Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Yields Great ResultsA raised bed vegetable garden not only looks tidy, but you will have soil that is light and easy to work with. Simply put, a raised bed garden is a bed or beds of soil that are 6-12 inches higher than the ground around them. 
They should be made narrow enough so that you can simply lean over into them from one side or another to plant, weed and harvest rather than walking in them. This is why the soil stays so happily loose. Root vegetables, especially benefit from the uncompacted soil as you might imagine. Since these beds are above “ground level” , they also warm up a bit more than the surrounding beds. That can help more in the cooler growing zones than the warmer ones. If you have any wildlife (or pets for that matter) that like to sample (destroy) your vegetables now and then, the raised bed gives you a stable base to anchor a fence around. The easiest way to build a raised bed vegetable garden is by using 2 x 6 untreated lumber and screwing 4 of them together to make beds 4 foot wide and as long as you would like them to be. Four feet is just about as wide as you can get without having to step into the bed, and not stepping into the bed is probably one of the reasons you want to make one. If you have the space, making several beds can help keep a more organized plan. It also makes it easier to plan your crop rotation schedule. If you’d rather not deal with a drill, you can anchor the 2 x 6 boards by pounding rebar or a metal stake 10 inches or so in ground on the outside corners to hold them in place. After you have put together the framework, you can either fill them up with dirt and compost or dig the walkways between them and take that soil and put it into the new garden. If you want to put up a garden fence now, just staple or screw it to the boards at the base. Early on, you can easily put a cover over the garden bed to act as a cold frame or a screening. A little work the first year and high yields after that.
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