11 Tips to Increase Production in Your Raised Bed Garden

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Cedar Wood Raised Garden Bed Kits

Our cedar wood raised garden bed kits are made in the USA. They are available in many different sizes and configurations. Some of those configurations include elevated planters, as well as beds that can be installed right on the ground in your garden.

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Setting the gold standard, Birdies Metal Raised Garden Beds are built to last 20+ years thanks to their high-performance aluzinc steel design made in Australia.

You’re growing in raised beds, and everything looks good. Yields are decent, but nothing is blowing you away. Having great success growing in raised beds takes practice, just like most aspects of gardening. 

Maybe your soil needs a refresh, or perhaps the location is just a bit off, and your crops aren’t getting the access to the sun they need. Whatever it is, we’ll help you figure it out! Whether you’re growing in a raised bed garden for the first time or you’re a seasoned pro, we all want to improve upon our gardening skills and increase production, right? 

Let’s dive into 11 tips to maximize production in your raised bed garden. 

Soil Health 

With minimal soil disturbance and more control over what goes into raised beds, soil health is more easily controlled and maintained. When starting a new raised bed, growers choose what goes into it based on what they grow. Topsoil, compost, vermiculite, and natural materials like branches and grass trimmings are commonly used ingredients for the perfect blend of nutrients, aeration, and organic matter.  

Include crop rotation and cover cropping into your plotting plans to ensure the soil stays healthy, well-draining, and adequately aerated. Buckwheat is an excellent option before a summer bed flip. It germinates and goes to flower quickly, attracts pollinators, and adds loads of biomass.

Cut it down about 27 to 30 days after seeding so you don’t have buckwheat popping up all over your property. Then, tarp it or cover it with a large cardboard box for several days while it breaks down. Work the debris into the soil and plant your fall crops. 

The University of Maryland Extension has a great resource that helps you determine what to add to your raised bed for the best results. What you add depends on the type of garden soil you have, your tillage practices, and the bed’s location. After each growing season, test your soil to properly plan to revitalize and nourish your raised bed in preparation for the next season. 

Pro tip: Adding “green” material will allow you to fill large raised beds without breaking the bank. 

Location, Location, Location!

Like buying a house or planting a tree, selecting the perfect location is crucial to success. Unlike grow bags and pots, you cannot simply pick up and move your raised beds once they’re filled. This is why it’s crucial to spend time plotting out the location for the best success. 

Simply put, planting tomatoes in the shade won’t perform well, and cool-weather crops like cilantro, arugula, and spinach won’t be happy in pure sun. Both scenarios will result in low yields. If you realize certain crops aren’t performing well, don’t give up on the raised bed; adjust the next sowing and fill it with crops that will perform well in that location. 

Select the Right Crops 

Growing in raised beds allows gardeners to bend over less, harvest and prune easily, and control their soil’s health. But can you just throw anything in raised beds and expect it to succeed? Let’s talk about it. 

Most crops will do well in a raised growing environment. I want to stress the importance of having a solid trellis plan for indeterminate tomatoes, pole beans, vining cucumbers, and berries before transplanting them. Without a trellis, you’ll end up with overgrown plants, vegetables, and fruits exposed to pest damage while lying on the ground. Plus, poor air circulation leaves your garden vulnerable to disease. 

Get the Timing Right 

The soil in raised beds will warm up slightly earlier than the soil in the ground due to its protection from wind and snow, elevation, and smaller soil mass. But how do you know when to plant each crop?

Timing is critical to the success of your crops, and you can rely a bit on the USDA’s Plant Hardiness Growing Zones, which they updated in 2023. How do the new zones affect your garden? You may be able to plant earlier and extend the season later. Perhaps you’ve had to wait until June to plant your tomatoes outside in the past, but now you’re not seeing a frost past the first week of May. Each region will be a bit different. 

Working with regional climate and forecasts will help determine when to plant crops and when to sow the seeds indoors. Seeds sown too early can lead to stressed and rootbound crops in seed trays that have run out of nutrients. Transplanting too late may cause early bolting due to temperature spikes, summer weed pressure, and pest control issues. 

I advise taking notes about everything affecting your crops throughout the season. This data is as good as gold when looking back on past years to determine the best timing for your garden. Also, create a safe, climate-controlled indoor space to start seeds with access to water, good air circulation, and ample light before they make their outdoor debut.

Plot It Out Like a Pro

Some growers devote entire raised beds to one crop, which is fine. But if you plot out your garden before sowing the first seeds, you’ll get more yields out of the same small space. An example is planting radishes with green onions. The radishes will mature before the green onions grow large, doubling your yield. Your garden mapping can include planting lettuce in successions, utilizing beneficial attractants like sweet alyssum, and planting known pollinators nearby. 

Alliums that grow upright allow easy interplanting and may deter pests like rabbits, deer, aphids, slugs, and cabbage worms. Keeping the soil surface covered as much as possible prevents soil erosion, decreases weed pressure, and, in some combinations, may increase production. Though the results of interplanting studies leave us with reasons to continue exploring this garden phenomenon, we know increased pollinators, nitrogen affixing, root diversity, and allelopathic support are beneficial, so companion planting is always a good practice to adopt. 

Create a simple spreadsheet listing the crops you are growing this season and providing details about each. Include the days to maturity, transplant date, sunlight preference, space and water requirements, possible pests, and any other information vital to its success, like good companions, the need for insect netting, and nutrition requirements. 

If you’re filling more than one raised bed, create another spreadsheet with dimensions and names, each with a number or location nickname like “driveway” or “left patio.” Then, based on each crop’s needs, assign them to a raised bed and indicate it in the spreadsheet. Refer back to the previous year’s data, as you may not remember certain crops that did and didn’t get along. 

