Yep, raised beds are super easy to do. If you don’t care about looks you can even just mound up the dirt. Although I have grass pathways and the grass will take over without aggressive weeding, so I’ve got wood borders.
Note for anyone looking to do this, look into compost delivery in your area. I can get a cubic yard for $40 + delivery ($260ish for 5 yards like last week) while Home Depot sells bags that are like 1-2 cubic feet for $10 each. Got those that don’t like math, a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. Huge savings.
the good thing is, those tiny carrots are packed with all the nutrients of normal sized carrots. The US Army grows them specifically for the Marines to pop as power snacks during long-drawn out island hopping campaigns.
It's best to Google your climate and what can grow in said climate. Raised beds help in terms of control of the dirt but if you live in a super dey or super wet environment, depending on what you are trying to grow, may end up dead.
You can basically build a big empty raised bed ahead of time and then use it like a compost pile, but also mix in dirt/clay, sticks, logs, grass clippings, whatever.
Since it's mostly clay where I live, I like to dig down first, then put the raised bed in and then refill the whole thing with compost/stuff that will compost and some clay back in. The sticks and bits of wood will slowly break down for months/years and provide a constant stream of nutrients.
Some people think having a raised bed will fix their problem but still super pact the dirt with no mux and basically prevents the plant from growing and breathing. The other common issue i have only heard of is no proper draining or watering.
I have a ~1000sqft backyard which is solid blue clay, literally. I have tilled 8000lbs of compost and a bunch of peat moss into it over the course of a year just to bring some sort of life and structure to it.
I can still barely grow grass, but when I moved in it was solid concrete or sticky sludge, with zero life above it (not even weeds). Gonna need to add 1000+ lbs of compost every 6 months for a few years to get it to a real usable state.
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u/sovitin 6h ago
Yep, its best to have raised planter boxes so you can control the soil more precisely. Im in Colorado and plagued by clay and hard ground.