How to Prepare Raised Garden Beds for Planting Summer Vegetables

Raised garden beds are perfect for planting your summer vegetables.  Spring is the right time to start preparing your vegetable garden if you plan to raise vegetables in the summer.  In this post, we teach you how to prepare your raised garden beds in time for summer planting.

If you are starting a raised garden beds from scratch, you have some digging ahead of you.  Mark out the desired size of your garden bed on the dirt.  While the size of your raised garden bed depends on your preferences, a plot that is eight feet by four inches will allow you easy access from all sides.  If you are making preparing more than one, allow for at least 2 feet between each one.

Divide each raised garden bed into half and start digging at one end first before tackling the second half.  Dig down to at least 18 inches of depth.  As you dig out the first section, collect the dirt at one end of the bed.  After the entire bed has been dug up, you will be putting this dirt back in after you make sure that it is well broken up and aerated.

Use a pH test kit to determine your soil’s acidity.  Vegetable grow best in a neutral pH so depending on your soil’s condition, you will need to adjust.  Soil that is too sandy will need some compost, peat, or humus.  If your soil turns out to have high clay content, balance it out by adding some rough grade sand and organic matter such as mature compost.

What To Do With Established Raised Garden Beds

Meanwhile, if your raised garden beds are already established, you have a far simpler set of tasks to prepare them for summer planting.  Start by turning down the soil and aerating it well.  Make sure that you work the garden dirt loose at least 18 inches down from the surface.  Mix in some mature compost or peat moss to improve the quality of your soil.  Generally, an eight foot bed will require six cubic feet of peat moss.  If you are using mature compost, you only need three cubic feet.

At this point, your raised garden bed is ready for planting.  In the meantime, you can keep weeds from growing in an unplanted raised garden bed by covering it with a double layer of newspaper.  Weigh down the paper with some wood chips or rocks to keep it from blowing away.  Once you are ready to plant, simply soak the newspaper to soften it and poke holes so that the seeds can be planted below the newspaper layer.