So What's the Deal with Raised Beds?

After many false starts in the home gardening business I came to realize that for all the rewards of growing your own stuff there was a dark side to it all. Garden, once established require a lot of work. My first effort (way back in '91') was little more than a twelve foot square of ground in the backyard that took me all of one hour to create. I used a shovel to remove the layer of grass and then roughed up the ground a little and spread some seeds. No big deal, I thought at the time. Yes, it was no big deal. Nothing actually grew in the pitiful square but weeds. It was at some point while I was standing over this 'garden' watering the weeds that it come to me there might be more than meets the eye to the business of wrestling large succulent carrots, peppers and lettuce from old mother Nature. I then did what I should have done much earlier. I went and asked a neighbor who was known in the neighborhood for her audacious harvests. She came over and eyed my little piece of disaster and suggested I get a book or two on the subject of square foot gardening and then start slow and work up gradually. A much more humble man now, I followed up her suggestion by a visit to the library where I came across a book by someone named Mel Bartholomew. It was titled, fittingly enough, 'Square Foot Gardening' and it did get my attention. For one thing, the author promised a great deal of vegetable from a small space with little or no weeding involved! After reading that I was hooked and went home with my new mentor tucked under my arm. Years later I am still amazed at how quickly success came once I shifted mental gears and went with a raised bed. More on this to come.