Location, Location, Location

You may have heard the most important thing in selectimg

a place for your business is Location, Location, Location.

The lavender and garlic chives thrive - a great example of
raised bed planting success - both Daisy and Herbie agree.

 Drainage, Drainage, Drainage

Well I learned quickly from Madalene Hill and Gwen Barclay

that the most important thing n selecting a place for your garden

is "Drainage, Drainage, Drainage."

Good Drainage is even more important than the

dirt herbs grow in as herbs don't have to have rich soil to grow and thrive.

  

A cat's eye view of the Mary's Garden at Round Top Texas, Festival Hill.



I remember Michael Bettler pointing out a picture of his and

Lucia's garden in author's Madelene and Gwen's Southern Herb Growing

book saying it was actually an example of how NOT to garden since he

had since learned the value of raised bed

gardening. I don't have a copy of that picture to

post but found quite a few different examples of some

other raised bed gardens. 

Concrete block surround raised beds planted in assorted pepper plants.
The blocks are high enough and wide enough to also double as a
seating areas at the Fort Worth botanical gardens

We have a lot of clay in our soils so that when it rains (not so much lately)

it doesn't always drain well, stressing plant roots depriving them

of oxygen. Raised bed gardening helps prevent that.

Raised garden bed with drip irrigation ready to be planted for an EarthKind Rose
trial at the Confederate Airforce Museum (CAF) in Ector Midland Counties.

Examples of raised garden beds that take advantage

of vertical gardening and support.

Planted raised bed garden at the Master Gardener
CAF Gardens adjacent to garden bed above.

My husband built this wooden box frame filled with
soil to include a fence panel trellis and two end posts for our
malaar spinach - a hot weather spinach that loves to climb. This
is actually a raised bed within a larger raised bed. Fairly simple to make,
at least for me since my husband made it.

BE CREATIVE

I love this example. Always creative in utilizing what nature provides,
Marylyn Ponder includes wooden branches  on top of existing soil with
more soil and compost on top to add drainage to her salad vegetable garden.



Raised beds made in preparation for butterfly
hummingbird plants at Sabal Palms Sanctuary.

 

Wooden posts garden beds with drip irrigation,
ready for planting vegetables at the Cameron
County Master Gardener Arboretum in San Benito, TX.

You may not want to get too ambitious when you first begin -

Don't make it hard on yourself.

Gardening and being outdoors is

all about having fun.

Twelve Oaks B&B, Bulverde, TX mounded raised beds planted in
their front landscape with rosemary and lavender.

Start small and you can add. The soil in our first year raised

bed garden was pretty tough but now after several years of adding to it

and tilling it each year, it's really gotten so much easier to work.

This didn't happen overnight. It just gets better and better.



Community Garden example at the San Antonio Botanical Garden.
Two proud young gardeners show off their veggies harvest.
I liked this bed as it is very easy to reach from either side of the raised bed
and also includes drip irrigation.

 

Horticulturist and Gestalt Gardener, Felder Rushing proves that anyone
can garden anywhere, any time and any place. Check out his truck garden bed.

Remember to have fun! Anyone can garden, anywhere, anytime

any place. Good Gardening!