Raised gardens beds are a practical way to bring fresh vegetables to your table & flowers to your yard, whether it be in an urban setting or out on the ranch. The hard rock base & scarcity of top soil in the Texas hill country make raised garden beds a necessity at PCC.

The many advantages of raised garden beds include, but certainly not limited to the following;

• Establish & maintain ideal soil conditions. Soil is managed through the introduction of compost, worms, companion planting, mulch etc
• Beds will warm earlier in the spring & easier to cover/warm in the cooler months
• Watering is designated to a specific area. In my case, I routed the hand wash overflow through the raised bed- grey water recycling.
• Minimizes soil compaction
• Increased productivity per square foot. In line with permaculture practices…”stacking & packing” is easily achieved when dealing with raised beds.
• Following the initial construction, raised beds are easier to maintain.
• Raised beds can be made from recycled timber or building materials (keep chemical leaching in mind when selecting materials), one of the founding fundamentals of sustainable practices- to Re purpose.
• Connecting with the earth. There’s something about (& it’s clearly documented through the research of David Wolfe & his team) having your hands/feet in contact with the soil- we’ll call it “Grounding with Gaia”
• And my favorite- Community. The whole family can be involved in any or all aspects of the project; from the initial construction, the planting & maintaining process, watering, trading veggies with neighbors to selling your produce at the local farmers markets…it’s all about community

                                                                            The raised garden beds at PCC were the re-purposed timbers from a friends demolished deck. Cutting the 2 x 8’s in half made for each end (2 high) while the full 8′ length made for the side, again 2 high. Once a base of heavy mulch was laid I weaved a 50′ soaker hose before more mulch & soil. The soaker hose was tied into the grey water (hand wash) system or a 50 gallon barrel so I could water when out of town for a week. Although limited in orientation, when planting consider the layout of taller crops (& the requirement for trellises) with regards to shading other sun loving plants.

Our beds were planted with tomatoes (7 different varieties), peppers, basil (2 types), egg plant, marigolds (& numerous other flowers), peas, okra, strawberries, cucumber, watermelons, broccoli, spinach, lettuce & swiss chard to name a few.

Raised beds don’t have to be large, thanks to the wonderful world of CraigsList I purchased a couple old water troughs with holes…excellent raised beds, a few peas trellised on a southwestern window providing afternoon shade.

If you have have any more questions on raised bed gardening let me know, I’m off to pick a few more tomatoes- yes, tomatoes mid December!!

Have a sensational day, cheers.