RE/MAX PARRY SOUND MUSKOKA REALTY LTD., BROKERAGE*
Gary Phillips
Realtor
RE/MAX PARRY SOUND MUSKOKA REALTY LTD., BROKERAGE*
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Cottage Gardening Series: Building Your Raised Boxes
Cottage Gardening - Building your box garden
Raised box gardens are elevated boxes, with a bottomless frame set into a shallow trench. The boxes are typically about 3 to 4 feet wide and 6 to 8 feet long filled with enough soil to support a variety of plants. The height of the boxes can be adapted to suite your individual needs, but are at least 18 inches deep to accommodate root vegetables.
The sides of the boxes can be made with lumber, or any durable building material including brick, concrete and interlocking brick. If using lumber, use an untreated wood such a cedar for its superior rot and moisture resistance. Be sure not to use lumber that has been preserved with toxins such as creosote saturated railway ties!
When constructing your raised boxes, the option to create more ergonomically effective spaces for planting, weeding and harvesting is a real option. If kneeling down, or bending over is problematic, the beds can be built to adapt for this by increasing height, decreasing the width of the boxes, raising the beds completely off the ground, or by framing the top of the boxes with a wide sill for sitting.
Our next blog: Preparing the soil