Where are you located? General info bc it helps understand your weather. It is a Garden thread, after all, so we are interested!
We have 11 raised beds for a total of approx 600sq ft of planting. Then we have a large 20'x30' bed for another approx 600 sq ft of garden space.
Raised beds: these are great! We have 12" tall beds. They sit on top of the dirt, so plants can go deeper if they want. We spread out mulch around the beds to keep down weeds, and to walk on mulch instead of dirt. When we had grass around the beds, it was weed city. We have talked about making taller beds, but need more soil, and that is costly, and then the supplies to make the beds taller. Maybe as we age, we will decide to have some taller beds for ease of gardening, but for now these current ones are good.
Why we chose raised beds: gives a defined area. Attractive, keeps plants and bugs separate. When it rains heavily or for a prolonged period, it can overwhelm the area for a short period of time - so plants stay out of any water. But, since we raised up the ground a small amount, this happens less.
Soil: the limiting factor bc it can be costly - especially if you buy good soil. We bought a truckload (50 tons?) for the 20x30 bed. To keep costs manageable, we bought "good" but not "great" soil as we could amend it. We've gotten soil testing done and are slowly optimizing it. I expect it to take another 2 years to get it to a much better point. So, I have to spend $ to improve the soil, but you have to add/improve any soil anyway. We have a compost bin, and should get first completed batch this year. We also amend with gypsum (for calcium), Sulfur (bc our soil is more basic and we need to lower the pH), green manure - a living cover crop like buckwheat or peas, etc that gets turned under to rot, balanced granular fertilizer, peat moss (adds a bit of acidity), perlite and vermiculite (both help with water retention).
We evened out the area for the garden. We bought 102 tons of fill dirt and had it spread around. The area had some various low spots/ The 102 tons of dirt came in 4 truck loads. It was not great dirt as it is fill dirt, but not terrible, and not too rocky - any rocks were of a certain size or smaller - none very big.
5th truckload of "good" garden dirt for 20x30 bed.
Building beds on a sunny winter day.
Filling beds with dirt. We had moved all previous garden bed dirt to make room for the leveling out process, and then carted it back into beds. We built more beds, so had to source more dirt. Here we are adding sand to the beds, as we were still battling heavy clay. Who puts heavy clay soil into raised beds? The previous owners, that's who.
in the foreground is the 20x30 bed, then many of the raised beds. There are 2 more in the sunniest SE corner of the yard, that are not in any pics. Chicken coop and run is on left side of pic.
Yay for green plants!
Use beds to grow Up, Up, Up! Pole beans
Another perspective. Bean tower that is moveable and 10' tall (but 7 or 8' is a great height), and cattle panels to the right of bean tower for cucumbers and vining squash. potatoes are in the foreground.
And lets not forget to shade the chickens with plants - it is after all another place to get some growing in. But, they will reach through and eat whatever they can reach, so keep that in mind.
Don't want to use an area? Just cover with plastic. If in hot weather, it will help to kill any bugs that are in their larval or grub stages bc it will heat up the soil. also helpful to kill weed seeds. I've covered in plastic during July, after a spring crop, so when I plant for fall stuff in later July, I have fewer pest and weed problems.
And we built a traditional compost bin since we have a lot of amending to do. Left side is new additions. Middle is partially complete. Right is going to be for finished.
Seems like a lot, but all this is crammed into a fairly small area at the back of our not-quite-an-acre lot, and most of it cannot be seen from the road!
