Mary Tuchin, harvesting from her garden.

The Home Gardening Project Foundation

how to give raised-bed vegetable gardens to people in need

Gallery of Gardens 2 3
Photos of gardens & gardeners

Articles about HGP
Smithsonian:
   "The Gift of a Garden"
  Sun: "Giving Away Gardens"
  Sun: "Payday"

How to Give Away Gardens
download free how-to booklet for starting a Home Gardening Project (PDF)

About us: our history and mission, and how to help give gardens to people

Building raised-bed gardens
See how we built 1400 gardens
Diagram and materials list

Urban gardening and the benefits of gardening: Links to other sites

"How to garden" links: books and sites about raised beds, composting, what and how to plant

What's so great about raised beds?

Raised bed gardening has become the gardening system of choice for thousands of serious gardeners. Over the past 30 years, U.S. gardeners have discovered the benefits of growing with raised beds-benefits known to the Chinese thousands of years ago.
Some of those benefits include:
• Improved drainage.
Poorly drained soils tend to be oxygen deficient. Consequently, growth and development is impeded and production potential is seldom achieved. Raising the soil above ground allows excess moisture to drain out. As gravitational water moves out, air (oxygen) moves in. Plant roots require oxygen to func-tion. This is why waterlogged plants fail to grow and even die if the situation persists.
• Higher yields. Because plants are uniformly spaced over the surface of a wide bed as opposed to single rows separated by pathways, a high plant density can be realized.Various studies have shown that raised garden beds produce 1.4 to 2 times as much vegetables and flowers per square foot as ordinary beds

• Extended season. Raised beds heat up earlier in the spring. Because of their height, they intercept more of the sun's rays in late winter and early spring. This phenomenon permits earlier seeding and transplanting. Plants also grow faster once they are established.

• No soil compaction. Once established, beds are never walked on during the growing season. In a traditional garden, walking down the rows compacts the soil, often close to the plants. Plant roots struggle to penetrate compacted soil. Water and oxygen move more slowly in compacted soil. Surface tillage does nothing to alleviate the compaction at a lower depth.

• Use less water and fertilizer. Water, fertilizer, compost, mulch, etc. can be applied more carefully because they only need to be applied to the garden beds.

image, summer sun

Support the Home Gardening Project Foundation in starting new garden-building projects
across America

Gallery of Gardens, 1

Newly completed raised-bed vegetable garden.

This newly completed raised-bed vegetable garden includes three raised beds, each 5' by 8' and 8'' deep, filled with weed-free organic soil. A trellis is provided for vining crops.

Mother and daughter get acquainted with their new garden.

Mother and daughter get acquainted with their new garden. Providing the best possible soil mix is crucial for success. A good mixture of sandy loam and composted organic material, such as manure, will retain moisture and not harden up when dry.

Two-frame garden in summertime.

Here is a two-frame garden, in the summertime. Spring peas used the trellis and are now removed, so that cucumbers can use it to climb. Trellises add vertical space for greater productivity.

Edith Throckmorton, with her walker after chemotherapy, tends her double-frame double-high garden, built on a concrete driveway. This was the only sunny area available in her yard; although not ideal, it works, as long as the gardener takes care not to flood the garden—that will wash soil out of the frame where it meets the concrete.

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Read more about HGP: articles from Smithsonian | Sun Magazine

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