How to Care for Permanent Garden Beds

Creating permanent garden beds provides us home gardeners with the basic principal of organic gardening - they allow us to improve garden soil quality each year without the use of chemicals. With a little care, vegetables and herbs can be grown in the same soil (crop rotation required) indefinitely and produce a high yield. It all starts with the soil.

Prevent Soil Compaction 

Create permanent garden beds that are wide enough to accommodate growing vegetation, but not so wide that you can't reach the center of the bed from either side. Most beds, either raised or ground-level, are about four feet wide. The width allows you to work the beds without having to step on the soil. For times when stepping onto the soil is unavoidable, like when building a trellis, place a long board across the soil to evenly distribute body weight and limit soil compaction. And never walk on the beds when the soil is wet.

Don't Over-Work 

After initially creating the garden beds, don't over-work them with a roto-tiller each year. Worms and other soil-benefiting organisms set up housekeeping in the soil and will be destroyed if the soil is worked too vigorously. Use a wide-tined pitchfork or broadfork to loosen soil each spring prior to planting. Dig deep with a roto-tiller (18-24 inches) when initially creating the beds, then after a few years of amending the soil with organic matter, like compost and leaf litter, the soil will be very easy to work by hand.

Feed the Soil 

Feed the soil and it will feed your plants, that's the whole idea behind organic gardening. Healthy soil also has less pest and disease problems and produces healthier plants. Add a yearly supply of compost or well-rotted cow manure to the soil just prior to planting time. Then continue to feed the soil by mulching the plants with organic matter and side dressing the growing vegetables with compost throughout the growing season.

Sideboards and Walkways 

Permanent garden beds can have sideboards or not, that choice is up to you. Raised bed structures are easier on the back and knees of gardeners, but produce no more than in-ground permanent beds. Permanent walkways between each bed are essential, however. Spaces where grass grows and is mowed can provide organic grass clippings to help improve garden soil. Walkways can also be graveled or covered with some other type of inorganic material to make the walking space maintenance-free.