Raised garden vs. Ground Garden - time involved

azbookworm

13 years ago

My better half and I are discussing pros / cons of raised garden vs ground gardens.

When you have a ground garden, all you would have to do is Till the garden and you can start over.

When you have a raised garden, there is more human labor involved in turning the soil via rake, hoe, shovel, etc.

For those who have both, just how much human effort is used when switching from one planing to another?

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

xica_da_silva
13 years ago
I dunno.I did a ground garden and it was really not as easy as one might imagine, for reasons probably more particular to Phoenix and my own yard situation. First, I had to remove/rake an area of decorative rocks to make space for it in my backyard. Hopefully you don't have to bother with that,though.

I think the worst thing is, if you've got a bunch of caliche to remove, it can be labor intensive. However, once you remove it, it is a done deal. If you have any caliche, btw, I highly recommend watering it first, otherwise it's even harder to chop through.
The other thing is, the soil can be awfully thick and muddy, and is alkaline/salty, so depending on what you're trying to grow, you may need to amend it anyhow.

PS. Be very aware of drainage. The land beneath my garden area is just a little sloped, which actually works well for drainage. Even though we don't get that much rain, I believe you want to have an area for your garden that will get rain, but not be flooded. Also, be aware of the amount of sun, any barriers, shade, etc. All of these things will play a factor in how/what you can grow. Good luck!

PS. One more thing...weeds. I've been lucky so far, but I'm sure once the spring hits this will be a challenge!
MaryMcP Zone 8b - Phx AZ
13 years ago
bookworm, I think the main question is: what kind of soil is in your ground? That will drive the question of should you dig and improve that soil or just build on top of it?

I have two raised beds and several sections of 'in-ground' gardens. We just put the raised beds together last fall and decided on raised over digging down again because I knew we could get Singh Farms compost to fill the beds and thought that would be easier than digging that dang rocky hardpan. Another advantage: I can [fairly easily] move the raised beds if I want to. Which I did shortly after putting them in. Hubby finallly built the deck for the hot tub and the beds were too close.....so I shoveled the dirt in both beds over a few feet, picked up the frame and Shazam! new location.

Bottom line: if you have a lot of rocks and caliche where you want to locate the garden, get a few planks of Doug fir or pine, screw in some L-brackets, trek over to 101 and Thomas for good compost and you're good to go.

Hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress.
Related Discussions
First time gardener- whole container garden seems to be dying! :(
Q
Comments (17)
tdscpa, Thanks, I will call the master gardener's here Monday & see if they can give me tips on gardening here. burnet, Thanks for making your case against insecticides, I haven't really decided where I stand personally on the matter. As far as watering, I do water daily, I would say at least 3-4 inches deep? It's kinda hard for me to explain to you how much water, lol. But the reason the eggplant looks dry in that picture is because I dug it up & when I saw the balls I didn't have my phone handy, so I left it and went ahead and watered all of my good plants. (so the pic was also before watering, plus it sat in the sun until I got back to it with my phone.) And I know, I know. I should water early in the morning, but they really needed water that day & I didn't feel the need to wait. But when I dug it up, there was still some moisture in the soil from the previous watering the day before. Over watering, possibly? I really doubt it's under watering. The containers have no bottoms, just weed paper stapled to the frame, which is 6 inches deep as far as the wood (pine, untreated) goes, and it is dug down in the soil approximately another 5 inches, then filled with the soil mixture. I really wouldn't know if water drains out the bottom? The soil is always warm, and the weather here is always about 80 degrees. It never gets higher than 85. mauirose, Thank you! I'm growing on Oahu, I live close to Pearl Harbor, but I'm unsure what the elevation is. I took more pics for you guys to get the general idea of what my garden environment is. Although the biggest bed which has been having the most issues is against a chainlink fence, we live in a neighborhood packed full of houses, so they really don't get more than a good breeze. Actually I had no idea that spraying insecticide during the day would burn the leaves! That could actually be what has happened! I do live pretty close to a community garden. belgianpup, Pine. And the weather is kinda humid on Oahu. Thanks.
...See More
'Fess Up Time. House vs. garden tidiness.
Q
Comments (62)
Maybe now that it is Fall, we can get back to this again. I am glad I am not the only one! I have major medical issues (that involve flare-up & times that are fairly OK), but I was messy before that. The thing about the garden is that when I am feeling pretty good, I just do the garden. That way, it can grow on its own while I am down. One year, I tried to do both, and when "down" came along, the house got messier anyway, and there wasn't much food because I split my time trying to do both. I have kids that do what I ask pretty much (great kids!), but I have to do more fussing with my son to get there. However, he is mildly autistic--Asperger's--so just the transition of going from what he is doing to doing something else is where the struggle lies. Once his mind is on track, he gets the job done. I threatened to buy a roto-tiller, so my husband said he would dig. It took a bit to get him to dig before, but I guess he doesn't want to deal with a machine not used that often. I have always hand-dug--myself, my whole life--but with the med issues, I am not always able. As far as the house goes, I am merssy, not dirty (usually). I am a bit of a pack-rat, but it is good stuff. In the winter, sitting idle is NOT something I can do. I knit hats for babies in the hospital, pack seeds for the needy, all kinds of things to keep hands busy--even while the TV is going. So, I have bins/totes full of yarn (from hitting the sales when they are there), an entire wall shelf that goes withing a foot of the ceiling full of various beads, lots of gardening books...and here is what makes it all look so bad: we have an 850sq ft 2-bedroom house, and there are 4 of us. My husband is a carpenter, so half the one-car garage is full of extra building materials. Really, who could pass up several sheet of plywood? They were used to block stairways so that prople wouldn't use them during construction, and then unnecessary after (headed for the dumpster). We gat a bay window free and sliding glass doors. You get the picture. I do not Spring clean. I Fall clean. I makes more sense for me. I host Thanksgiving for my family, and I do a big thing on Christmas Eve. So, I Fall clean & have the holidays. During the winter, in a clean house, I do my charitable activities, read about gardening, peruse the gardening catalogs, and get ready. Then I bring out the dirt for staring seeds. The windows fill up with plants over the next few months. That can get messy. When it is time to harden off. Plants go in and out. That gets messy. Of course, I clean meanwhile. Then the muddy shoes, then the soil amendments (aka manure), then the filthy clothes. Then losing 5 pounds in the tub at night--hey, if you don't you haven't gardened! When the weather warms, I have kids in and out, as well as myself, and I cannot imagine hollering every time a dirty shoe comes inside. So my Fall clean starts the "cleanliness", and it goes downhill form there. Maybe this is TMI, but it is so great to find others who will focus more on the garden than the house. As long as my health hold up, I garden constantly. I had Lyme Disease in '06 & '08. It is rampant here (doctor's words). I am ready to go to Maine or something. They have a bit of Lyme up there. Well, it may be good for the house too. It would be a longer winter (clean house time) and a shorter summer (poop & dirt time). I do keep the meals, dishes, laundry, bathroom caught up. After that, DIY, or it will stay there. Poop on that too! Mom's need to have fun! The food is plentiful, nutricious, and delicious! Robin
...See More
Barriers to community garden involvement
Q
Comments (13)
I cannot speak with experience on this thread of community gardens, but I can speak with experience about being an enthusiastic gardener in spring who has often lost interest -- in my case, always 'got too busy working' -- to stay with it. I'm not real proud of that! -- but I'll be honest and maybe something in there will relate. The main thing for me and in fact, for nearly all the people I've talked with about this over the last few years, is that none of us were 'real' gardeners, if we were we'd have our own gardens already after all, or we'd be the very few supporting the comgardens (I've never been in one of those but a few friends have... briefly). We WANTED to garden -- but we were really not in shape to be gardening. The getting on hands and knees stuff was the equivalent of a new gym membership: a lot of fun, feels good a time or two, and then it's (a) too far outside one's normal lifestyle, (b) a pain in the ____ just due to the exertion and sweat one isn't used to (such things were cool when I was athletic, and were miserable when I gained weight, or for friends when they got older), and so like most gym memberships, it last about 1-3 months depending on the person and then interest faded away. Threats alone may or may not work; after all, gyms require year long contracts (for good reason!), people pay monthly, and the vast majority of members (sez my sis who ran a Holiday Spa for some time) still don't go. I found when I began container gardening -- with a nice chair nearby to sit down in -- I enjoyed the hell out of it. Yes I know for fitness reasons this is pretty slothful but this is reality for more than 50% of our US population so say the stats. When I could sit when weary, when the bending over for a period of time wasn't such an issue (I often just brought the container to my feet at the chair), I finally got to focus on the GARDEN instead of on the 1001 annoying physical issues. I loved it! I've realized that my problem wasn't gardening, my problem was exercising too severely for my general level of fitness. The gardening became less a wonderful experience of nature and more a miserably aching, difficult, sweaty in summer exertion. (Whether it's good for me isn't the point. Sudden over-exertion to the normally mostly sedentary is more likely to harm them than improve their health.) In places where summer is miserably hot this is certainly not helpful to inspiration. ;-) And for people who don't eat most of what they grow, that big inspiration gets lost too. I think at the least, benches (pref w/shade) would be cool. Maybe reselling (?) some small cinder blocks so people could build deeper lasagna beds or standing gardens on their plot would be cool. Maybe having an offer for a small club donation for a few 'core members' of your garden to say, water for someone who can't make it in, require a deposit to the club first then deduct from that, could either give some garden...
...See More
raised garden beds-orcaboard vs. frame it all
Q
Comments (3)
I've been veggie gardening (organically) in raised beds for 22 years, and all my beds are constructed of 2"x8"x8' unfinished hemlock boards purchased at & cut to size by our local sawmill/lumber yard. The wood lasts on average 9-10 years. My two original beds (4'w x16'l x16" high) have been replaced twice, and the first bed is being replaced again this year, with #2 bed scheduled for next spring, and #3 bed for the year thereafter. These are the "heart" of the garden but I have 2 beds 30" x 5' x16"plus another 150' x 2' x 8" wrapped around both sides of the fence! Each year, I seem to need just a little more space... The first couple of years I used Mel Bartholomew's square foot method, but being in the mountains, we live with a very short frost-free season (Memorial Day to Labor Day) which makes succession planting almost impossible. I'ts just better to count on only one planting per square foot. Over the years, I've learned to be very strict about my rotations, to minimize disease. Also, spacing a little more generously than Mr. Bartholomew's suggestions to minimize fungi problems.
...See More
mangledmind
13 years ago
Both and I agree, the raised beds are more labor
mullenium
13 years ago
i used that half log style edging for my raised garden.. does the job and looks pretty neat
luvkuku
13 years ago
I am forced to have raised beds to keep the ground squirrels out as I live in a remote area. I garden in an old leaky horse tank made of galvanized steel. The sides are high enough that the ground squirrels cant jump or climb up. DH has promised to build me a greenhouse of old stuff left here by the former owner, but who knows how long it will be before that is operational. A retired man just doesnt seem to have as much time as a working man did. Go figure.

