How To Recharge Your Raised Bed Soil - Keep Your Raised Beds Healthy!

Jim and Mary discuss how to keep the soil in your raised beds healthy and strong, including the best ways to recharge and re-energize the soil to grow bigger and better plants!
Raised beds are one of the easiest and most effective ways to grow vegetables, flowers and herbs - especially for those who may not have the space for a traditional garden, or who might have physical limitations that can make gardening in big spaces difficult.
When created with good drainage and filled with great soil, they can grow amazing plants. But if that soil isn't properly cared for, it can become tires and poor, leading to far less production and more disease in your plants.
See how to keep your beds supercharged for big growth this spring and beyond!

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun, andalways rewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
jam and Mary Competti. Hello andwelcome everybody to Simple Garden Life Season
three. I'm here with my cohost and wife, Mary Competti. And
Mary, can you believe we've beendoing this now for three years? No,

(00:23):
it's hard to believe. And Ican't believe that we're actually back for
a new season this year. Iknow it's been a long winner. We're
still in winner I guess February.But you know, we've got lost to
talk about this season. A lotof great episodes on the horizon, starting
with today's about raised beds soil.You know, raised beds great way for
a lot of people to grow.We get a lot of questions on them,
especially about how to maintain them andhow to keep them productive year after

(00:45):
year. So to get today it'llbe really great to cover that subject.
Yeah, we have a lot ofthings to cover, but before we start,
we need to kind of back upa little bit and tell everybody what
we've been doing since last seasons.Yeah, we really do. You know.
Of course, we moved to thenew forum in well, I guess
early twenty twenty one, and thenspent all of last year building the new
farm in twenty twenty two, whichculminated in our oldest daughter's wedding at the

(01:08):
farm last September. What a yearit was, it was. It was
a whirlwind and a blur to beoff, that's right. But you know,
we have the gardens all set thisyear, and actually before we get
into today's podcast, we have alot of exciting things coming up at the
farm that we're going to start andwe'll tell you about it as the year
goes on. You know, webuilt some guest cabins there, we have
the ability now to host some classes. We'll be doing that in the future.

(01:30):
And we're really excited about the newtest garden we built there. So
a lot of that coming up thisyear. But I mean, boy,
you can't ask for anything else betterthan a new garden season for all of
us to start, to get readyand to enjoy. As always, if
you have any questions at all,email us at the farm at owgarden dot
com and you can always set upto follow the podcast at simple garden Life

(01:51):
dot com. You can follow alongon Facebook. Two you'll see the Facebook
tab there, or go to Facebookand Simple Garden Life. You'll get all
the latest episodes plus all of ourgarden article postings. Really great to have
for some great information, right andI think a lot of people also to
follow us on their favorite podcast apps, so you know, iTunes, any
of those apps that you have,Spotify, you know we're on all those.

(02:12):
Look for Simple Garden Life and youcan listen to us a couple of
times a month, that's right,A new episode drops every two weeks.
In between, we have garden articlesand newsletters that go out three times a
week, which is great information forgardeners. So with that said, I
think we've covered all of our bases. Let's get to those raised beds.
You know, we talked about it. It's really one of the easiest ways,
most effective ways to grow vegetables,flowers, and herbs, especially for

(02:37):
those who might not have the spaceor have some limited abilities, or if
you just want to grow extra Imean, we have raised beds right up
around our house. Now. It'sa great way for you, i know,
to go out if you're cooking inthe kitchen, to get all kinds
of herbs and vegetables close by rightand I love having that right outside of
our kitchen door. You know,like I said, I can just walk
outside, I can pick them,cut them adam into a cooking. But
I think before we really get startedGYM, we really need to talk about

(02:59):
what a raised bed is, becausewe do have a book calls raised road
gardening, and I don't want peopleto be confused between the two. That's
true, and they're both great waysto grow. Raised road guarding is more
in place of traditional guarding. Ifyou have that big garden space, it's
a great way to garden without weeds, without tilling. Raised beds, however,
are growing in confined spaces, whetherit's wood, metal, stone,

(03:21):
or just you know in the backyard. A lot of times when people will
have elevated raised beds, this issoil that is stationary, so you know,
it's not out where you can oftenget to it and work it like
you can something else. And that'swhy it takes a little special care.
You know, with good drainage andgreat soil, raised beds are an amazing
way to grow. But and thisis a big button. You have to

