Above the Ground Gardens,Also Called Raised Gardens (USA)

Above the Ground Gardens:

We have one that is 2' wide x 16' long. We use nursery bought GOOD potting soil, but if you can find good bagged top soil that does not get hard as rock, by all means use it. Or you can make your own. We keep adding to the soil each winter after yard clean-ups (USA) and let it sit through the winter months. We add time released fertilizer in the early spring.

We also have a 2' tall long trough that we use for tomatoes.

If you have poor soil, this is the way to go. No need to make it as tall as our's. Eight inches is deep enough for most flowers and veggies.

And no need to dig up the ground, just lay down about 8 or 10 pages thick of newspapers, wet it down, put the soil on top. The newspapers will dissipate over time which is good for the flowers and veggies, plus it gets rid of the grass and weeds underneath the papers.

You can buy and use Pound-In Inter-Locking Edging that you can pound into the ground with a rubber mallet or hammer to hold the soil in place. (WalMart in the USA, other gardening centers, and some hardware stores carry this edging.)

No bending, no weeding, easy to water.....we love above the ground gardening! Very Happy

Here are several very good above the ground/raised flower beds links for you:

http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_raised_beds.htm

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/raisedbedgarden.html

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_design_raised_bed/article/0,1785,HGTV_3570_1398103,00.html

http://agnews.tamu.edu/dailynews/stories/HORT/Feb1601a.htm