Here is a link that might be useful: Conversations with whomever
gtgaz
13 years ago
We have a decent sized raised bed and have been happy with it. I'd suggest spending the extra money and time and you should be glad yo did in the long run. Soil management and harvesting is much easier if you use the 4 foot wide rule. Look up square foot gardening and get Dave the Garden Guy's books and you'll see why.
lazy_gardens
13 years ago
I have both raised beds and in-ground. After the initial labor of building and filling the raised bed, it's no more and no less work than the in-ground beds.

I don't till any of them, I just dig new holes for seedlings, or make grooves for seeds.
campv 8b AZ
13 years ago
Being from So. Cal we had great soil for gardens but not here. A gofer wouldn't even like this soil. Rock, clay, caliche you name it is there. We tried the first year and it was a disaster. We went with two raised beds. 3' high 4' wide and 8' (no bottom)long made from pressure treated lumber,(they say you can use it now)long deck screws on the ends and just to make sure it does'nt bow at the sides, used rebarb as stakes on the outside. The whole thing is great, no weeds, easy to water, seeds start easy it was worth it and I would do it again.
Total cost for the 2 about $30.00 thats with a small truck load of dirt and steer manurer.

Raised garden vs. Ground Garden - time involved

Comments (8)

xica_da_silva

MaryMcP Zone 8b - Phx AZ

Related Discussions

mangledmind

mullenium

luvkuku

gtgaz

lazy_gardens

campv 8b AZ

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US