My garden is permanent beds, permanently mulched, but they're not raised--just permananently there with permanent paths. My soil is very sandy, so the beds are not even really mounded, though if I had heavy soil, I would have mounded the beds. The advantage to permanent beds is that you don't need to till, you can put fertilizer and amendments precisely where the plants will grow, and you can grow plants intensively. Also, because you don't have to till, you save on time, money, carbon emissions, and don't damage the soil structure, kill earthworms, or constantly keep bringing up weed seed. It's also much less work than a traditional garden, though it is more work the first year when you establish the beds.

In my garden, the beds are mulched with hay, the paths with wood chips. Each bed is about 4 feet wide, so that you can reach into the middle without having to step on the bed. I grow everything in this fashion; I grow a bush sweet potato - Vardaman-so I don't have vines everywhere, and I trellis cucumbers. Even corn is grown in hills with 3 plants to a hill, the hills staggered up the 4 foot wide beds and set about 3 feet apart.

I sow some seeds (parsley for example) in Feb here in zone 5b/6 and now, at the end of December still have in the garden savoy cabbage, lettuces, komatsuma, arugula--all wrapped in several layers of row covers; and turnips, rutabagas, beets, carrots in the ground where they grew covered thickly with hay.

It's an easy and efficient way to garden.

I'm using raised beds almost exclusively for two main reasons - I gain about 2 weeks in early spring for planting and I can line the bottom of the 1 foot deep beds with hardware cloth to keep the various rodents from eating my root crops before I can harvest them. I also use the raised beds as landscaping ... since I'm on a hill, I've built up a couple of retaining walls to create some level spots in the yard and the 2 foot strip near the front of each wall is used as raised bed. In these areas I mostly plant perennial vegetables and vegetables / herbs with interesting colors and flowers so that my girlfriend doesn't get too upset that I'm taking over the entire yard.

The whole garden is mulched with either hay or compost and I've got grass growing between the beds and on the rest of the level spots. Using mulch has really cut down on the water use so that last season I could just go out with a wand and hand water and let the grass turn brown rather than turning a sprinkler on everything. With luck, this year I'll get the drip irrigation installed and cut the water use even further but, once I've gotten the soil balanced, I haven't seen a large difference in the water needs of the raised beds versus the couple of things that I have in the ground.

With the exception of fall planted things like garlic and shallots, I'm in the ground in March and wrap up in November so it's definitely enough of a season for me. I plant intensively using the square foot method but as long as you set the soil up right and maintain good fertility I donÂt think itÂd make a big difference between in-ground and the raised beds though with beds I donÂt have to bend as far to weed. Also, I can a bunch of the veggies that are grown in summer so that reduces the number of trips to the grocery store in winter as well.

Properly managed, either way will work well.

I use raised beds because my garden soil is heavy clay and it stays wet well into the spring. I've ammended the soil in the beds over the years so now it's in pretty good shape. I can plant even though the paths are like walking in pudding. If your new soil drains well and is in good shape, I believe you would not need to raise the beds but it seems best to make beds so you wont be walking on (and compacting) the soild where you plant.

I'm in a long term process of raising my gardens into beds. I have to do this because a previous owner turned the entire 1.5 acres into a field of Bermuda Grass which is imposible to kill much less keep out of the beds. A deep barrier around each plot is the only hope to maintain them BG free.

i would still suggest to go with the raised beds for me it is about the best system og gardening as it removes all the tilling and amending of the original soil, most of it in modern yards not very arrable or fertile.

have a look at how we do our beds, we have pic's etc on our site.

happy new year

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

I had a garden in the ground for 30 years. I switched to raised beds last spring. I have 12 of them, all 3X12 foot and 6 inces high. I also have a 4X24 foot asparagus bed and a couple of very long, 2ft wide rows in the ground that I haven't raised yet mainly for peas, potatoes and broccolli. They are easier to take care of, mulch, etc. and they are very ATTRACTIVE. No weeds! I think I can produce just as much or more in a lot less space than I did before. Maybe if you border you beds with some flowers, your husband will change his mind on gardens being "tacky".

I switched from ground gardening to raised beds and haven't looked back in zone 5. Primary advantages? For me exponentially fewer weeds and much easier to remove weeds. Also earlier starting in spring. In zone 9 this isn't likely a big issue, but in climates where the ground freezes, a foot or two of snow piles up and then in the spring it's wet and cold, well a raised bed simply drains/warms faster.

I've got both raised beds and regular. They both do splendedly. I use the traditional space for larger plantings of corn, beans, tomatoes, squash, onions,broccoli,and sweetpotatoes.

Watermelons, cantaloupes, carrots, and potatoes really appreciate raised and amended beds.