(03:42):
maintain that soil carefully, and youhave to maintain it properly, because if
not and it doesn't have good drainage, or if you don't keep repowering that
soil, you know you're not goingto get those same results. And honestly,
that leads us kind of to ourfirst question of the week for this
year's season, and it really startsoff the season. I love this question
because I think we probably get thistwenty times a week from now until the

(04:04):
end of the fall. Of thisquestion about raised beds. Right, we
get a lot of emails every dayand asking us different questions about gardening,
and we like to highlight one onthe podcast every time we do a podcast.
So this one comes from Mindy fromSouth Haven, Mississippi. She send
us an email and asked this question. I put in raised beds three years
ago and had amazing results for thefirst two years, but last year my

(04:26):
plans were weak and I got veryfew vegetables. What can I do to
make sure that this doesn't happen againthis year? I mean, this is
the question, and this is reallythe entire juxta the podcast. So normally,
Mindy, I would answer your questionand well, kind of short terms,
right, a few sentences, maybemaybe ten minutes, but today,
Really, this entire broadcast is goingto answer that question. And you know,

(04:47):
it's really comes down to this,and this is why people write to
us all the time and say,work great, year one and sometimes I
even got year two in it.Because that soil in those beds over time
gets depleted very quickly from resources.And there's other things Mary that you can
do that can harm or I saythat are done that sometimes harm that soil

(05:08):
as well. Right off the bat, you know, I can say at
the end of the year, oneof the quickest things is not taking your
plants out from that year and lettingthem hang out there all winter. Yeah,
a lot of people make the mistakeof keeping their old spent plants in
the ground until winner's over and thenthey try and start again in the sprain.
That's really detrimental to the soil itself, it is, and it just
leads to all kinds of issues.Pests can get a better grip, disease

(05:30):
can get a better grip. Wetalk about crops like tomatoes that can carry
blight. The more you leave thoseplants in, the longer they stay in
that soil, the more bad thingsthat are going to happen. Then also
in the fall if you haven't coveredyour soil. Think about this, that
soil that's exposed out there, ifit's just bare dirt, it's getting winners,
rains, the ice, the snow, the melt off, all of

(05:50):
those nutrients can leach out when thathappens. Not to mention, they're getting
the weed seeds they get blown inthere every year too. You know,
that's probably the biggest thing of allis you get a lot of weed seeds
that come in. And then finallythe other thing with raised beds, that
is often a problem. And Idon't know if this is the case for
you, Mindy when you write yourquestion, but if you grow the same
crops in their year after year withoutadjusting the soil, even with adjusting the

(06:14):
soil, chances are they're not goingto produce as good in the year three,
four or five and down the road. And why is that? While
it's playing and simple, it's thesame reason we rotate crops in our garden
or any situation, because you knowa specific vegetable is going to use a
specific resource or set of resources fromthe garden, and the longer you grow
it in there, the more it'sgoing to take out of it. If
those aren't replenished, you know,bad things are going to happen. And

(06:36):
then the same thing, pests aredriven to the same area, and if
you're growing that same crop, thosepests are going to keep attacking. Absolutely.
And you know, I like theanalogy of running a marathon, and
of course I don't ever run amarathon, but we do at the farm
every day. But if you runa marathon and you finish it and you
get your medal when you're finished,you're not to run a marathon again right

(06:56):
after that or the next day,or even possibly the next year. You
have to refuel your body. Youneed to feed it, you need to
get nourishments, you need to getfluids. Same things goes with the raised
beds. Yeah, and so let'stake this right now from to the next
step. You know, we've talkedabout it. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter
if you're growing flowers or vegetable plants, even herbs. They take nutrients from
the soil, and because the raisedbeds have no ability to replenish them,

(07:19):
that soil can really become sterile.That's a really good word to use.
Very quickly as all the nutrients leaveand Unfortunately, depending on what you grow,
it can happen fast. High yieldcrops and crops that take a lot
of nutrients such as tomatoes, cucumbers, even corn, those can really rob
the nutrients from soil pretty quickly,in as little as one year. The

(07:42):
second year you can notice a dropoff. Sometimes after two years you really
notice it. But you're also goingto notice it if you're growing flowers or
herbs, you're not going to seethe same results that soil. You'll know
what I'm talking about. If youhave these beds that soil starts to become
almost sandy, and some people think, oh, that's good, it's getting
looser. That's not there's no structureto that soil, right, Soil actually
gets very dry and crumbly, andyou really need to feed the soil.

