Raised Beds Versus In Ground Gardening-- Which is better?

Thanks for NOT trying to sell us a metal raised bed. Almost all garden youtubers are trying to sell something these days.

We've tried all the methods - in ground, till, no-till, strawbale, raised beds, Ruth Stout, Mittlieder, Back to Eden, Hugelkulture, etc.
Zone 5, heavy clay, or sand. And watering is also my least favorite gardening task. Extreme deer, rabbit and small rodent pressure plus other pests and invaders.

My husband and I are getting older and our children are grown so we are starting to add some more raised beds to the garden. We've been trying to convert a large lawn to a permaculture homestead for over 10 years with not nearly the results we should be having.
We are adding high raised beds in one part of the garden for early season starting, plants that struggle in our heavy clay (I have never successfully grown carrots :( ) and to help with pest pressure. We are using hugelkulture for filling, topping with leaf mold, poultry litter and good growing mediums.

Most of our farm is in ground - very hilly clay. Adding some raised beds will allow us to get high production for annual and some perennial crops while we continue to work on amending the remaining acreage.

Zone 4 - Raised beds are a must. They give me 6-8 weeks of additional growing season. I utilized free pallet untreated wood + linseed oil + 6mm poly sheet liner stapled and tuck taped in combination with free city compost + manure + Hügelkultur and natural clay soil . Topped with local straw and leaf mulch = amazing results!

Buying quality soil or compost is such a challenge. Spending a lot is no guarentee of getting a great product. Great video, TY!

We went from a 2500 square ft in ground garden to a 576 square ft garden with 21 inch high raised beds and proper paved paths, and will never look back. Clay, boulders, weeds, bugs, sweat, tears, sore backs, bites, annual sapling digging, with little to show for it at the end of the year due to pest pressure became too much. I LOVE my tiny walled garden with less than 1/2 the work and lots of produce to show for it! With intensive planting we get enough of the things we eat for the year and even have soft fruit and dwarf orchard with 5 fruit trees. My peaches are peaching on year 2! Very excited about the ease and pure joy of raised bed gardening. Do what works for you.

One of the things I hear most raised bed enthusiasts repeat endlessly is how the beds warm quicker in spring which extends their growing season. That's only half true. Granted, they DO warm quicker. However, the variables which allow them to warm quicker in the spring also allow them to cool quicker in the fall. In reality, the net gain in growing season is zero. So, what they've actually done is move their growing season a few weeks earlier, rather than actually making it longer. Plus, that ability to warm quicker also allows the beds to overheat very quickly in midsummer, which can be deadly for roots. I've listened to a lot of people on both sides of the issue, and truthfully, enthusiasts from each side tend to exaggerate benefits and downplay cons. My ultimate conclusion is that the only real benefit to me personally for raised beds is one of accessibility. I'm in my late 60's and getting up and down is much more of a chore than it once was. But that benefit requires more watering. I don't mind watering so much, so I'm willing to pay that price.

We live on top of a ridge line with heavy clay soil. 20 years in and we can dig down well over a foot before hitting the clay line. Over the years we have tilled , added in shredded leaves, grass clippings, decomposing wood chips, homemade compost rich with chicken, duck, quail manure and pine bedding. Rabbit poo goes directly on the soil surface in the garden beds. Heavily mulch all veggie beds with shredded leaves and grass clippings as well as shredded paper/cardboard. Thick layers of cardboard and wood chips in all the pathways. Red Wigglers galore throughout our backyard. We have shallow raised beds just for containing the soil. We also companion plant and plant intensively for little to no weeds. The chickens and ducks have full access to all the garden beds in the late fall and winter when we dump lots of kitchen scraps and shredded leaves on all the veggie beds. They do the work of turning it in for us.

I collected old privacy fencing that people around town were replacing with new. Built my raised beds with 3 layers of the old dog ear slats and lineds the sides with 4mil plastic.
They are holding up well.

My issue with raised beds is the dropping soil level every year. In my hot, humid climate organic material breaks down very quickly. Topping up is a requirement many don't talk about. Have annuals in raised beds and perennials in in-ground beds. Make my own compost, leaf mold and vermicompost.

I’m in zone 6a also and I also grow both in ground and in raised beds. I prefer the raised beds because there are so fewer weeds. I will water all day long if I don’t have go pull weeds.

Good point about types of plants. We use both in ground and raised beds. Our deep rooted plants like tomatoes and peppers go in ground. the onions, garlic and invasive herbs go in raised beds.

I love watering, very relaxing and I get a good look at everything,and I pull out a few weeds as I go. Thanks for a great video!

I was very fortunate with my raised bed soil. It was from a guy who was clearing a section of his large, wooded property and the soil was rich in clean, organic matter. He had horses and chickens and brought some composted manure and dumped that in, along with the soil. In the years after, I have supplemented with worm castings, compost, and OMRI cert, supplements. I love my raised beds! I'm in Zone 5 and have nearly inch tall (cold tolerant) lettuce that I direct seeded the last day of March, then we got a foot of early spring snow that was of no consequence. It will be ready late May. I have your YouTube channel to thank for many of my successes!

I’ve been working hard on amending my native soil over the past two years. Each year I learn something new and it continues to
Improve. You have been so helpful and encouraging. Thank you for sharing all you have learned.

Hi Jenna,
I am in Ohio also a few miles from Lake Erie I am in a condo but its unique its a cape cod styls two units per building, Have a flower bed that about 100 feet that goes around the building. OMG the clay is horrible. I use an auger and make many holes and put old potting mix and buy a couple of bags of garden soil after 3 years its much better. Backyard have a garden that goes around the patio. Tomato plans and flowers

Thanks for the video. It was very informative. I also have a mix of raised and in-ground. Being a late 60's gardener, my raised (more raised than normal) beds are a big plus side physically for me.

For red clay native soil: In-ground. Big and deep, bathtub effect. Sloped bottom (or V bottom) , with a french drain on the lowest side (or in the center with a V bottom).

Filled with rich free county compost, and a bit of the red clay from the surface, tilled heavy. Rowed mounds. A couple pounds of white rice scattered about. Covered with 2" of 100% compost. Than pelletized gypsum scattered about. And initially watered down with some molasses water.

Install drip irrigation (drip tips not really needed as long as its got a timer). And a thick 8"+ matt of mulch piled on the top.

My raised beds started with native clay soil that I added organic matter to every year. The first year I added top soil, peat, and bagged manure, then turned with a shovel. The 3rd year I added gypsum along with other organic amendments. The gypsum made a huge difference in that it finally broke down the clumps of clay. I've been gardening in the same beds for 25 years. Each year I add compost. This year, a friend had a large quantity of aged cow manure that I added, I can't wait to see what that does to my harvest.

I live in Georgia and my garden would get so muddy with standing water, I had to go to raised beds. I used pressure treated boards after researching the type of chemicals they use nowadays. I feel OK with having them contacting my vegetables.

That was a good breakdown of pros and cons. I have access to a lot of medium size logs from trees that have come down in my yard over the years so I've been using them more lately to frame out a spot and top it off with compost which I guess can be considered a hybrid approach. It's cheap and easy and seems to be working for me.