficient me, epic gardening, garden answer, David dobrik, Logan paul

Id: cG-ESm2x9VA

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 05 2020