(08:03):
And we'll get into that and thiswe talk about what you can do for
your raised beds. Yeah, andwe touched on this a little bit.
That soil becomes, you know,an inviting home for past and disease.
And so it really comes down to, Okay, we've covered all the reasons
why it might not be working,but okay, how do you how do
you make up better? How doI have this raised bed or three raised
beds in my backyard? Do Ineed to dig all that soil out?

(08:24):
You know, some raised beds verycan be two three feet deep of soil,
which is great. Some can betwelve inches. That's a lot of
work if you have to take thatout, right, But we have some
better answers, I think, andwe'll go over those in just a few
minutes. That's right. We'll takea quick break here for an ad that
helps pay for the podcast, andwe'll be back right after this to finish
off and explain how you can rechargeyour raised beds this year. And we

(08:50):
are back talking about raised beds,and we covered why the soil loses its
deficiencies marry and why things can happen. And now I think it's really time
to look at Okay, how doyou correct? How do you make that
soil strong and healthy year after year? Right? For those of you that
have a raised bed in your backyard, your front yard, in your flower
beds, this is what you've beenwaiting for. This is the answer and

(09:11):
how to make that so happen.Be happy for this year's garden. It's
right. So it's you know,February now. So if you're heading into
the year, you might think,Okay, what can I do right now?
But I just want to take onequick step back first in the future.
One of the best things you cando every single year is to put
a cover crop in your raised beds. And yes, you can do this.

(09:31):
It's not people think of cover crops. It's big farm fields are big
vegetable gardens. But all a covercrop is a crop that is planted for
the sole benefit to provide all ofits power back to the soil. And
when raised beds, you can usesmaller crops. Oats are one of my
favorite for raised beds. They germinatefast, They germinate in cold weather.

(09:52):
They also die off with the freeze, so you plant them in the fall
and as soon as that fills inthick and it freezes and kills it off,
it still stay on top of thatsoil to protect that. We talk
about covering the soil, but moreimportantly, what oats do as a lagoon
they actually feed the soil, andnot just with as they decompose, but
they fix nitrogen levels in the soilwith their roots. It's a great cover

(10:13):
crop to grow and we'll touch onthis in a second. I know I
talked about fall, but you canactually plant those in the spring too,
or some other crops. Another greatcover crop for raised beds are peas.
Peas, believe it or not,do the same thing. There are another
lagoon that can actually help fix thenitrogen in the soil. And more importantly,

(10:33):
they again add greenery when they're cutdown and dug in. I say
till that's a bad word, duginto the soil. Raised beds are kind
of easy to do that. Soyou can do a cover crop in the
spring and you don't have to waitfor it to always die off. You
can just turn it over and you'reready to go, right. I think
a lot of people have the misconceptionif you have a raised bed, you
can't use a cover crop, andwe're here to tell you, yes,

(10:54):
you can. Actually it's in avery important, great way to add nutrients
to your soil and to protect yoursoil when you're long. Yeah, we'll
have a video coming out here inthe next few weeks on our YouTube channel
of our beds and our test gardensand our raised beds right now are sitting
under a coat of oats from lastfall. And there. It's great.
I mean they filled in quick andagain you can do that. So it's
our raised rows, you know,with whether we use annual rye clover,

(11:18):
you name it. It's just agreat way to actually add energy to the
you know, to the raised bedsoil. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned
that we do have a YouTube channelthat has all sorts of things on it
from gardening to our diy to ourhouse build, our barn build. So
maybe we should give them that thatYouTube channel information. Yeah, it'll be
on there. It'll be on thearticle here at the end as always on

(11:39):
the resources at the end of thetab. But you can look up Old
World Garden you'll find it there onYouTube as well. So getting back to
us, so we talked about thecover crop. So just you know,
when can you plan a cover crop, well with oats or peas as soon
as the soil warms enough and thetemperatures allow for germination, which for oats
forty to forty five degrees standard daytime, you want to wait a little,

