vegetable

I see this question a lot when I am browsing social media and forums, “which is better, raised bed vs row gardens?” And every time, I answer, “whichever one gets you in the garden is the best.” Seriously, I don’t care what type of garden you have, if you are gardening, that’s a win in my book. But if you clicked on this blog, or read any of my posts, you know I’m not going to stop there. I am going to give you MY reasons for why a raised bed garden is better than a row garden. But I still maintain, that any garden is better than no garden!

Why Is The Question Raised Bed Vs Row Gardens?

I think the main reason for the question of which one is better is because people want a hard fast, concrete, right or wrong answer before they “waste” their time or money. But I am not one of those people. I want to have a whole conversation about WHY which one is better than the others. Plus, I figure it’s all about perspective anyways.

Benefits Of A Row Garden

Row gardens are exactly what they sound like, rows and rows of plants. Sometimes, there is trellising and stakes and sometimes not. Usually, though not always, there is a lot of tilling involved. This type of garden doesn’t require a ton of soil to be trucked in or building materials to be used. All you really need is a way to get your plants in the ground.

Row gardens can be very cheap to install and maintain because you don’t have to build anything. It’s as simple as digging up the ground enough to get your plants in the ground. It is suggested that you till just enough to get any rocks, weeds, etc out of the garden.

Another great pro to a row garden is that you don’t have to bring a ton of soil into the mix. Now, this assumes that you will be adding compost or organic matter to the bed or that you will be using cover cropping.

Cons Of A Row Garden

There are a few cons to a row garden and number one is weeding! You will be on your hands and knees pulling weeds or using harsh chemicals to kill the weeds before they stunt your plant. Another option is laying a TON of mulch. But honestly, you should be mulching your garden anyways.

Another con to a row garden is going to be pests. Now, there are absolutely pests in raised beds, but they don’t seem to be as bad. Ant hills, spiders, scorpions, etc are all more likely to be found in a row garden than a raised bed. I have noticed that the only critters that are in my raised beds are tiny wolf spiders and Japanese beetles. The row garden? GIANT spiders, scorpions, grasshoppers, a million army worms and two million horn worms.

I don’t know why they don’t touch the raised beds, I just know that they don’t…. at least my beds.

Benefits Of A Raised Bed Garden

There are a lot of benefits of a raised bed garden and the first is that it can be a back saver! Seriously, not having to kneel down, bend over and reach has been a life saver for my back. It’s has been amazing.

Then there is the fact that I have complete control of the soil? Yea, that’s another win in my book. We have extremely rocky, clay soil that is prone to erosion. Not only that, we live on a mountain so there are a ton of flat spots, steep inclines, etc so it is hard to get a garden to stay put. Every year, I add leaves, sticks, compost and animal bedding to my raised beds and the plants flourish.

Lastly, harvesting has been a snap. While I still lose produce, it’s not nearly as bad as a row garden. Because most everything is at least a mid thigh height for me, I can actually see what needs to be harvested.

Cons of A Raised Bed Garden

Well, the first, and biggest, con to a raised bed garden is the cost. Depending on the size of the bed, materials, prefab-ed, etc, each bed can set you back several hundred dollars. That’s just the materials to build the bed. Then you have to fill the bed with materials and soil. This can ramp up the cost of a raised bed.

Which brings us to our next point. The amount of work to build and maintain raised beds can get both expensive AND labor intensive. The cost may not be a problem for you, but when it comes time to start filling those beds? You are in for a ton of work.

Depending on the size of your bed, you are going to be loading a ton of logs, sticks, leaves, soil, and compost until it’s mostly full. Then you are going to repeat this for several years as that material breaks down and settles.

Why I Like Raised Beds Over Row Gardens

My personal preference is raised bed gardens. I love the way raised beds look. They are clean cut and help keep the lines of the garden pretty. It also helps with weeding because there just isn’t as many weeds to contend with.

Wear And Tear On My Body

I also really like the fact that I don’t have to kneel down and get on my hands and knees to plant, weed, mulch, etc. I can do it from standing or bending over or I can also sit on the edge of the bed and work. Also, I don’t have to worry as much about pest problems because they just don’t crawl up the beds like the do in the row garden.

When it comes time to harvest, I’m not having to get down on my hands and knees to find produce before it’s overripe. I can also see what is going to be ready for harvest a lot easier and there is a lot less wasted harvest.

But Raised Beds Are Expensive

However, there are some pretty major cons. Depending on the size of the bed, each bed costs about $150-$300 to build. Then to fill the bed takes a TON of labor. Now, I’m lucky enough that my boys are always looking for ways to earn extra money. So they are more than happy to do that manual labor for me. But if you don’t have that option, it can be very labor intensive or expensive.

Then there’s the soil cost.

Now, we mostly use logs, sticks and leaves as the foundation to our raised beds and that helps a ton. We usually fill the beds about 3/4 of the way full with woody products. Then we fill the rest with wood shavings or wood chips. After that, we add animal bedding, starting with the chicken bedding and then adding the goats. Then we fill with spent hay. After all that, we add soil.

Usually, our yearly soil cost is about $400-500 for the kitchen garden and another $800 for the big garden. We get our soil from a couple different places. We’ve been lucky that we have a neighbor that has a horse farm. She turns the manure regularly until it’s composted down into black gold. But sometimes, we still have to purchase soil. And it’s expensive.

So Which Is Better? Raised Bed Vs Row Gardens?

For me, a raised bed is better than a row garden. But that doesn’t mean that row gardens don’t have their place. In fact, I would say that if you don’t have a lot of money, row gardens are better. Or if you can’t do a lot of manual labor to set up raised beds, row gardens are better. But if you have access to the money, time and labor to set up a raised bed garden? I think raised beds are better.

But remember, a garden is better than no garden. It doesn’t matter if it is a container garden on your apartment patio, an acre row garden, or 50 60ft long raised beds. A garden that produces food for you is the best garden.

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