Raised bed gardens are perfect not only for long-time gardeners but also for beginners. It offers a lot of benefits not only in terms of convenience but also in terms of higher yields. As a beginner, you can always start with one of the basic sizes, which is the 2×6 raised bed.
This is just the right size and shape that is suitable for gardeners who want to improve their yields and at the same time make their gardens attractive. It can be used for growing vegetables and at the same time flowers.
All it takes is for you to decide whether you are going to build one from scratch or buy a raised garden bed kit. With a kit, there are only a few things that you must do. Assemble the entire bed, fill it up with soil, and start planting. Just tend to your garden now and then, give it an ample amount of water and sun, and your plants will surely grow well.
maximizing your 2×6 raised garden beds
There are various options that you can find for your very first 2×6 raised bed. Some of the options that you can consider getting are the following:
This option allows you to decide whether you want to start with one layer or a couple of layers of the bed. You can easily decide on these depending on the plants that you want to grow in your garden.
You can either place them along the perimeter to create border gardens or you can install them in the middle of the garden. Simply arrange the crops to make the beds more attractive without affecting the growth of the crops.
As you can see in the images above, you can make your simple 2×6 garden bed more attractive with proper positioning of the plants. In this sample, you will see that a trellis was added for climbing plants.
This does not only make the beds more attractive but also prevents the climbing plants from getting into the spaces of other plants. It helps in improving the growth not only of the climbing plants but also the surrounding crops.
With this sample, you can choose to combine root crops, small growers and tall growers in one bed. You can add extensions to the second layer depending on how large the area you want to allot to certain plants.
The fact that this kit allows you to easily add and remove the layers gives you the convenience of adjusting the bed depending on the crops you want to grow for every season. This makes your garden beds more versatile in growing various at once.
For this raised bed, the entire area inside the bed was maximized and was planted with a mix of vegetables and flowers. However, you will notice that there is a respective positioning for all the plants.
All small growers are on one side while the climbing plant was put in the middle but with a trellis. This prevents climbing plants from disturbing other crops surrounding it. After the small growers are the taller ones or the ones that take much space when growing.
You want to make the most out of your garden bed and one way to do it is by properly positioning plants based on how they grow. This way, you can make sure that all crops are growing healthy.
different plant positioning for a 2×6 raised garden bed
If you have a 2×6 raised bed, you want to maximize what you can grow in the bed. One way to do this is by knowing the right positions of your plants and the proper spacing for each.
You want to grow various plants in one bed but not overcrowd one bed. All you need to do is learn what plants are beneficial together so you can avoid damaged or unhealthy crops.
The following are some plant positioning samples you can do for a 2×6 raised bed:
grow by variety
If you plan on growing varieties of one plant, you can do so in a single bed. You just must figure out how many of each variety you should plant.
For example, you want to grow tomatoes. Pick the varieties you want to use for different purposes. You can divide the bed for a specific variety that you can use for making sauces or for sandwiches. A specific variety like cherry tomatoes can be used for either salads or healthy snacks for the family.
multiple raised beds
If you have a large family and you also have a large space for gardening, you can choose to build multiple beds. However, this does not mean that you will have to fill one bed with one type of plant.
As mentioned, you can grow a variety of plants in one bed. You can plant vegetables along with some flowers or herbs. Doing this will also help in keeping pests away. Which is why you should also know which plants are beneficial to be planted next to each other.
square foot gardening
For beginners, square foot gardening is the easiest method to plant as much crop as possible. It reduces overlap and allows every crop to grow healthy and strong.
In this method, you do not have to plant the vegetables in rows. You need to create individual squares measured 1 foot on each side. For every square, you can plant several seeds or seedling of each plant. This means that you can plant another type of crop on the other square.
For example, you are planning to grow beans, onions, carrots, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, and squash. These may seem a lot, but you can plant all of these in one bed. For onions, carrots, and lettuce. You can plant as much as 16 seeds of onions on one square. The same goes for carrots. On the next 2 squares, you can plant one seedling of lettuce for each.
For the next 4 squares, you can allot the two squares for peppers and the next two squares for tomatoes. For each square, you must plant one of each crop. Make sure you have the trellis prepared for the tomatoes.
Depending on how much of these plants you use, you can allot several squares in the bed for one plant. This way, you can grow as many fruits as you need for each plant.
Now for the beans and squash. Both plants have vines that will require much space for them to grow healthy. You need to place them on the side of the bed to let the vines grow on the side, especially with the squash.
With the beans, you can build a trellis on the side of the bed. This can also be used for the squash vines to crawl into. You can plant a maximum of 9 beans for every square while you can plant one squash for each square.
deciding on plant positioning
As mentioned above, you must get to know which plants are beneficial for each other as they grow. This way, you can maximize your 2×6 raised garden bed and get more yields as the growing season comes.