(12:00):
you know, probably like for ushere in Ohio, we're we could plant
that in March if we wanted to. But if you really don't want to
mess with that in the spring.That's fine. That's just something to remember,
definitely for a fall cover crop,for sure. I'll tell you king
of everything is compost. Compost isthe one thing we talk about it so
many times. We have great podcaston compost, a couple of them on

(12:20):
different ways. But compost is fullof absolutely everything your plants can need.
That's fine. They call it blackholes. That's right, It's exactly right.
And when you put compost into yourraised beds, you are rebuilding that
those nutrients there and not just rebuildingthe nutrients. This is where it really
makes sense. It helps build soilstructure. What is going to get rid
of that sandy field or the clayfield if you have bad soil. But

(12:43):
more importantly it also, you know, is the nutrients in the form that
plants can take up quickly. Youknow, you can put power in the
soil and it might not be ableto be absorbed. Compost is absorbed quickly.
It helps hold moisture, which canbe huge for raised beds around around
roots, but it also drains excessmoisture. It's almost miracle and of itself,
right, And I think you knowa lot of people have the misconceptions
as well of putting making their owncomposts. I know a lot of us

(13:07):
do make our own compost, andyou know gardeners love it. But what
do you do if you don't haveyour own composts? Absolutely, there's great
you know, we have resources onearth site where you can order compost online.
There's lots of companies that cor itlocally. Just go locally. You're
going to find local places with eitherbag compost or you can get it in
bulk. You don't always have tomake it. Some people that small areas
can't make that compost, but thatdoesn't mean you can't get a hold of

(13:28):
it. The important thing is isto get it in there. And people
say, well, what if myraised beds are full, how do I
add it? Well, you know, here's the thing. Compost will break
down. So for me, Iwe like to add a couple inches of
composts on our raised beds every year, and there's enough soil that is broken
down by that time to do that. But if your soil is absolutely horrible,
take some of that old soil out. If you do have a compost

(13:48):
pile, go throw that soil inthere and let it recharge and then fill
the rest with composts. But I'mtelling you it is the single best way
to rebuild how much you know,I'm gonna tell you what, if you
have a three by three square raisedbed and you're trying to grow in that
area, you know, a goodtwo to three five gallon buckets toil compost
is probably what you should be puttingin there every year to help recharge that

(14:09):
soil. And you know, youcan kind of extrap light from there what
you're gonna need if you have biggersizes or less. But compost is really
vital to rebuild raised bass, right, And don't get caught up on the
exact measurement of how many inches orhow many buckets you do. Salmon is
better than none, exactly exactly.So that's the best. Okay, some
other things that are fantastic. Thisis the one that people forget about a

(14:31):
lot is man when you mow youryard, as long as you're not using
a yard treatment type of you knowchemical that those green grass clippings are gold
for that soil. Take those over, put them on top, actually scratch
the dirt a little, get themunderneath the soil. They're going to rot
away. Quickly. But what they'regonna do is just like compost, they're
going to give you a better structureto the soil. Green Grass actually has

(14:52):
nitrogen in it. It's going tohelp get into the soil. Same thing
goes marry, another great one thatpeople have all over the place, or
leaves and leaves right, and thenthe key here is shredded leaves. You
really don't want to put whole leavesinto your raised beds. It's just not
going to break down fast enough forgetto get the nutrients. So it's the
shredded part that's real important. Yeah, and the finder the shred the better.

(15:13):
If you have a lawnmower with abagger, take it over there,
push it over right away, andpush it over them and get them shredded
up and again dig them into thesoil. The more organic materials you can
put in your beds. And theseare things you can do all throughout the
year. I want to stress thatyou know, you plant your garden in
the spring, your raise bed andyou mow your crass. Take those clippings

(15:33):
and put them around the top.You don't aways have to dig them in
the soil. They're going to breakdown over time. Same thing with leaves.
They you know, add those materialsthroughout the year. And I think
the important thing is here is youknow, do not add them if you're
adding a bunch of chemicals to yourlawns, make it bright green in the
summertime. And the other thing isif you have a lot of weed seeds
in your grass, dandelions are nowpuffed up in the puff balls and clover

(15:54):
seeding, you know, don't usethose, But you can use other weaves
that have not gone to seed atthat point, and you can still put
them into into your raised bed soil. Absolutely. So the next thing I
want to go is a couple ofadditives you can put in. And these
don't have to be put in thelevels of ingredients that we're talking about with
compost or grass clippings, but theyshould be put in to really help.

