Gardening After 65

Gardening after 65 and wondering how I got here! It seems like just yesterday I was being taught how to gardening organically by a friend whose been gone for several years now but he left a lasting impression on me and taught me how important it is to grow your own food whenever possible. I may have aches and pains but I still want to garden so here is one solution I found

Instead of Trying to Kneel

These Oval Metal Beds are 8′ x 2′ x 2′

We purchased 4 of these beds from Amazon. I thought they were expensive but now that we have them filled with vegetable and flowers, I think they are worth it. We filled the bottom with leaves sticks branches and mulch and then layered garden soil and well rotted or composted horse manure. I add bone meal, earth worm castings and an organic fertilizer to every bed. I will link them all below. You can plant raised beds with more seeds because the soil is so well prepared giving everyone enough space to grow roots.

Let’s talk about the Pros for these raised beds, mind you this is our first season with them.

They are metal and the boxes they come in are quite heavy and have over 100 nuts and bolts each
Easy to put together but time consuming, only tool is a little wrench which is included
The beds come in several colors and are powder coated
2 feet high so my back and my knees LOVE them
Easy to control the weeds and bugs because the plantings are so concentrated.
Easy to keep plants separated by beds
Keep your garden looking neat!

The Cons

If you don’t have access to cheap fill the soil could be expensive
They dry out fast because they are so narrow, water daily
Anything with a vine or spreading tendency has to have some staking. We purchased a trellis!
They are metal and they might rust, time will tell

I love my garden beds. These metal beds have performed so much better than we thought they would. They are the perfect answer to Gardening after 65 for me. We got produce weeks earlier then before in our garden beds and maybe it is because it is so hot this year but I think some of it is these garden beds. These photos are from an early July garden in southern Vermont!

I have an Amazon Store and I’ve tried to post the best quality and value in my Organic Gardening List. Below are a few things from the Organic Gardening list on my Amazon Store