Don’t Overcrowd

I’ll be the first to admit I push space boundaries; sometimes, it works out in my favor! However, before you overcrowd heavy-feeder friends like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, be sure you know how your soil fertility stacks up and what each crop needs.

The most disappointing thing is to have good-looking and healthy tomato plants, only to find that the fertility levels were off, causing them to grow lots of deep green foliage, but they didn’t have enough to create flowers and fruits. Knowing when you can squeeze more into a small space comes with experience and experimenting with science-backed companion planting successes. 

Those space requirements on the back of seed packets aren’t just suggestions but results from years of vegetable and flower production trials and studies. Experiment first by providing lots of space instead of inching them as close as possible. It’s better to have a little weed pressure and big, healthy broccoli than low nutrition and spindly lettuce that couldn’t reach the sun through the mess of garden companions. 

Have a feeding schedule plan to ensure crops don’t peter out when they need a boost. Add a “fertilizer” column to your plotting spreadsheet with a checkmark option to hold yourself accountable. Incorporate cover crops when garden space isn’t in use to nourish the soil. 

Irrigate Properly 

Overhead hand-watering new crops upon transplant is advised. It’s also a good practice that helps you observe different things in the garden, like pest issues or disease symptoms.

However, why not simplify your life and ensure your plants always have the water they need? Irrigation kits are easy to install and customizable to whatever shape and size of raised bed you use. Add a timer, and you’ll never worry about leaving town for a few days and coming home to withered vegetables! 

Olla watering kits are another option. They help you save water with their innovative slow-drip design. Position the terracotta cups throughout your garden and hook them to a hose system. The hose system connects to a bucket that fills with water and provides your garden with water as needed. Water seeps out of the cups at the plant’s root level, precisely where it’s needed most. 

Pro tip: If you don’t have a system that connects the individual cups, you can fill each cup by hand as needed.   

Increase Biodiversity 

Science has proven that increased biodiversity in plant types and root systems creates robust gardens and plants resistant to disease, insects, and stress. Healthy gardens allow gardeners to reduce their reliance on artificial fertilizers, pest control sprays, and weed suppressants. 

An underground web of diverse root systems reduces soil erosion and compaction. Accepting assistance from legumes that affix nitrogen to their roots as nodules and releasing it into the soil as needed is just one way to depend more on plants than synthetic inputs. 

Above the soil surface, diversity increases the attraction to native birds, butterflies, beneficial insects, and critters. Consider adding a perennial pollinator raised bed to the mix, access to clean water, and shelter to mate and raise brood to make them want to stick around. 

Pest Control 

Pests are such buggers, aren’t they? Munch holes from squash beetles, leaf damage from grasshoppers, and fruit damage from tomato hornworms aren’t just cosmetic. Certain pests cause damage to the overall health of the plant. Cucumber beetles, aphids, and thrips can spread disease as they feed. Sweet honeydew residue from aphids attracts ants. Leafminers and vine borers can block air and waterways, ultimately leading to plant death.  

One of the most efficient ways to naturally control garden pests is to attract beneficial insects like parasitic wasps, with the most common one in gardens being the braconid wasp, also called parasitoids. You may have seen their bright white egg sacks hanging from a tomato hornworm and wondered what weird disease the worm has. Braconids lay their cocoon-like eggs on the outside of host insects’ bodies so the larvae have food immediately upon hatching. Once fully satiated, the host worm dies, and the young wasps will continue feeding and controlling pests. 

While parasitoids may look scary, they don’t sting! They’re an amazing part of our natural, ecologically balanced gardens and should be protected. Do so by planting natives, avoiding harmful and chemical sprays, mowing as minimally as you can, and creating a habitat where they can thrive. They will appreciate access to dill, fennel, lemon balm, and cilantro. 

Other beneficial insects you want to attract are lacewings, ladybugs, and hoverflies, to name a few. It may take a few years because, unfortunately, your place won’t even be on their radar until there is enough food for them to survive and your garden is swimming in pests. Be patient and create a space they’ll love, and they’ll arrive in due time. 

Proper Water Drainage

When starting a new raised bed, add ample organic material, compost, and potting soil to ensure good water drainage. If your bed has a bottom, drill holes in it or along the sides. 

After several years of growing in a raised bed, the soil might need some TLC to regain good water drainage. Growers may add vermiculite, perlite, compost, or bark to help lighten up the soil. Running a simple garden fork or broadfork through the soil will also be beneficial. 

Worms are great soil aerators and help keep soil from becoming compacted after heavy rain or natural settling. To break up compaction, grow cover crops like oilseed radishes, alfalfa, sweet clover, and cereal grass. After termination, allow their debris to break down in the raised bed. The debris will add biomass and fertility to the soil as it breaks down. 

Use High-Quality Raised Beds

There are many raised beds on the market and just as many DIY plans to help you build your own wooden raised bed. However, it is essential to use safe materials that won’t dangerously leach chemicals into your food and can last for many years. 

Epic Gardening set the gold standard with the original Birdies Metal Raised Beds. Birdies are built to last, designed using steel, come in colors that match your aesthetics, can be arranged to fit your needs, and are 100% food-safe. Plus, we promise they won’t get too hot! 

Their reinforced bracing kit offers additional support for taller beds. Birdies are easy to assemble, and you won’t have to worry about rusting or corroding for many years. Plus, their vinyl edging makes it safe for kiddos in the garden.

Not into metal? Make a healthy choice for your family by ditching the pressure-treated wood and investing in a cedar wood raised bed.