(16:15):
One of the best of all Wetalk about it all the time wormcastings.
You just can't beat wormcastings. Muchlike compost. They can fertilize plants,
they can help absorb water, theycan shed excess water. They're absolutely phenomenal.
So yes, you can put someover the top of soil and dig
them in. But what I reallylike to do is use those a little
more sparingly. Whatever I'm planting atthat time, I'm putting a half a

(16:37):
cup or a quarter cup of wormcastingsinto every hole. If it's a tomato
or a cucumber, let's explain whatwormcastings are. I'll let you handle that
one. So basically, wormcastings arethe excretions of worms. So basically,
to put it bluntly, it's wormpooling. It's right, it is,
But man, is it effective andit's dried. I mean, this is
not stuff that smells. It's notlike a typical manure you think of.
It's phenomenal though for plants we talkabout it all the time. Again,

(17:00):
I think we have another podcast dedicatedto that on Simple Garden Life, and
you can just you see the differencewhen you plant plants with wormcasting. So
a great one to do now ifyou're a big tomato planner, if you
like planting cucumbers or any vegetables.Another great thing to use our egg shells.
You know, egg shells provide somany nutrients to the soil, but

(17:21):
most importantly calcium, which is hugefor tomatoes and not helping with helping defend
against black rot and end rot,but also in stem development of all vegetables.
They take that calcium up early on, and if they can't get sturdy
stems, the vegetable plant doesn't growas well. But it's how you add
those shells we talk about. Canyou crush them up? Yes, you

(17:41):
can crush them up and put themin planning holes, but really pulverize them.
We like to use an old coffeegrind or and pulverize our shells and
then put that dust almost into thepowder. It's much quicker to absorb.
You know, with the cost ofeggs. Right now, this is a
very valuable product and you don't wantto waste those egg shells. Don't throw
them away or I know you couldput them in your compost, but save
them, pulverize them, put themdown to grind them up very small,

(18:03):
and then you can put that intoyour soil raise bed soil to help you
know. You're absolutely right. Wejust talk about this is a free product
and it's really not. I guessit's a free byproduct. But grab your
neighbors eggshells if they still have them, and pulverize those down. Get as
many as you can or head tothe local breakfast cafe and ask them what
they do with their egg shells.A lot of them will be happy to
save them for you. Absolutely so. And then, okay, another key
ingredient that I just think is forgottenwhen it comes to raise bed and container

(18:26):
guarding, and that's perlite or vermiculite. Okay, so perlite, they're very
similar materials. Perlite is basically volcanicglass that's heat it up really high and
then explodes like popcorn. It sayslittle white things you see in potting soil,
a lot that everybody thinks styrofoam andthey think they're evil, and they're
not. It's one hundred percent organic. And here's the beauty of perlite.

(18:47):
It never breaks down. So whenit's in the soil, what does it
do well? It lightens the soil, It keeps it from compacting, It
helps drainage. It helps everything fromyour roots not getting compacted to keeping the
soil from allowing water to drain throughit. And very few people put pearlite
in the raised beds. And weswear by it. I mean we put

(19:07):
a large you know again for athree by six or raised beds, I
would say we put two five gallonbuckets in there and dig that into the
soil. Right and anyone that haswent out and bought or purchased a tomato
plant or any type of plant froma local nursery, when you pull that
out to repot it, you're goingto see those little white specks everywhere.
That's why they use it. Ithelps with the drainage, it helps for

(19:30):
your plants, it helps revitalize yoursoul. And it is organic, organic,
without a doubt. It's not.We get that question every year.
I don't want to put these Ithought, you see starf oh man,
this is gonna be bad for myplants. It's not. Trust me.
And like I said, perlite orvermiculates another great option, same thing,
organic substance. It can do that. Okay, So finally there's one more
that we want to talk about thatcan really help, especially if you happen

