What is a garden holding bed for?
A garden property layer , essentially a run plot , is invaluable for a variety of garden projects and allows you to find a interim abode for for plants . Here are three of my dearie reasons to have a garden holding bed :
Propagation projects
It ’s a ready to hand spot for seeds that need winter chilling or that take months to bourgeon . Sink the seed pot up to their lip into the holding bottom , and you wo n’t have to water them as often or vex about them getting knocked over . If you take cuttings of perennials or woody plants , planting them in a holding seam for a few months after they start root gives them a fortune to develop a sturdy raw radical system . The same live on for perennial divisions that are simply too small to go back into the garden aright aside .
Garden holding beds make great temporary housing for plants
Have you ever come up home from the garden heart with impulse buys and wandered around your yard with them , assay to calculate out where they can fit but having no luck ? or else of accumulating a aggregation of pine away potted industrial plant , pop them into a holding seam and they can continue to arise until you bump the perfect spot for them . How about thosemail - parliamentary procedure industrial plant purchasesthat were much smaller than you expected , or that had a rasping trip getting to you ? Pamper them in your holding layer for a few week or months , where they can recover and bulge up a bit , and they ’ll have a much better luck of thriving when you move them to a bottom or border . That ’s just what I ’m doing with all of those perennial in my hold bed above .
Test plots
Holding beds are vastly useful as test plots , too . If you line up an interesting mystery plant while weed , move it to a holding bed until you’re able to figure out if it ’s something extra or a nominee for the compost pile . ( I let in that I have pampered an embarrassing turn of weeds doing this , but at least it has been an excellent way to learn what they look like at all stage , and now I have sex better than to leave the seedlings in my garden ! ) A holding bed is a great billet to acquire unlabeled acquisitions until you incur out what their flowers front like . It can also service as a quarantine country for natural endowment plants , so you’re able to watch them for pests , diseases or creeping tendency before you countenance them slack in your garden .
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Building a garden holding bed
This is probably one of the simplest garden projects you ’ll ever tackle . Pick a spot for your holding bed , place a “ frame , ” make full it with soil , and you ’re ready to implant .
Choose the right site for a holding bed
Look for a spot that ’s relatively near the house so you could well reach your holding layer witha hoseor do n’t have to channel water supply very far . You need it close enough that you ’ll remember to see at it regularly , but not in a in high spirits - visibility spot , because it ’s meant for utility and not skillful aspect . take putting it in a side yard , nigh to thegarden shed , or in a nook of the vegetable garden .
If you have both sun and shade , it ’s ideal to have a guard bed in each domain , so you have a station for acquire both kinds of plants . If you have room for only one bed , though , go for sun ; you may always fill in part of it with a bite oftrellisor previous window screenland .
How to build a garden holding bed
A raise - seam frame that ’s 6 to 12 inches high neatly specify your holding area and pull in it wanton to offer at large , well - drain territory , which encourages unspoiled root growth and wee for well-heeled digging when you are ready to move works to other homes . Figure on a breadth of up to 4 infantry if you could get at the bed from two or more slope , or a maximum of about 2 foot wide if it is against a wall or fence . The length can be whatever works for your site . A 2×3- , 3×3- or 3×4 - foot frame is a good sizing to begin with .
Manyraised - bed kitsare available in a wide range of sizes , shapes , and materials . Or buy just thecorner bracketsand make the side from of course putrefaction - resistant wood , such as cedar or plastic timber .
Prepare to plant a garden holding bed
Water, weed & mulch
Because they are little and close together , the resident physician of your holding bed welfare from frequent aid . Check them every few days , or at least once a week , and water and weed as needed . Ahori hori knifemakes fast work of weeds and is idealistic for add or removing nearly spaced plant life .
It ’s helpful to wrap up the land with an organic mulch , such as folio clay sculpture , coir mulchor rice hulls , to keep the soil equally moist and encourage vigorous root ontogeny .
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Best products for garden holding beds
Convinced ? Here are some of my favorite tools and products that make construction and maintaining a reserve seam easy :
I love the feeling and proportion of thewooden - handled one , but it is easy to lose them in the garden , so I also have a duo withbright - orangeness plastic handles .
There are lots of option , but I have gotten decades of use from myplastic corner brackets .
I have a bunch ofgalvanized - alloy bedslike these and have intercourse them ; they ’re comparatively cheap , easy to put together , and long - lasting ( no rot ! ) .
I lovecoir mulch ! It ’s pricey but deserving it for small , special expanse , like holding beds . It ’s light and well-situated to spread but does n’t swash around , and it let water through pronto .
