Top 5 Benefits of Raised Beds for Your Herb Garden

Have you considered raised beds in your garden?

On our Farm we love raised beds, not only because they are super easy to maintain but also they help contain voracious spreaders like peppermint. Our raised beds are handcrafted by our neighbor to the South called Cedar Log Structures and we could not be happier. They are mortise and tenon joined beds and are beautiful quality and craftsmanship.

Mortise and Tenon Raised Herb Beds

The benefits of raised beds go well beyond keeping peppermint from ending up covering 20 acres. Here are the top 5 reasons we thinks so highly of raised beds and why we think you will too.

1. Soil conditions are much more controllable. If I add compost tea or manure tea to my beds, the plants that need it get the juice.

2. Water control and drainage is much better. Our beds sit in a low area so the additional drainage is good for our herbs in the spring. The same goes for water retention during the summer peak, if you mulch, the water stays put.

3. The amount of plant material that you can add per square foot is much greater. More herbs mean more tea!

4. We don’t walk on our beds and sit on the edge to weed, so there is no soil compaction. Roots need air to be healthy.

5. The herb gardens that are in raised beds have an extended season. Our raised beds are the last thing to freeze and even through the snow I can dig down and snitch a few sprigs of herbs.

If you do not have raised beds, we would like to encourage you to try at least one. You will be amazed at how easy they are to weed. After all, less bending means less backache. Less backache means MORE GARDENING!

Guest blog by Deb Doubek of Peterman Brook Herb Farm