(19:52):
to raise chickens or rabbits or goatsor might have you know, a cow
or two in your backyard. Butthat's aged manure and marry. What's the
keyword there? Age? You gotit? You know. I don't think
your neighbors or even maybe your spouseor your children are gonna like when you
throw fresh maneure on your raised beds, because they're gonna it's gonna smell like
you put fresh maneuver. But whatwe're talking about is manure that has dried

(20:14):
aged. You can buy bagged agemaneure if you don't have your own,
that is great to put on earlyearly in the year. You don't want
to be putting this on right beforeyou're planning or during your planning, because
it can contain some pathogens and itneeds time to break down. But for
us, you know, we usuallyput a couple inches of our chicken maneure
on ours in the fall or earlyearly spring, actually I would call it
winter late winter, February March.Dig it into the soil and you know,

(20:37):
completely decomposes and everything's good to go. But talk about rich and nutrients
and talking about help to build theraised bed soil age maneures a really big
key. It has been vital forthe success of our garden and I would
highly recommend it. If you livein the city or you're doing a raised
bed on your back patio, youmay have to go purchase it, but
if not, go off find afarmer, find some of the has chickens

(21:00):
and see if you can't help themclean up their manure. Yeah, I
think so. And you know whatwe're that's kind of the materials that we
talk about here from an organic standpointthat can really work. But I kind
of want to stress before we endtoday that you don't have to put all
these I can see the person rightnow going out and I've got to click
this witch's brew of materials and putit in. What we're trying to say
is, you know, it's allabout being natural and trying to get the

(21:22):
things that you have on hand orthat are easily accessible to build your soil.
What you don't want to do isthe famous do nothing. If you
do nothing, your plants will donothing if you do nothing, expect nothing.
That's exactly right. So take one, two, three of these and
then whatever you do this fall,get a raised you know, get some
cover crops in there and get themon top, and then continue to build

(21:42):
soil. Finally, last but notleast, we talked about composts and how
it can build. You know,another thing great thing to do is you
have banana peels coming out of yourkitchen, you have some coffee grounds coming
out of your kitchen every morning.Great thing to go out there and dig
into the soil of your raised bedshere and there and just keep putting the
brown as they break down. Anothergreat way to build nutrient st Yeah.
Just remember they've spent coffee groundens andones that that's right. So wow,

(22:07):
I can't believe it. So seasonthree here, we're so excited. Like
I said, we'll have a newpodcast every other Tuesday, um, and
we'll drop that. You can alwaysfind all of the episodes on Simple Gardenlife
dot com um. And again,we also have a tab on our Old
World Garden Farm site if you sawif you follow us there or on our
this is my garden garden site.So we love the garden knowledge and love

(22:30):
the farm. And like I said, stay tuned in the coming weeks on
the websites and also here while someexciting news about the farm and and some
some great things going on there.Just to recap today, I think,
Mary, we talked about raised beds, and what's important, I think more
than anything else, is that youcan't allow that soil to stay to stay
by itself, yeah, and stagnantfor more than you know, a year.

(22:52):
It's going to have to be rebuilt. And the best way to do
that is, you know, covercrops in the fall if you can,
and then using compost or all theother ingredients we talked about today to put
into that solo to keep them going. So, Mendy, I hope I
answered your question. I know itwas a little longer than normal. It
wasn't a quick one. But it'simportant to be able to build that soil.
And I'll tell you the great thingabout a raised beds. You can

(23:15):
do that this spring and your bedsare gonna be right back at it.
It's not something like a big gardenspace where it can take some years to
rebuild. Show you know your soil, you can put those ingredients in and
you can get growing again. Yeah, a lot of time will go a
long way. That's right. That'sright. So well, Mary, I
guess it's it's that time to saygoodbye for this week, you know,
right, and remember whatever you do, find the fun and gardening and grow
something beautiful. Until next week.Everyone, happy gardening. We hope you've

(23:38):
enjoyed this episode. Subscribe to theSimple Garden podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, or most of your favoritepodcast apps. You can also head
over to simple gardenlife dot com whereyou can listen and read all of the
show notes to every episode and ifyou have any questions, any ideas for
show topics, or if you wantto share your favorite garden tip, email
us at the farm at owgarden dotcom. Until next time, Thanks everyone,