Instant (almost FREE) raised beds!

So, you want to get started gardening and quick. There has been a lot of talk about food security lately with the pandemic unfolding. People are snapping up seeds and picking up their shovels since they are stuck at home and wondering where their food is going to be coming from in next few months.

You have a number of options for getting started with a new bed. Berms with sheet mulch, raised garden beds boxes, in ground beds. These are all relatively inexpensive ways to get started but they require time, planning, and materials. My favourite solution for an instant garden is... a container! Not just any container, but the largest used nursery pot that you can source out. Many nurseries sell or give away used containers. Try calling around to your local garden centres. My newest two beds are enormous used bamboo nursery pots that are probably around 100 gallons in size and 4 feet across.

Since I didn't need the full depth of the container, I filled the bottom with empty milk jugs and smaller upside down nursery pots. I covered them with landscape cloth and added my soil to the top. Voila! Instant raised bed. And since these pots are being upcycled, they are eco-conscious as well.

​Start asking around for old nursery pots - you may be pleasantly surprised that your instant garden is easier than you think. I'm a big fan of container gardening. They offer instant space and there is a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that are suitable for container growing. 

Now you're ready to dig in!