| From Our Landscape Architect: "Raise it up high!"  by Janielle Guzinski
Raised beds are common across Galveston and the rest of Texas, but no garden bed is more iconic than the raised vegetable bed. As it gets closer to vegetable time, you may want to consider what kind of raised bed you would like for your edible plants. It is not necessary to make the traditional wooden, boxy bed for your crop, there may be other options that fit your design sense or your space better. First off, we should ask why a raised bed is necessary for vegetables. It's not. However, there are reasons to want a raised bed for your garden. They do provide better drainage and won't generally flood if your property has some swampy problems. Raised beds also let you put in nice soil with plenty of nutrients. Also, any root vegetables won't grow well in soil that is compacted like your yard may be. Finally, it is easy to harvest veggies, or weed your bed, if it isn't all the way down on the ground.
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There are five common ways to raise up your vegetable garden: the mound, the box, wall block, stone, or a freestanding table-bed. All have positives and negatives. This chart illustrates with colors some of the points that matter with each kind of raised bed. You need to think about what matters the most to you with your garden. If having it match your existing landscape is important, then you may want to have a bed built out of the same stone as your flower beds. If tradition and low cost are what matters, then a low wooden, victory bed is for you. Remember, you are supposed to enjoy gardening and the fruits of that labor. Make your vegetable garden as much a reflection of you as your flowers.
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